This book explores the life and impact of Chevalier d'Eon, an historical trans figure in eighteenth-century France and Britain. Drawing from archival research and Deon's memoir, the author provides a comprehensive picture of her role in trans history and culture. He argues Deon's adoption of multiple voices and genres is seen, not as evasiveness or postmodern gender play, but as a trans-affirming celebration of "the intertextual possibilities of the transsexual body." He further posits that no trans woman has left us such a large archive of life writings, or lived her life on such an epic scale, and we can therefore construct a different way of telling trans lives and leave room for possibilities that we haven't been presented with yet.

Jonathan Conlin is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Southampton, UK.