D'Eon: The Wonder of Her Sex

Author, envoy, soldier, spy, the Chevalière d'Eon spent half her life in France, presenting as a man, and the other half in London, presenting as a woman. D'Eon fought in battle, negotiated peace treaties and leaked state secrets, narrowly escaping the Bastille. Defying royal authority and gender norms alike, in the 1770s she became one of Europe's first celebrities. Drawing on a raft of unpublished life writings, Conlin reveals for the first time how d'Eon used a range of genres and voices to tell the story of her transition. He provides a comprehensive account of d'Eon's place in trans history, Anglo-French relations, and celebrity culture. Rather than a postmodern masquerade of gender play, Conlin argues that d'Eon's multiple avatars offer us a new way of telling trans lives.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Abbreviations Acknowledgements Prologue: Drawn from the Body A Note on Names and Pronouns 1. Child of Thunder, 1728-1752 2. From Paris to St Petersburg, 1753-1759 3. The Hopes of a Good Patriot, 1759-1761 4. The Next War, 1762-1764 5. Publish And Be Damned, 1764-1765 6. The Mimic of Wilkes, 1766-1770 7. He or She Policies, 1770-1774 8. Figaro, 1774-1777 9. The Prodigal Returns, 1777-1785 10. Her Last Push, 1785-1796 11. Out of This World, 1796-1803 12. The Chevalière in Her Labyrinth, 1804-1810 Conclusion: Adventurer, Saint, Celebrity Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Jonathan Conlin is Professor of Modern History at the University of Southampton, UK. His previous books include The Met: A History of a Museum and Its People (2024) and Mr Five Per Cent (2019), a biography of the Anglo-Armenian oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian. Instagram: deontraces

Review :
“By far the best, most humane and deeply-researched account we have of the celebrated personality of the age of Enlightenment and Revolution, who was baptised a boy but thought otherwise.” "In one of the most important European eighteenth-century trans narratives, Conlin does not steer away from the complexities that made d'Eon's identity possible: political plots, celebrity culture, and forgery. All were conducive to a story of self-fashioning we need now more than ever.” “In this wonderfully vivid study by Conlin of the historical trans figure of D'Eon, we enter an eighteenth-century world of mirrors and labyrinths, in which the boundaries of sex/gender are blurred and then refracted through espionage, intrigue and courtly adventure. As if Woolf's Orlando were made flesh, Conlin's D'Eon reminds us of the timeless complexity of identity and its elusiveness, for a contemporary audience too often lectured on its immutability and fixedness.”