The Sin of Monsieur Antoine by George Sand (1859)

This has all the hallmarks of classic Sand with one addition. It has the wide landscape, through which the characters ride, walk and conjunct typically. It has the big love affair, challenged in the Sandian way with philosophic implications, which are won out over. It has, though, a new political twist. Here we have Sand discovering her interest in communism versus capitalism. My knowledge of the literary exposure of these ideas is fairly incomplete, but it seems like an early outing for this contest. Young striving Emile Cardonnet and aged misanthrope Monsieur de Boisguilbault discuss their common interest in communism in a romantic way which I'm guessing mirrored Sand's at this time. By contrast, Emile's father is a convincingly presented closed-minded capitalist, whom Sand has also be a potential fool; a local village wise-man knows that his scheme for a factory is doomed to be consistently flooded by an unruly river system. This doesn't eventuate, giving the impression that Sand didn't have an overall plan for this novel, and it was one of a few possible outcomes. Sand is almost always a passionate pleasure, and this is no exception, with great subsidiary characters and bright colour, whilst not being on the level of a great novel like Consuelo, for example.