- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix (21 Aug 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753824183
- ISBN-13: 978-0753824184
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 407,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Femme Fatale: Love, Lies And The Unknown Life Of Mata Hari
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Product Description
Review
"explores all aspects of Mata Hari's controversial life" (DAILY EXPRESS )
"Shipman's research is impeccable" (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS )
"a compeling biography of a pioneering and independent woman" (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
"a life that is dramatic and moving" (IRISH TIMES )
"Shipman's research is impeccable" (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS )
"a compeling biography of a pioneering and independent woman" (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
"a life that is dramatic and moving" (IRISH TIMES )
Product Description
In 1917, the notorious exotic dancer Mata Hari was arrested, tried, and executed for espionage - charged with the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. In this new biography, Pat Shipman explores the life and times of the mythic and deeply misunderstood dark-eyed siren to find the truth. Was she actually a spy? Mata Hari's life reads like both an action-packed adventure tale and passionate, poignant romance. Shipman reveals new information about this beautiful, brilliant, and dangerous woman, tracing the web of connections between her professional and personal lives that led to her tragic fall.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
A well researched book, though not always the easiest read. Slightly more of an academic feel, than a holiday read. Overall an interesting book, about a fascinating subject. Well worth a look
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Our book-group read this book. Most of us did not manage to read all the way through because the style was so dry and academic. My feeling was that the author did not like or approve of the protagonist. However, the story of this frivolous, superficial, but ambitious girl sucked into major European events is actually quite gripping, and the machinations of the moral male hierarchy which led to her execution was really distressing to read. This book would have been better if it was half as long, had more juicy bits and more photographs.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Double-Dealing Sexists vs. Naive Self-Promoter
22 Aug 2007
Format:Hardcover
She was a slut, so she *must* have been a spy. In the hysterical waning days of World War I, illogic like that put Mata Hari in front of a firing squad. And when you need to blame someone for half a million dead French soldiers, what's wrong with a little patriarchal thinking?
Hauled off to the Dutch West Indies by her brutal military officer of a husband, Margaretha Zelle MacLeod remade herself in the Paris of the Belle Époque as an "international woman" famous for her pseudo-Hindu -- and, more to the point, nearly nude -- dances. Lascivious and famous for it -- she craved a man in uniform -- she wasn't exactly inconspicuous. When French spymasters tried to make use of her, it was like the CIA getting angry because they'd recruited Madonna and now everybody was recognizing her.
Mata Hari's notoriety and world travel make her the subject of a new biography about once every decade. The contribution of Pat Shipman's *Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari* lies mostly in detailing the lives of army wives in Indonesia (stifling heat, concubines, syphilis) and in sifting the evidence (mostly manufactured) of Mata Hari's ostensible spying on behalf of Germany. Trained as an anthropologist, Shipman veers toward academese in the West Indies chapters, however; she tends to quote primary documents (legal, military and amatory) too extensively.
Mata Hari, meanwhile, always impulsive but enterprising, drifted to Paris but refashioned herself as an "artistic" dancer; she sought out officers, then drifted into dabbling at espionage. Amusingly, she didn't know or much care about troop movements in the Great War (unless they affected her Russian boyfriend). Oh, sure, she had a motive against the Germans: They'd confiscated her white cloak and several of her favorite furs.
Caught at the nexus of sexism, scapegoating and her own naiveté, Mata Hari was an unsuspecting butterfly caught in a master manipulator's net. (There are bumbling police inspectors in her story, but also double agents.) Emphasizing that Mata Hari loved men too much and the truth too little, Shipman doesn't push the feminist angle. But today, if they only had flimsy evidence against her, would they be able to shoot Madonna?
Hauled off to the Dutch West Indies by her brutal military officer of a husband, Margaretha Zelle MacLeod remade herself in the Paris of the Belle Époque as an "international woman" famous for her pseudo-Hindu -- and, more to the point, nearly nude -- dances. Lascivious and famous for it -- she craved a man in uniform -- she wasn't exactly inconspicuous. When French spymasters tried to make use of her, it was like the CIA getting angry because they'd recruited Madonna and now everybody was recognizing her.
Mata Hari's notoriety and world travel make her the subject of a new biography about once every decade. The contribution of Pat Shipman's *Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari* lies mostly in detailing the lives of army wives in Indonesia (stifling heat, concubines, syphilis) and in sifting the evidence (mostly manufactured) of Mata Hari's ostensible spying on behalf of Germany. Trained as an anthropologist, Shipman veers toward academese in the West Indies chapters, however; she tends to quote primary documents (legal, military and amatory) too extensively.
Mata Hari, meanwhile, always impulsive but enterprising, drifted to Paris but refashioned herself as an "artistic" dancer; she sought out officers, then drifted into dabbling at espionage. Amusingly, she didn't know or much care about troop movements in the Great War (unless they affected her Russian boyfriend). Oh, sure, she had a motive against the Germans: They'd confiscated her white cloak and several of her favorite furs.
Caught at the nexus of sexism, scapegoating and her own naiveté, Mata Hari was an unsuspecting butterfly caught in a master manipulator's net. (There are bumbling police inspectors in her story, but also double agents.) Emphasizing that Mata Hari loved men too much and the truth too little, Shipman doesn't push the feminist angle. But today, if they only had flimsy evidence against her, would they be able to shoot Madonna?
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Emme Fatatle
5 Oct 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A good biography of one of the 20th. Centuries most interesting spys/nonspy...Professor Shipman writes a no hold barred tale of Mata Hari...The book is really two stories. The first is how Margaretha Zelle born of Dutch parents became Mata Hari...Margaretha Zelle was a woman of enormous talents in language who mastered besides her native Dutch, German, French, English and Spanish along with with the languages of the Dutch East Indies where she pent her years as a young woman married to a Dutch Colonial Officer...Marrage, an abusive husband and the hard colonial life were not for her and after a few years she divorced here husband and returned to Holland...This was the begaining of her transformation from a wife and mother to a performer and a high priced courtesan...The second story was how she got involved in espionage and spying or not...Professor Shipman lays out the "factual information" we have on Mata Hari and then leaves it to the reader to determine if Mata Hari was a spy or because of her notarity and the fact that she had been a paid mistress of some many powerful men it was best to silence her...The reader has to determine if she was an agent for the Germans, French, both or some other country, the facts are not clear...If you like an honest well scribed book then you will enjoy Femme Fatle, but don't expect the author to spoon feed you any speculative ending.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Wonderful!
13 Mar 2008
Format:Hardcover
I read for escape, and when I can also learn something along the way then it's even better. Shipman gives us a wonderfully written and fast-paced exciting book. You really feel sympathy for Mata Hari and pain at the horrible traps she walked into. What a wonderful snap-shot of that time in European history. I truly enjoyed every word in this book and highly recommend it.
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