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As I have been accustomed during the last six weeks to seeing things from a theatrical point of view, to thinking in dialogue, here I am starting to build the plot of another play! It will be called le Candidat. My written plot is twenty pages long. But I haven't anyone to show it to. Alas! I shall therefore leave it in a drawer and start at my old book.

No indignations, no boiling over. The rehearsals of le Candidat have begun, and the thing will be on the boards the first of February. Carvalho seems to me very satisfied with it! Nevertheless he has insisted on my combining two acts in one, which makes the first act inordinately long. I did this work in two days, and Cruchard has been splendid!

It is hard to separate oneself from an old companion! As for le Candidat, it will be played, I think, between the 2oth and the 25th of this month. As that play gave me very little trouble and as I do not attach great importance to it, I am rather calm about the results of it. Carvalho's leaving irritated and disturbed me for several days. But his successor Cormon is full of zeal.

That is just what I think. CCLXXIII TO GEORGE SAND Wednesday, April, 1874 Thank you for your long letter about le Candidat.

The one who sits nearest to me is a 'Candidat' for a Doctorate of Laws, and speaks eight languages well. He has only studied English for the past six weeks, but has made wonderful progress. I wish my French were half as good as his English is already.

He settled first in Croisset, near Rouen, with his family, but shortly afterwards went to Brittany with Maxime Ducamp. La Tentation proved a source of labor, for he never ceased revising it until it appeared in book form in 1874. In 1847, he wrote a modern play, entitled Le Candidat, produced in 1874 at the Vaudeville.

I advise you to read the pamphlet by Cathelineau and the one by Segur also. It is curious! The basis is clearly to be seen. Those people think they are in the XIIth century. As for Cruchard, Carvalho asked him for some changes which he refused. But he is asking to play le Candidat first, it is not finished but it delights him naturally.

And do tell us that you are getting on, that seems to us the main thing in life. And keep well, I think that these rehearsals which make you go to and fro are good for you. We all embrace you fondly. G. Sand CCLXX. TO GEORGE SAND Saturday evening, 28 February, 1874 Dear master, The first performance of le Candidat is set for next Friday, unless it is Saturday, or perhaps Monday the 9th?

Then when the thing is finished, reviewed and corrected, perhaps he won't want it. In short, if after l'Oncle Sam, le Candidat is finished, it will be played. If not, it will be le Sexe faible. However, I don't care, I am so eager to start my novel which will take me several years. And moreover, the theatrical style is beginning to exasperate me.