Lettre autographe signée adressée à Stéphanie Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire : de l'émancipation féminine par l'éducation : "Ç'a été pour moi une éducation à part que celle de cet enfant de 18 ans qui n'en avait que 2, il y a six mois, et qui a maintenant son âge, avec toute la candeur de l'enfance conservée."

Autograph letter signed by George Sand, addressed to her friend Stéphanie Bourjot, daughter of Étienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. Four pages written in blue ink on a folded bifolium bearing George Sand’s monogram. Fold marks as usual.
 
This letter was partially published in Correspondance, vol. XIV, no. 7846.
A beautiful and partly unpublished letter in which George Sand discusses Marie Pape-Carpantier’s book and the education of her young maid, Marie Caillaud : « It is an excellent book, which I use to teach my young maid to read. She is extraordinarily intelligent, and this book opens her mind to all sorts of sound ideas. Educating this 18-year-old child—who, six months ago, was only two in terms of knowledge—has been a unique experience. She now seems her age, yet retains all the innocence of childhood. So every evening, we read Marie Carpentier’s little stories, and I enjoy them just as much as my pupil does. »
 
Marie Caillaud was only eleven years old when George Sand hired her to wash dishes and tend to the chicken coop, a task that earned her the nickname “Marie des poules.” But the writer soon recognized the young peasant girl’s intelligence, appointed her as housekeeper, and by 1856 included her in the performances of the Nohant theatre. Her education is first mentioned in early 1858, notably in a letter from George Sand to her friend Charles Duvernet: « During my winter evenings, I took on the education of little Marie, the one who acted with us. From a dish washer, I immediately raised her to the rank of housekeeper, a role for which her excellent mind makes her perfectly suited. The greatest obstacle was that she couldn't read. That obstacle no longer exists. In thirty half-hour lessons—fifteen hours in a month—she mastered all the difficulties of the language slowly but perfectly. This miracle is due to the admirable Laffore method, which I applied with the utmost gentleness to a perfectly lucid mind. » (16 February 1858)
 
Marie Caillaud would go on to become a notable actress at Nohant and move in the circles of George Sand’s illustrious guests: Delacroix, Gautier, Dumas, Prince Jérôme Bonaparte…
But Marie was not George Sand’s first pupil. All her life, Sand was deeply interested in pedagogy and taught not only her children and grandchildren, but also members of her household staff and local peasants.
 
This letter is a remarkable testament to her hands-on approach as a teacher, always seeking new and effective ways to impart knowledge : « What is lacking—or at least what I haven’t found—is a true reading method. I’ve devised one for my own use (never written down), based on Laffore’s and adapted to my own ideas. But what I haven’t found in primers for children or public school manuals is a well-crafted exercise book that teaches reading logically while also making sense of spelling. Does such a book exist? » Far from a casual activity, education was central to George Sand’s worldview. As Georges Lubin noted, her aim was not merely to teach literacy. Taught to write by her own mother at the age of five, Sand understood from an early age that the only path to equality lay through intellectual emancipation: « She understood very early on that the only road to equality was intellectual emancipation. The ignorance imposed upon women was the root of their servitude. The ignorance imposed upon the working classes underpinned class inequality. Education was the key to opening locked doors. » (« George Sand et l'éducation » in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 1976)

A beautiful and important testimony to George Sand’s tireless struggle for the emancipation of women through education.