Goddess
by Kelly Gardiner
Harper Collins
Julie-Emilie d’Aubigny was brought up by her father who trained boys to serve the Sun King Louis XIV. She trained alongside the boys and dressed the same as them … with the female clothes of the time being highly unsuitable for the rigours of sword fighting. She had a privileged life at “the costume party that [was] Versailles” but she was not part of the wealthy elite – “neither page nor servant, neither boy nor girl, provided with all the education and grace of nobility but without the title or riches”. At the age of 13 she became the mistress to her father’s wealthy boss who gave her everything she desired and quite a few things she didn’t know existed. But the down side was that she was virtually a prisoner and she escaped to discover the world.
Kelly Gardiner’s book is actually based on the life of the real Julie-Emilie d’Aubigny, with all the episodes described originating from documented events. Though Gardiner readily admits that there are so many accounts of her life that it is difficult to know what documents romance the truth, it is still a riveting, rollicking story of challenging gender identity. Gardiner has written the story as the final confession of Julie-Emilie d’Aubigny, who was also known as Mademoiselle de Maupin and recreated herself several times before dying at the age of 33. It was after the death of her lover Madame la Marquise de Florensac, she entered a convent where she died two years later in 1707.
There are glimpses of what it must have been like in those times, with a death sentence by being burned at the stake for those who escaped the sanctioned paths girls and women needed to take. Sometimes Julie-Emilie d’Aubigny was beloved as the “maid in breeches” or the “the one who crosses over” but at other times her antics drew the wrath of the authorities. In an era when women, even if they were clever or strong, were “dragged down by husbands or fathers or too many petticoats, or priests clutching at their hems …”, she did not aspire to the vapid life of the wealthy even though she enjoyed their patronage and she eventually became a beloved star of the famed Paris Opera.
This is a fascinating if rather coy tale of an interesting woman thriving in incredibly challenging times.
Lezly Herbert
