George Sand, also known as the pen name Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, was a French novelist, memoirist, and journalist. Sand was one of the most popular writers in Europe during her lifetime, more well-known than Victor Hugo or Honore de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, and is regarded as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era, having published over 50 volumes of various works, including tales, plays, and political texts, in addition to her 70 novels. George Sand, like her great-grandmother, Louise Dupin, who she idolized, pushed for women, defended desire, condemned marriage, and resisted traditional society's preconceptions. Maurice Dupin de Francueil and Sophie-Victoire Delaborde welcomed Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, the future George Sand, into the world on Meslay Street in Paris on July 1, 1804. She was the paternal great-granddaughter of Marshal of France Maurice de Saxe (1696-1750), and her maternal grandpa was Antoine Delaborde, master paulmier and birder.