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Femme Fatale: A Biography of Mata Hari: Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari
In 1917, the notorious Oriental dancer Mata Hari was arrested on the charge of espionage; less than one year later, she was tried and executed, charged with the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. The mistress of many senior Allied officers and government officials, even the French minister of war, she had a sharp intellect and a golden tongue fluent in several languages; she also traveled widely throughout war-torn Europe, with seeming disregard for the political and strategic alliances and borders. But was she actually a spy? In this persuasive new biography, Pat Shipman explores the life and times of the mythic and deeply misunderstood dark-eyed siren to find the truth.
Hardcover
First published July 19, 2007
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About the author
Pat Shipman
19 books43 followersPat Shipman is a professor of anthropology at Penn State University. Coauthor of the award-winning The Ape in the Tree, she writes for American Scientist and lives in Moncure, North Carolina.
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October 8, 2016
How is a spy like a supermarket?
When I first went to Bali, I saw billboard signs for Mata Hari and I thought wow, is there some sort of film about her life they are advertising? Then I discovered that the word for sun is matahari. Okay, but why the billboards I thought?
The very prosaic answer was just round the corner: it's the name of the largest department store in Kuta.
I don't really want to review the book, which was excellent, four and a half stars. It was about an extremely interesting, beautiful and intelligent woman who switched between extreme morality and amorality as and when it suited her. After a fascinating, adventure-filled life lived larger than most people's imaginations, she got executed.
Ok, what I really want to write about is supermarkets. I feel that a country reveals itself through its supermarkets. What you see there is how people live, their most pressing preoccupations that can be fulfilled in a retail environment will be present, their appetites, drinking habits and economic status, all are on shown in the bright lighting of a supermarket.
When I went to Bali for the first time my first stop was at the Bintang, Kuta's biggest and most modern supermarket. It caters for the reasonably well-off (think: Waitrose) and expats. The differences between it and Western ones was striking. The perishables all had their own closed-off plexiglass section which was lightly chilled to keep them in peak perfection. There were endless varieties of neon-coloured sweeties, some of them of candy-coated insects, all our candies are belong to Haribo. The merchandise section had the usual range of kitchen goods but instead of being able to buy a - say - dish drainer - in pink, you could buy it in about six shades of pink, and so it went. The sweetest section was the underclothes. There were panti-girdles with padded hips and bottoms for size 32" hips. Imagine being that slim and tiny and wanting to be bigger! I'm a size 6-8, and I need a large in Bali.
The most extraordinary thing of all though was the lack of names. My driver had told me that were only 4 names for 95% of Balinese Hindus - and if I called out Made (Mah-day) I would see. Made is the name given to the second child, boy or girl, and also to the sixth and, in a big family, the tenth! So I called out Made and an awful uncountable lot of people turned round. Luckily most people have nicknames, but it does seem that very large numbers of cafes are called Made's Warung. Is this the prescribed occupation for a second child?
Then we went to a local supermarket. More surprises. There were no atmosphere-controlled rooms for the fruit and veg, there was no segregation and triple-wrapping of the stinky durian . What they did have was bright green bread. Pistachio-coloured. What indicates gone-off to us doesn't to them, they like their bread dyed a brighter shade of grass. There were cigarettes in soft packs bearing almost-US labels and a vast array of lighters, like the kitchenware they like them in every shade.
The beer, in six packs, was in wine-size bottles. There was a large selection of extremely cheap spirits with very dubious-looking labels that purported to come from France or the US (just like the perfumes). Indonesia is a Muslim country, but Bali is almost entirely Hindu and is the breadbasket of the country bringing in major amounts of foreign currency.
I went to the Mata Hari department store. An amazing treasure trove of a place, whose supermarket was much like Bintang but smaller and even more upscale. It had sections of pick-your-own for nuts mixed with exotic-looking dried fruits and other comestibles I didn't recognise but were cheap and sweet and Good for Me.
I love Bali, I used to do business there and go two or three times a year. If I could think up a business now that would entail trips that would end up being profitable I'd do it again.
Meanwhile, this is a book review. The book is a good one, great for a gift to someone who likes unusual biographies and for me to remind me of my supermarket obsession.
Read 24 Jan, 2012.
When I first went to Bali, I saw billboard signs for Mata Hari and I thought wow, is there some sort of film about her life they are advertising? Then I discovered that the word for sun is matahari. Okay, but why the billboards I thought?
The very prosaic answer was just round the corner: it's the name of the largest department store in Kuta.
I don't really want to review the book, which was excellent, four and a half stars. It was about an extremely interesting, beautiful and intelligent woman who switched between extreme morality and amorality as and when it suited her. After a fascinating, adventure-filled life lived larger than most people's imaginations, she got executed.
