Alfred de Musset was a poet of stature in 19th century France, but he is known to us now almost solely for his stormy love affair with George Sand. Prior to his meeting with Sand, Musset lived the life of a succesful young bachelor, trading upon the fame he had earned with his earliest poetry. When he first encountered Sand, Musset was "twenty-two, attractive, self-confident, his mind set on poetry and his heart on women" (Sedgwick 61).

As the relationship between George Sand and Alfred de Musset began, he appealed to her not as a woman, but as a friend and equal- in one early letter, he wrote, "If... you will let me pass an hour or an evening with you, why then, instead of a visit to a lady who writes books, I shall be calling on my dear Monsieur George Sand, who from now on is for me a man of genius."

Within a month, Musset had changed his tone to that of a lover. He addressed Sand with a poem:

O George, is not our mad insensate love,
That over other loves flies ever higher,
The true Ideal-the pale Bride above,
Whose lover is the Angel of Desire?

The lovers left Paris for a trip to Venice, and it was their that Musset's illness and some say madness began to drive the two apart. Musset spent weeks in bed, and Sand called in a doctor, Pagello, to see to his care. As Alfred lay ill, he "saw phantoms, frightful imaginings bodied forth in human guise" (Sedgewick 86). One image Musset saw while so stricken was of Pagello and Sand together, acting as lovers. Whether the scene was phantom or real, Musset now had a rival, Pagello. When Musset was well again, he returned to Paris. Sand stayed with Pagello in Venice.

Even following this apparent separation the two remained in contact, beginning a correspondence of letters that lasted for a time as, in the words of Sand, "the bond of friendship replaced the bond of love." Musset still longed for Sand, however, and the two were reunited uneasily in Paris in October of 1834. Their liason was renewed briefly, only to come to a bitter end.

In 1852, years after his affair with Sand,, Musset met Louise Colet and the two shared a short lived romance. During that time, Musset dedicated a poem to Colet, asking her not to doubt his love. It seems during that time Musset told Colet his side of the affair with George Sand, for following Musset's death in 1857, Colet wrote her novel Lui using the romance to frame the inner narrative.