Goddess

A sparkling, witty and compelling novel based on the tragic rise and fall of the beautiful seventeenth century swordswoman and opera singer, Julie d’Aubigny (also known as La Maupin), a woman whose story is too remarkable to be true - and yet it is.

Goddess is a novel based on the life of the remarkable Julie d’Aubigny, known as La Maupin, the beautiful, tempestuous 17th century swordswoman, opera singer, occasional nun and seventeenth century superstar.Think Kate Middleton meshed with Lady Gaga. Her story is too remarkable to be true - and yet it is. Born in Paris in 1673, she was raised by her father in Versailles, and taught to fence and fight. She was taken as mistress by the King’s Master of Horse at the age of 13, and by the age of 16 she was hiding from the authorities in Provence, sentenced to be burned at the stake for eloping with a young nun. She went on to become a singing sensation - star of the Paris Opéra in spite of the fact that she often wore men’s clothes and was a feared duellist. The episodes in her life read like a novel by Alexander Dumas, and yet they are largely true. Her lovers famously included some of Europe’s most powerful men, and France’s most beautiful women, and she was a celebrated performer on the Paris stage at the height of the Baroque era. And yet she died alone in a convent at the age of 33. This is a wonderful, dazzling and moving story about a truly exceptional woman in history that will appeal to fans of Philippa Gregory, Sarah Waters and Hilary Mantel, as well as those who have loved novels like Geraldine Brook’s The Year of Wonders, or Hadley Richardson’s The Paris Wife.