Ariosto, it has been pointed out, has described the homosexual attractions of women. Diderot's famous novel, _La Religieuse_, which, when first published, was thought to have been actually written by a nun, deals with the torture to which a nun was put by the perverse lubricity of her abbess, for whom, it is said, Diderot found a model in the Abbess of Chelles, a daughter of the Regent and thus a member of a family which for several generations showed a marked tendency to inversion. Diderot's narrative has been described as a faithful description of the homosexual phenomena liable to occur in convents. Feminine homosexuality, especially in convents, was often touched on less seriously in the eighteenth century. Thus we find a homosexual scene in _Les Plaisirs du Cloître_, a play written in 1773 (_Le Théâtre d'Amour an XVIIIe Siècle_, 1910.) Balzac, who treated so many psychological aspects of love in a more or less veiled manner, has touched on this in _La Fille aux Yeux d'Or_, in a vague and extravagantly romantic fashion. Gautier made the adventures of a woman who was predisposed to homosexuality, and slowly realizes the fact, the central motive of his wonderful romance, _Mademoiselle de Maupin_ (1835). He approached the subject purely as an artist and poet, but his handling of it shows remarkable insight. Gautier based his romance to some extent on the life of Madame Maupin or, as she preferred to call herself, Mademoiselle Maupin, who was born in 1673 (her father's name being d'Aubigny), dressed as a man, and became famous as a teacher of fencing, afterward as an opera singer. She was apparently of bisexual temperament, and her devotion to women led her into various adventures. She ultimately entered a convent, and died, at the age of 34, with a reputation for sanctity. (E.C. Clayton, _Queens of Song_, vol. i, pp, 52-61; F. Karsch, "Mademoiselle Maupin," _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. v, 1903, pp. 694-706.) A still greater writer, Flaubert, in _Salammbô_ (1862) made his heroine homosexual. Zola has described sexual inversion in _Nona_ and elsewhere. Some thirty years ago a popular novelist, A. Belot, published a novel called _Mademoiselle Giraud, ma Femme_, which was much read; the novelist took the attitude of a moralist who is bound to treat frankly, but with all decorous propriety, a subject of increasing social gravity. The story is that of a man whose bride will not allow his approach on account of her own _liaison_ with a female friend continued after marriage. This book appears to have given origin to a large number of novels, some of which touched the question with considerable less affectation of propriety. Among other novelists who have dealt with the matter may be mentioned Guy de Maupassant (_La Femme de Paul_), Bourget (_Crime