A Winter in Majorca. This item is unavailable.A Winter in Majorca

In 1838 the French writer George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) spent a difficult winter in Majorca with the composer Frédéric Chopin and her two children. Her account of this trip is an autobiographical travelogue that details their stay in the Valldemossa Charterhouse, marked by Chopin's declining health and a mutual hostility between the visitors and the local islanders. The winter proved unexpectedly harsh, with torrential rain and cold that worsened Chopin's illness. The locals, conservative and suspicious of the unmarried couple's lifestyle, often refused to sell them goods or provide proper hospitality. Sand’s writing is famously scathing; she describes the Majorcans as "barbarians" and "savages," while they in turn disapproved of her unconventional dress and lack of religious attendance. Despite her grievances, Sand describes the island’s natural beauty with passion, and the book has become a classic of Majorcan bibliography, often published today with a famous refutation and translation by Robert Graves.