I was a bit amused to see that the reviews here dealt with the subject matter rather than the translation and presentation. I have been studying George Sand for a few years now, mostly by translating her letters. There are over 10,000 of them. Fortunately I am only really worried about the letters that mention Chopin, for now, which narrows it down to a few hundred (many of which are 1000 words or longer). Even after all this time focused on Sand, I have not read this book all the way through, even though it was the first Sand book I bought.
I will read the whole book eventually, and I have already read very long portions of it, but I don't know if I would recommend treating this book like something you should read from cover to cover all at once, unless you are an incredibly patient person who is very interested in Sand's life. Think of it more as a reference book, or a collection of short stories. If you have an interest in one particular aspect of Sand's life, then you can read about that bit and put it down. Or you can read about that bit, and then maybe flip through her chapter headings for anything else that looks interesting. In the old style, each chapter has several chapter headings which give you a good idea of what is discussed in that chapter, and since Sand wrote in installments, it's very natural to read chapters out of order. One does not always lead to the next.
Without this translation, Sand's life in her own words would be unattainable for anyone who doesn't read French. I don't believe (though I could be wrong) that it has been translated into any other language. I am extremely grateful that the translation team took on this project. I am learning French the hard way, but when I was just starting out, the accessibility of this book made my goals seems more realistic.
If you are, like me, interested in Sand because of Chopin, be warned that she does not write much about him in this book. The first mention of his name in the narrative is on page 1073 (the narrative ends on page 1117). She conceived of this project when her relationship with Chopin was ending, and she ends the book with her relationship with Chopin. If you want to read her words on Chopin, read her letters. They have not been translated into English as a whole, but there is one old biography by André Maurois (Lélia) which has been translated into English, and I think he quotes more from her letters than any English-language biographer I've read.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Sand got paid like all the other Romantic writers: by the word, or by the installment. She wrote her mémoires to make money, the same reason she wrote everything else. The sooner she finished writing it, the sooner she had to come up with something else to write. Which is not to say that she did not write other things in the meantime, but the mémoires were a steady source of income. If 19th century writers had editors like modern writers, then these mémoires would not have been nearly as long. But since they were not edited then, they should not be abridged now. Every word Sand wrote has historical value; it is a glut of information, but I am very happy to have it.
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