Nanon by George Sand. Short summary

5 seconds

Peasant Nanon falls in love with Emilien, who wants to become a monk. But the Revolution mixes up all the cards. Emilien goes off to war and then marries Nanon. She becomes the Marquise of the Restoration.

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The novel is set during the French Revolution. It is written on behalf of the main character Nanon. She is a young, poor and honest peasant woman.

Nanon meets a young man, Emilien de Frankville, from an immigrant family. He is of noble birth and wants to become a monk. So he studies at a seminary. The young men sympathize with each other in spite of the class partitions, and a platonic feeling develops between them.

Emilien goes to a monastery, but a decree of the revolutionary government dissolves the monasteries, and the young man returns to the world. A slanderer denounces him as a counterrevolutionary, and Emilien is arrested. But with the help of his friends he manages to escape.

As a patriot, Emilien enlists in the revolutionary army to fight the interventionists. He returns with an amputated arm.

Overcoming the obstacles of the difference in status, Emilien marries Nanon, and during the Restoration she becomes a marquess. Nanon does nothing but good around her.