Nicolas Sarkozy
© EPA
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is reported to be furious about a book by one of his own UMP insiders, depicting him as a vengeful, sexually manipulating tyrant.

Marie-Cécile Guillaume's novel, The Monarch, His Son, His Fief, is causing a row within France's conservative ranks, for her lightly fictionalized tale about Mr Sarkozy's blinding thirst for power.

The book, to be published on June 14, fleshes out acts of "political violence," including threats and "back-stabbing," by a Sarkozy-based character and his entourage, which Ms Guillaume observed while working as cabinet director for Patrick Devedjian, a UMP legislator in the wealthy Paris suburb of the Hauts-de-Seine - Mr Sarkozy's electoral heartland.

Mr Devedjian, who has had strained relations with Mr Sarkozy since he lost out on a government post in the former administration, is described as a heroic figure opposite a self-obsessed, twitching "Rocky" and "The Monarch".

Ms Guillaume has said the book includes real dialogue and has not denied the identity of her fictional characters in interviews.

One particular scene that has reportedly enraged Mr Sarkozy describes a "hot, very hot," "Monarch" pretending to box in front of a mirror in his office, and then pressuring a female colleague for sexual favours when she asks for political support.

"Look at what state I'm in, you can't leave me like this," he tells a certain "Madame de P".

The sexual encounter "lasted only a few moments". "The Monarch is in a hurry, and Madame de P. understanding," writes Ms Guillaume.

"Sarkozy hasn't been able to digest the scene in the book that takes place in his office," an anonymous UMP elected official told Le Monde. Though he has made no public comments, Le Figaro also reported Mr Sarkozy was "furious," and called general council members in the Hauts-de-Seine region "to act against Patrick Devedjian", whom many local Sarkozy supporters believe ultimately responsible for the book.

Mr Devedjian, who was recently re-elected to parliament, said he would take steps to fire Ms Guillaume, and that he had not been informed of her book, according to Le Monde.

"That scene that I wrote, is a scene that exists, and it's of course a situation that can happen to a lot of women who work in politics," Ms Guillaume told France Info radio. She said she received personal threats amid public, "shocked" reactions from members of the UMP, notably in the Hauts-de-Seine area, a focus of the book.

The book is "an act of aggression and betrayal, uselessly odious and vulgar, violent and mediocre," said UMP mayor in the Hauts-de-Seine region, Eric Berdoati.

The novel also describes a greedy Jean Sarkozy, Mr Sarkozy's son, referred to as "The Dauphin." In the book Ms Guillaume recounts the much publicized charges of nepotism against him, when at the age of 23, he tried to become the head of EPAD - the development agency in the La Defense business district in Paris - while his father was president. At the time, Mr Sarkozy reportedly tried to have Ms Guillaume fired for her "hostility" against his son, behaviour she denied.