Eliza Orzeszkowa: une George Sand polonaise?

Abstract

It is a leitmotif of George Sand’s reception in Poland during the 19th century that Sand was more famous because of her personality than because of her art.The literary influence she may have had on Polish women writers is not an issue that has ever been seriously examined. Eliza Orzeszkowa was called the « Polish Sand » by her contemporaries, yet this did not imply that any similarity between their works was thought to exist: the reference to Sand was simply meant to stress Orzeszkowa’s talent and literary productivity. An attentive reading of Orzeszkowa’s works shows nevertheless that she knew Sand’s writings very well. In the limited space of this article, I will make a first foray into Orzeszkowa’s reception of Sand.