Marie Dorval

In the midst of a short, brutish affair with Prosper Mérimée and an alleged one with actress Marie Dorval , GS oversaw publication of her notorious novel Lélia.

In later life she attracted attention and fame for refusing to act as a woman: she smoked in public and dressed in men's clothes, unabashedly declaring that she preferred the company of men to that...

They became lovers and also literary collaborators, who together created the pseudonym Jules Sand for their collaborative writing; she later used the last name in her newly-constructed pseudonym of George Sand. This name far outlasted...