Ok, what I really want to write about is supermarkets. I feel that a country reveals itself through its supermarkets. What you see there is how people live, their most pressing preoccupations that can be fulfilled in a retail environment will be present, their appetites, drinking habits and economic status, all are on shown in the bright lighting of a supermarket.
When I went to Bali for the first time my first stop was at the Bintang, Kuta's biggest and most modern supermarket. It caters for the reasonably well-off (think: Waitrose) and expats. The differences between it and Western ones was striking. The perishables all had their own closed-off plexiglass section which was lightly chilled to keep them in peak perfection. There were endless varieties of neon-coloured sweeties, some of them of candy-coated insects, all our candies are belong to Haribo. The merchandise section had the usual range of kitchen goods but instead of being able to buy a - say - dish drainer - in pink, you could buy it in about six shades of pink, and so it went. The sweetest section was the underclothes. There were panti-girdles with padded hips and bottoms for size 32" hips. Imagine being that slim and tiny and wanting to be bigger! I'm a size 6-8, and I need a large in Bali.
The most extraordinary thing of all though was the lack of names. My driver had told me that were only 4 names for 95% of Balinese Hindus - and if I called out Made (Mah-day) I would see. Made is the name given to the second child, boy or girl, and also to the sixth and, in a big family, the tenth! So I called out Made and an awful uncountable lot of people turned round. Luckily most people have nicknames, but it does seem that very large numbers of cafes are called Made's Warung. Is this the prescribed occupation for a second child?
Then we went to a local supermarket. More surprises. There were no atmosphere-controlled rooms for the fruit and veg, there was no segregation and triple-wrapping of the stinky durian . What they did have was bright green bread. Pistachio-coloured. What indicates gone-off to us doesn't to them, they like their bread dyed a brighter shade of grass. There were cigarettes in soft packs bearing almost-US labels and a vast array of lighters, like the kitchenware they like them in every shade.
The beer, in six packs, was in wine-size bottles. There was a large selection of extremely cheap spirits with very dubious-looking labels that purported to come from France or the US (just like the perfumes). Indonesia is a Muslim country, but Bali is almost entirely Hindu and is the breadbasket of the country bringing in major amounts of foreign currency.
I went to the Mata Hari department store. An amazing treasure trove of a place, whose supermarket was much like Bintang but smaller and even more upscale. It had sections of pick-your-own for nuts mixed with exotic-looking dried fruits and other comestibles I didn't recognise but were cheap and sweet and Good for Me.
I love Bali, I used to do business there and go two or three times a year. If I could think up a business now that would entail trips that would end up being profitable I'd do it again.
Meanwhile, this is a book review. The book is a good one, great for a gift to someone who likes unusual biographies and for me to remind me of my supermarket obsession.
Read 24 Jan, 2012.
October 20, 2020
Does the name Margaretha Zelle ring a bell? Probably not.....but how about Mata Hari? Betcha' that does. This was the identity that Zelle took on when she decided to become a "personality", leave her husband and daughter to strike out on her own to make her fortune and gain recognition. Even as a child, Zelle was a problem, flirtatious, rebellious, and learned very young that pleasing men was the way to find happiness. She was rarely concerned with anyone but herself.
Although existing pictures of her do not necessarily live up to her reputation as a beauty, it was her style, gracefulness, and sense of fashion that fascinated men. Additionally, her coloring was very different from that of a Dutch girl and she used that to her advantage to become Mata Hari. She came up with the idea of presenting "sacred dances" of the East and her genius lay not in what she did but how she presented it and herself. She made up such fantastic stories of her background and identity that she began to believe in her own lies. She had no compunction about dancing nude or nearly nude which she passed off as an "Eastern" tradition in the "holy dances".
As WWI raged, she was sexually involved with upper echelon military leaders from both sides and then is when her trouble began. The French began to suspect she was a spy for Germany and started gathering information, most of it false. I think I will go no further since most people know what the outcome was. The last 1/3 of the book really slowed down the narrative as it covered her trial in detail which was often rather confusing. That aside, I would recommend this book for a look at the colorful life of an opportunist which led to her downfall.
Although existing pictures of her do not necessarily live up to her reputation as a beauty, it was her style, gracefulness, and sense of fashion that fascinated men. Additionally, her coloring was very different from that of a Dutch girl and she used that to her advantage to become Mata Hari. She came up with the idea of presenting "sacred dances" of the East and her genius lay not in what she did but how she presented it and herself. She made up such fantastic stories of her background and identity that she began to believe in her own lies. She had no compunction about dancing nude or nearly nude which she passed off as an "Eastern" tradition in the "holy dances".
