Can't tell if this would be a good first read for someone not familiar with George Sand or a poor first read.

Do I recommend it? Yes and no.

It is good in the sense that you can get a lot of the foundations for her later work and it does have some interesting excerpts that are extremely well-written. Depending on your vibe, and tolerance for certain Romantic traits, the romance(s) in the novel could be really compelling (Wurthering Heights compelling, to be clear - though you get way more of the parties actual engagement with each other in Indiana).

However, it is too early in her career for her more interesting writing on gender (even if we get glimpses of it) or for her more sustained engagement politics because she just hasn't lived through enough crazy shit yet.

Further, Indiana's engagement with race leaves something to be desired for someone reading in the current day, but also - frankly - in its historical context it leaves something to be desired (it does not commit to the full analogy she's making between slavery and marriage and, in many ways, it is unfortunately more aesthetic than it could be✨). This is an element relatively unique to Indiana compared to other Sandian novels and it was one that was disappointing. Was I expecting more? Yeah, actually. It didn't seem like she was willing to commit to the metaphor she decided to set-up.

✨Genuinely, it was giving Chateaubriand's representation of the Natchez in René. You never want to be Chateaubriand in Rene. Even Chateaubriand didn't want that after his prefrontal cortex woke up.