Mauprat

Mauprat is a novel by the French novelist George Sand about love and education. It was published in serial form in April and May 1837. Like many of Sand's novels, Mauprat borrows from various fictional genres- the Gothic novel, chivalric romance, the Bildungsroman, detective fiction, and the historical novel.

The novel's plot has been called a plot of female socialization, in which the hero is taught by the heroine how to live peacefully in society. Mauprat resembles the fairy tale "Beauty and the beast." As this would suggest, the novel is a romance. However, Sand resists the immediate happy ending of marriage between the two main characters in favor of a more gradual story of education, including a reappraisal of the passive female role in courtship and marriage. Sand also calls into question Rousseau's ideal version of the female education as described in his novelÉmile, namely, training women for domesticity and the home.

During the period Sand wrote the novel, she was gradually becoming more interested in the problem of political equality in society and in the views of socialist thinkers such as Pierre Leroux. Mauprat depicts a new type of literary figure, the peasant visionary Patience. Part of the novel takes place during the American Revolutionary War.