La niña duende

Mr Barbeau, a prosperous farmer and La Coisse town councilor, decides to hand over one of his sons, Landry, to a neighbor to work on his land. Sylvinet, his twin brother, feels belittled for not having been chosen and one fine day, sad and angry, runs away from home. As they set out to look for him, Landry meets Fadette, nicknamed by the children of the town the Cricrí because they say that she is uglier than a cricket. The girl, with a reputation as a witch, offers to help him find her lost brother if she promises him that she will obey any order she places after her. Landry agrees, Sylvinet appears, and little Fadette demands the fulfillment of the pact. The atmosphere and language of the fairy tale are highly recognizable in The Goblin Girl (1849), the most famous of George Sand's "country novels" cycle, but they do not impede the development of realistic observation and demystifying spirit: the witch. it may well be in the end a scientist, a psychologist or a confessor. For their part, the two Barbeau brothers give rise to a delicate and exciting study of the passage from childhood to adulthood, a time of discovery, jealousy, shame and melancholy. The novel seeks to reconcile passion with nature, directed by "that spirit that observes, that compares, that is fixed, that tests".