Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World
by Catalina De Erauso, Michele Stepto, Gabri Stepto
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Book Summary Information
Author: Catalina De Erauso, Gabri Stepto, Michele SteptoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-06-30
ISBN: 0807070734
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Beacon Press
Book Reviews of Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World
Book Review: "I ran him through, and down he went."
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a thoroughly captivating autobiography by a seventeenth-century Spanish woman who lived most of her life as a man.
Catalina de Erauso was placed by her family in a convent at age four and escaped on an impulse at age fifteen. She cut her hair and made her undergarments into boy's clothes. All this without a plan. But once Catalina tasted masculine freedom, there was no going back.
She must have been exceptionally bright. Despite her total lack of life experience, she functioned successfully as a page at court, a ship's boy, a merchant's assistant and a soldier (promoted to Lieutenant for her valor in Chile). She survived a shipwreck, attacks by bandits, bloody battles and numerous duels and street fights.
Catalina was hotheaded and quick with her sword. A frequently occurring line in her memoirs is: "I ran him through, and down he went."
Her constant reversals of fortune and near escapes from marriage and from hanging make for breathtaking reading. Although a self-confessed thief, gambler and murderer, Catalina is strangely likeable. Not the least bit introspective or digressive, she's quite matter of fact about her exploits. A genuine man-woman of action.
Catalina's story also gives us an inside view of Spain at the height of its lust for conquest in the New World.
The introduction does a great job of analyzing Catalina in the context of her era. It also fills in details that the memoirs leave out. Such as, what did Catalina look like? And how did she end up?
Catalina became a legend in her day. But oddly, her memoirs were not published until 1829. Thank goodness they were not lost!
I'd recommend Lieutenant Nun to any reader interested in history, gender studies, extraordinary characters and/or over-the-top adventures.
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