From the translator's preface when the book was originally published in 1888: It is easy now, in England at any rate, to form a true, a calm, and an impartial opinion of George Sand; twenty-five years ago it would have been difficult; half a century ago it would have been impossible. Time has the privilege of toning down all exaggerations, and of softening in a picture the colours which seemed to us, at first, false from their very brilliancy. We are astonished now at finding ourselves comparatively unmoved by the novels which, when they originally appeared, excited so powerfully our enthusiasm or our surprise; and we have been led to judge from the purely literary point of view, books supposed to contain the programme of new and startling doctrines on philosophy, religion, and life in general. M. Caro's biographical sketch of George Sand is, in every respect, the most satisfactory help to an appreciation of that wonderful character; it is an important chapter in the literary history of an epoch which has witnessed the most complete transformation ever seen of French society in all its relations and aspects. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.