As WWI raged, she was sexually involved with upper echelon military leaders from both sides and then is when her trouble began. The French began to suspect she was a spy for Germany and started gathering information, most of it false. I think I will go no further since most people know what the outcome was. The last 1/3 of the book really slowed down the narrative as it covered her trial in detail which was often rather confusing. That aside, I would recommend this book for a look at the colorful life of an opportunist which led to her downfall.
May 17, 2008
This book provides a fascinating vindication of Mata Hari, one of the most famous alleged double agents in history. The distance of 90 years since her execution and a modern post-sexual revolution perspective allow the conclusion to be drawn that she was convicted before her trial even began for her sexual reputation rather than any real evidence of espionage. Mata Hari was a study in contrast, a self-made woman who still relied on men for her financial upkeep, yet the way she unapologetically took what she wanted from life made her a woman two or three generations before her time.
July 30, 2008
I found this book very interesting. I didn't really know much about Mata Hari except that she was a dancer and somehow notorious. The story of her life is extremely interesting. I won't give a review of her life but she survived by using her intelligence as well as her beauty. Unfortunately, these things were also her downfall. Those who thought her immortal decided that this was enough to charge her as a spy. In the whirlwind of wartime she was convicted and sentenced to death with no evidence supporting the charge. Even the prosecutor in her case admitted after her death that they had to evidence. It is amazing that, with all her lovers and the wealth they provider her, she was completely abandoned to her fate. Or maybe it's not so amazing. An intelligent and sexual woman was condemned for those very traits. (Though I do have to admit men were convicted in similar ways, slim evidence, wartime fervor = guilty). I would recommend this book as a great biography of a unique woman living her life as she wanted to.
November 23, 2017
very thorough. I would have liked if it included more details about her daughter.
August 30, 2012
Mata Hari, the femme fatale convicted of espionage and executed by the French during World War I, is hardly a virgin subject for biography. She is a perennial of children's books devoted to famous spies and secret agents and no less of a draw in biographies for adults. Greta Garbo played her on the big screen as the subversive siren redeemed by love. Mata Hari's recent biographers doubt the evidence against her. French intelligence, it seems, fabricated a case, determined to find a scapegoat in an exotic courtesan who happened to be in all the wrong places at all the wrong times.
She began as the "little Dutch girl," Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, to borrow a phrase from Toni Bentley's entertaining and authoritative "Sisters of Salome" (2002). Adam Zelle treated his daughter like something special. She adored her wayward n'er-do-well dad with the gift of gab, and she grew up looking for a handsome man in a uniform to marry. Rudolf MacLeod, 20 years her senior, and a veteran of 20 years of slogging it out in vicious wars in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), obliged her. But MacLeod turned out to be a tyrant and Gretha, as she was known then, could not suppress her flirtatious nature. They parted in acrimony after several years together in the tropics.
Although Gretha had an almost matronly figure, she moved well and seems to have made a keen study of native dancers. Her complexion was swarthy, and in costume resembled one of those goddesses hanging off of Indian temples. Her adopted name, taken from a Malay phrase, means something like "sunrise." With the dim lighting and a pair of small, cymbal-like cups covering her mammaries, she was able to enchant European audiences for the better part of a decade, claiming to offer dances that had their origins in the sacred rites of the East. She combined, as Pat Shipman notes in "Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari" the sacred and profane. Her titillations could be enjoyed as — shall we say — a cultural experience.
World War I changed everything. France was losing the war. Who was to blame? Rather than accepting responsibility for the catastrophe, the French government, especially its intelligence branch, claimed that spies informing Germans of French military plans had undone the nation. And Mata Hari — a so-called "international woman" — came under suspicion. Why did she travel so much to Germany, England, and France, always consorting with military men? The answer is simple, Ms. Shipman replies: Mata Hari was a sucker for a uniform, relied upon men to give her money to support her extravagance, and took no notice of what others made of her itinerary.
Determined to convict, French intelligence agents got Mata Hari to admit she had taken money from a German officer, and after they in turn offered her money to spy on the Germans, they accused her of being a double agent. Sentenced to death by firing squad after a trial in which her former lovers reported she had never even talked about the war, she went to her death with dignity, all the while proclaiming her innocence. So what is unknown in the story? According to Ms. Shipman, Mata Hari may have had syphilis — which would account for her erratic behavior and her husband's equally bizarre actions. He had probably infected her. Ms. Shipman devotes many pages to making such a case, but then, really, so what? How has the story changed? Yet Ms. Shipman persists with tag lines such as, "No previous biographer has noticed."
