Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804 1876), best known by her nom de plume George Sand , was a French novelist, memoirist, and socialist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, being more popular than both Victor Hugo and Honore de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era.