George Sand's "The Seven Strings of the Lyre" is a philosophical
play written in poetic prose and never intended for perfomance on
stage. Completed in 1838 during the early stages of Sand's romantic
involvement with Frederic Chopin, it is one of the very few
treatments of the Faust legend by a woman. George Kennedy offers
the first English translation of this work, along with an
introduction that places the play in its philosophical and literary
context.
"The Seven Strings of the Lyre" is Sand's response to Goethe's
"Faust" and a reflection of her views of music as developed in
conversations with Chopin and Franz Liszt. Sand, unlike so many of
her contemporaries, saw Goethe as a less-than-ideal poet. She
criticized him for lacking "enthusiasm, belief, and passion," and
she faulted him for being a proponent of the art-for-art's-sake
movement, which Sand deplored for its lack of social conscience.
Sand's play describes the efforts of Mephistopheles to win the soul
of Albertus, a teacher of philosophy and descendant of Faust.
Regarding Goethe's Mephistopheles as insufficiently wicked, Sand
conjures up a devil truly worthy of the epithet. For Faust, whom
she considered too cold, Sand substitues the more emotional
Albertus, whose despair that life and love have passed him by in
his devotion to philosophy makes him vulnerable to the machinations
of the devil. And in place of Goethe's village girl, Marguerite, or
the dangerous Helen of the earlier Faust legend, Sand creates the
angelic Helen, who awakens Albertus's love and teaches him the
emotional and spiritual truths he had never learned from books.
Richly philosophical and deeply romantic, the play is a reaction
against eighteenth-century rationalism. It asserts the existence of
some higher truth to be foud in music, poetry, and a sympathetic
response to nature, but it also, contrary to the doctrine of art
for art's sake, demands social responsibility from the artist. Sand
believed that the arts should lead society to an awareness of
truth, freedom, and the meaning of life, and "The Seven Strings of
the Lyre" is an attempt to dramatize this belief.
Originally published in 1989.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the
latest in digital technology to make available again books from our
distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These
editions are published unaltered from the original, and are
presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both
historical and cultural value.
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