Fryderyk Chopin and George Sand in the eyes of Polish biograhers and literary critics

The Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin and the French writer Aurore Dudevant (pen name George Sand) have spent several years in a close relationship, which has become the source of one of those tales about famous lovers, tales that with time acquire various interpretations and begin their own independent life. The present article offers the picture of this relationship gleaned from essays, biographies and literary works written and published in Polish from 1840 until today. The most interesting discovery of the research is a change in the image of George Sand, who had been first seen as a great writer, and only then gradually became no more than Chopin’s lover. Also, the attitude towards George Sand, in spite of numerous objective interpretations by Polish biographers, is still hostile, which distorts the complex character of their relationship.