Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1 July 1804 - 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand, was a French novelist, memoirist, and journalist. One of the more popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, being more renowned than both Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. George Sand was the most popular writer (of any gender) in Europe by the age of 27, more popular than both Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, and she remained immensely popular as a writer throughout her lifetime and long after her death. Early in her career, her work was in high demand and already by 1836, the first of several compendia of her writings was published in 24 volumes.