MONSIEUR D'EON IS A WOMAN!: A NOVEL by GARY KATES

"Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade" 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-five 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. Author, Gary 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." The book is available on Amazon.com be going to this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0801867312/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252131976&sr=1-1