Valentine (1832) was Sand's second novel and is notable for displaying many of her preoccupations as an emerging novelist: love, social class, greed, liberty, and family ties. It tells the story of Valentine, born into an aristocratic family but who falls in love with a peasant farmer, Benedict. Star-crossed lovers of different social status became a recurring theme in Sand's work, highlighting the hypocrisy and rigidity of social norms in the Restoration period French Republic.