First published 2013
The Chevalier d'Eon sits before a mirror in his Paris apartment, contemplating which identity to wear today. As both French spy and diplomatic celebrity in the turbulent eighteenth century, d'Eon moves between masculine and feminine roles with the same skill he applies to court intrigue. His dual existence becomes a lens through which he examines the rigid social codes that govern relations between the sexes. While European powers clash around him, d'Eon conducts his own private war against conventional identity. He records his thoughts obsessively in journals, finding that his experiences gain meaning only through the act of writing them down. The novel follows this enigmatic figure as he questions whether sexual identity stems from nature or society's expectations. D'Eon's personal struggles mirror the violent contradictions of his age, where intellectual brilliance coexists with cruelty, and elegant diplomacy masks brutal power politics. His story becomes a meditation on the masks we all wear and the courage required to live authentically.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: gender-identity, identity-crisis
Setting: Paris
Period: 18th-Century
496 pages · Paperback · Sternberg Press
Content warnings: transphobia