Laura. Journey Into Crystal

George Sand's Laura. Journey into the Crystal is a valuable testimony to the evolution of the novel toward the fantastic tale. In addition to a preface by Isabelle Bardies-Fronty, the book is enhanced by the works of Wenzel Hablik: somewhere between utopian architecture and fascinating fantasy, they are a valuable rediscovery. The third book in the Dedale series is Laura. Journey into the Crystal by George Sand, first published in 1864. Exploiting a fairy-tale narrative structure, George Sand actually sketches an imaginary universe, in which dimensional scales lose their meaning and everything is strongly influenced by the knowledge in geological matters. The scientific aspect, which was also known to Sand, is transfigured to the point that minerals begin to take on symbolic value and become cloaked in fascination and mystery.

The genesis of the novel and the echoes of Sand's personal events are recounted in the preface edited by Isabelle Bardies-Fronty.

The book is also enriched by the works of Wenzel Hablik, a Czech-born painter who later settled in Germany and who, a few decades after George Sand, was similarly enchanted by minerals and, in particular, crystals: his paintings, halfway between utopian architecture and fascinating fantasy, are a valuable rediscovery and seem to come from the same imaginary universe narrated by the French writer.