8vo. 38pp, iv. With half-title and a terminal catalogue of publisher's advertisements. Partially unopened in original publisher's red cloth, lettered in gilt to upper board. Lightly rubbed and marked, spine sunned, head of upper board dulled. The author's copy, with corresponding inscription to half-title. Very occasional light spotting.

The author's copy of British antiquary and naval commander John Buchan Telfer's (1830-1907) critique of Ernest Alfred Vizetelly's recent biography of one of the eighteenth century's most intriguing figures, purporting to be 'The true story of the Chevalier d'Eon: his Experiences and his Metamorphoses in France, Russia, Germany and England, told with the aid of State & Secret Papers' (1895). Telfer, however, questions the veracity of such a 'true story'. Divided into several sections, his study seeks to rebuke Vizetelly's assertions of 'new particulars' acquire from state papers; in particular, Telfer takes issue with Vizetelly's frequent denigration of Gaillardet, author of Mémoires sur la chevalière d'Éon, the first succinct account of the Chevalier's life. Despite Vizetelly's claims that he could conclusively prove, among other statements, the Chevalier's 'improbable flirtation with the Countess de Rochefort', 'midnight meetings with Queen Charlotte', and 'supposed intrigue with the Princess Dashkoff', Telfer notes on several occasions that The True Story 'fails to produce, as it justly migth be expected to do, a grain of reliable evidence'. The Chevalier D'Eon (1728-1810) was a French diplomat, fencer, and spy, whose gender was heavily debated by French society; she was legally pronounced female by King Louis XVI and under English law, with her assigned sex only revealed upon autopsy. She was admired by feminist pioneers Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges, who applauded her bravery.