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Book Summary and Reviews of The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg

The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg

The Dream Lover

by Elizabeth Berg

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • Apr 2015, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

At the beginning of this powerful novel, we meet Aurore Dupin as she is leaving her estranged husband, a loveless marriage, and her family's estate in the French countryside to start a new life in Paris. There, she gives herself a new name - George Sand - and pursues her dream of becoming a writer, embracing an unconventional and even scandalous lifestyle.

Paris in the nineteenth century comes vividly alive, illuminated by the story of the loves, passions, and fierce struggles of a woman who defied the confines of society. Sand's many lovers and friends include Frédéric Chopin, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Marie Dorval, and Alfred de Musset. As Sand welcomes fame and friendship, she fights to overcome heartbreak and prejudice, failure and loss. Though considered the most gifted genius of her time, she works to reconcile the pain of her childhood, of disturbing relationships with her mother and daughter, and of her intimacies with women and men. Will the life she longs for always be just out of reach - a dream?

Brilliantly written in luminous prose, and with remarkable insights into the heart and mind of a literary force, The Dream Lover tells the unforgettable story of a courageous, irresistible woman.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A thoroughly pleasant escape, if not a particularly deep one." - Kirkus

"Berg's descriptive skills are remarkable throughout, but Sand's actions are too often reported from a distance rather than dramatized." - Booklist

"In its attempt to capture Sand's entire eventful life, the novel can get overly expository. In the smaller, more intimate moments - the kind that helped make her previous books so successful - Berg offers vivid, sensual detail and a sensitive portrayal of the yearning and vulnerability behind Sand's bold persona." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Dream Lover was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Marilyn Woolford Chandler

Ambivalence
“The dream lover” came into my hands as a recommendation from my local library. I had exhausted the relationship and family sagas of Joanna Trollope and Cathy Kelly (English and Irish). Here the highly experienced USA author is writing superbly, if exhaustingly (showing not just telling) about Bohemian Europeans of a giftedness in the Arts/Music that daunt me. For example Chopin's music thrills me. My wise music teacher gave me a pictorial book of his life.
Who or what was a/the "Dream Lover"? This Jungian term means more than Elvis "dreaming my life away". Learning about this experience through Jungian analysis both saved my marriage and helped me understand my own mother and her twin sister. Both had had "dream lovers " due to the deaths in WWll of their American airmen beloveds.
This book made me glad I was not a genius!

k

What?
This book is insipid. First of all, I don't want to read the perceptions of a 4 year old and secondly, the author didn't even get it right ... 4 year olds are not tiny adults.
And who gets beaten one day by a maid or a mother and is all enamored with that person the next day? There is a wealth of emotion between being beaten and all forgiven that the author chose to not tell us.
And what about the lesbian experience? Why is it just hinted at instead of revealed in real emotions?

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Author Information

Elizabeth Berg Author Biography

Photo © 2003 Joyce Ravid

Elizabeth Berg is the author of many bestselling novels, including Open House (an Oprah's Book Club selection), Talk Before Sleep, and The Year of Pleasures, as well as the short story collection The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted. Durable Goods and Joy School were selected as ALA Best Books of the Year. She adapted The Pull of the Moon into a play that enjoyed sold-out performances in Chicago and Indianapolis. Berg's work has been translated into twenty-seven languages, and three of her novels have been turned into television movies. She is the founder of Writing Matters, a quality reading series dedicated to serving author, audience, and community. She teaches one-day writing workshops and is a popular speaker at venues around the country. Some of her most popular Facebook ...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Elizabeth Berg's Website

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