Julie, Chevalier de Maupin

Publication Data

Back Cover

"In December 1690, Paris waits with impatience the debut of a new singer on the scene of the Paris Opera. The more they heard her, the more they would know about her!

Mademoiselle de Maupin fought in duels and no one was successful in defeating her. She had a relish for the men, yet did not disdain women. Her contralto voice was heard in the taverns, as well as the stylish theaters. Her heart was inflamed for artists like the son of the Duke of Luynes or the Elector of Bavaria. One time, she was condemned to death for setting fire to a convent and carrying off a nun! For an encore, she stabbed herself in a scene to spite her lover.

Julie de Maupin was the fantasy of writers and inspired movie directors. Her thirst for life, her lustiness, her taste for happiness and for freedom made her an extraordinary person, both lively and vibrant. And her story evokes the world of music and the one of the court of Louis XIV. She was a woman who incarnated all the audacity of the Grand Siecle.

Traveller, novelist, and lover of music, Anne-France Dautheville uncovered Julie de Maupin through the historical archives. She then considered what legends and stories there were about the chevalier de Maupin, and then, in short,minus the exaggerations and fantasies, faithfully renders the story of her original life"

Forward

Julie de Maupin was born in 1670, in Paris without doubt, perhaps at Versailles. One must imagine the century of Louis XIV, glorious, warlike, artistic. One must imagine Versailles, a small village, grimy and miserable , where there was suddenly a spreading out of masons because His Majesty had decided to construct there the most beautiful palace in the world. Some abodes were arising in the neighborhood of thatched cottages where dirty children are swarming,and the roads were bumpy to both the carts and the carriages.

One must imagine Julie, stepping among the nobility as she had wormed her way into the court, stepping falsely, for she had married a commoner without a title. She is like her century, brutal, artistic, sensual. Numerous are the women who are learning to draw the sword. One day people saw a rider galloping in full speed in the garden of the Tuileries, to leap over the earth and rear up in the saddle without stopping--it was Mlle. de Valliere who practiced such acrobatics. Nearly all the ladies were playing the harpsichord and singing prettily. Julie de Maupin possessed all this knowledge, and another still; of which the gentlemen praise themselves and the ladies blush. And she, she laughed at her short life, she devoured it for the pleasure. And when the pain came, if she did not have the strength she had supplied in combat, she did not commit suicide, she simply ceased to live.

Of such freedom is called.