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Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman:
A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade

Gary Kates

1995, BasicBooks

291 Pages plus Notes

From the Cover

Here is the unforgettable story of a celebrated eighteenth-century French diplomat and spy, caught in a web of international intrigue, aristocratic ambition, and royal conspiracy, who in mid-career suddenly announced that he was a she - a lie not uncovered until his death some thirty-fives years later, in 1810.

The Chevalier d'Eon had played a very public role as a diplomat to the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia and later to that of George III in Great Britain.  He was a renowned and decorated military hero.  Few knew that he had also worked for "The Secret," a spying operation run by the French monarch.  In 1776, Louis XVI declared that d'Eon was actually a woman.  The public believed him, for the story was too bizarre to be invented.  After all, why would a man - especially a man of great power and prestige - abandon his gender in favor of womanhood?  The opposite would not have been so extraordinary, for often enough women had passed as men to escape the constraints imposed on their sex.

Kates not only explains why d'Eon made his fateful choice, but also probes the credulity of the eighteenth-century European public, exploring in riveting detail how the aristocratic world viewed manhood and womanhood.  In a series of short chapters, written with novelistic verve and suspense, Kates brings to life d'Eon's dealings with the kings of France and his encounters with Marie-Antoinette, Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, and Rousseau

Kates argues  that d'Eon's gender transformation was in part a response to a failed political career as a spy and ambassador.  But the book also draws on d'Eon's never-published autobiographical writings and examines his extensive collection of radical feminist books to reveal the extraordinary theory of sexual differentiation that inspired his adventure into womanhood.  In the end, d'Eon had come to believe that a person who lived as a man was doomed to a life of sin; the only hope for moral redemption was to live one's life as much as possible as a woman.  D'Eon wrote:  "God created man and woman, the one for doing good, the other for doing bad.  So long as a man is a man, the earth is his; so long as a woman is a woman, virtue is hers."

Comment from a contemporary:

FROM EDMUND BURKE'S Annual Register (1781):  "It must indeed be acknowledged that she is the most extraordinary person of the age.  We have several times seen woman metamorphosed into men, and doing their duty in the war; but we have seen no one who has united so many military, political, and literary talents."

Table of Contents

Part I:  A French Chevaliere

Maiden Voyage / Foreign Minister Vergennes / Tonnerre / D'Eon's Patrons / Rose Bertin / Marie-Antoinette / Franklin and Voltaire / Public Perceptions / D'Eon on d'Eon / The Hopes of a Good Patriot

Part II:  The Rise and Fall of a Statesman

Louis XV's Diplomacy / The King's Secret / Conti and Russia / The Russian Myth Reexamined / Diplomacy in Russia / Dragoon captain / Making Peace / The Secret in England / Reversal of Fortune / Recalled / D'Eon to Louis XV and Broglie / Broglie to Louis XV / Scapegoat / The Lettres, memoires, et negociations / Libel / Indictment / Royal Decree of 1 April 1766

Part III:  Inside d'Eon's Library

D'Eon to Jean-Jacques Rousseau / Rousseau's Disciple / D'Eon's Library / Pompadour and La Pucelle / Contra Rousseau

Part IV:  The Transformation

Contexts / Rumors / Drouet's Visit / Macaulay, d'Epinay, and the Femme Savante / Hannah Snell and the Amazons / Morande / Louis XVI / The Letter to Poissonier / The Transaction / Beaumarchais Bets / Beaumarchais "To Mlle Genev. L. Deon de Beaumeont" / D'Eon to Beaumarchais / D'Eon Sues Morande / Lord Mansfield's Court

Part V:  D'Eon's Christian Feminism

Considering Convents / Reborn Again / Return to England / Gendered Theology / Christian Feminist

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