One especially dubious move is Ms. Shipman's reliance on Adam Zelle's book about his daughter, a tendentious narrative that Mata Hari herself ridiculed. Ms. Shipman acknowledges that Zelle's work is self-serving, but then she quotes Mata Hari's letters, which are available only in Zelle's narrative. Who is to say that Zelle did not alter or even invent some of this correspondence? Other biographers, such as Erika Ostrovsky in "Eye of Dawn: The Rise and Fall of Mata Hari" (1978) find Zelle so compromised that they hardly mention his book.
As Toni Bentley points out, the significant event in Mata Hari's life occurred in 1985 when the sealed dossier of evidence against her was opened for biographer Russell Warren Howe. This disclosure established that the case against her amounted to very little indeed.
Although Ms. Shipman belittles previous researchers it is hard to see how her book could exist without them. Certainly she has discovered a few nuggets and provided some riveting passages on what it was like for that poor little Dutch girl in the East Indies, but only devotees of femme fatales need trouble themselves over her biographer's lucubrations on the intricacies of her possible disease.
She began as the "little Dutch girl," Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, to borrow a phrase from Toni Bentley's entertaining and authoritative "Sisters of Salome" (2002). Adam Zelle treated his daughter like something special. She adored her wayward n'er-do-well dad with the gift of gab, and she grew up looking for a handsome man in a uniform to marry. Rudolf MacLeod, 20 years her senior, and a veteran of 20 years of slogging it out in vicious wars in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), obliged her. But MacLeod turned out to be a tyrant and Gretha, as she was known then, could not suppress her flirtatious nature. They parted in acrimony after several years together in the tropics.
Although Gretha had an almost matronly figure, she moved well and seems to have made a keen study of native dancers. Her complexion was swarthy, and in costume resembled one of those goddesses hanging off of Indian temples. Her adopted name, taken from a Malay phrase, means something like "sunrise." With the dim lighting and a pair of small, cymbal-like cups covering her mammaries, she was able to enchant European audiences for the better part of a decade, claiming to offer dances that had their origins in the sacred rites of the East. She combined, as Pat Shipman notes in "Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari" the sacred and profane. Her titillations could be enjoyed as — shall we say — a cultural experience.
World War I changed everything. France was losing the war. Who was to blame? Rather than accepting responsibility for the catastrophe, the French government, especially its intelligence branch, claimed that spies informing Germans of French military plans had undone the nation. And Mata Hari — a so-called "international woman" — came under suspicion. Why did she travel so much to Germany, England, and France, always consorting with military men? The answer is simple, Ms. Shipman replies: Mata Hari was a sucker for a uniform, relied upon men to give her money to support her extravagance, and took no notice of what others made of her itinerary.
Determined to convict, French intelligence agents got Mata Hari to admit she had taken money from a German officer, and after they in turn offered her money to spy on the Germans, they accused her of being a double agent. Sentenced to death by firing squad after a trial in which her former lovers reported she had never even talked about the war, she went to her death with dignity, all the while proclaiming her innocence. So what is unknown in the story? According to Ms. Shipman, Mata Hari may have had syphilis — which would account for her erratic behavior and her husband's equally bizarre actions. He had probably infected her. Ms. Shipman devotes many pages to making such a case, but then, really, so what? How has the story changed? Yet Ms. Shipman persists with tag lines such as, "No previous biographer has noticed."
One especially dubious move is Ms. Shipman's reliance on Adam Zelle's book about his daughter, a tendentious narrative that Mata Hari herself ridiculed. Ms. Shipman acknowledges that Zelle's work is self-serving, but then she quotes Mata Hari's letters, which are available only in Zelle's narrative. Who is to say that Zelle did not alter or even invent some of this correspondence? Other biographers, such as Erika Ostrovsky in "Eye of Dawn: The Rise and Fall of Mata Hari" (1978) find Zelle so compromised that they hardly mention his book.
As Toni Bentley points out, the significant event in Mata Hari's life occurred in 1985 when the sealed dossier of evidence against her was opened for biographer Russell Warren Howe. This disclosure established that the case against her amounted to very little indeed.
Although Ms. Shipman belittles previous researchers it is hard to see how her book could exist without them. Certainly she has discovered a few nuggets and provided some riveting passages on what it was like for that poor little Dutch girl in the East Indies, but only devotees of femme fatales need trouble themselves over her biographer's lucubrations on the intricacies of her possible disease.
November 9, 2017
Ik wilde dit boek enorm graag lezen, voor ik de tentoonstelling over Mata Hari zou bezoeken in het Fries Museum. Maar wauw. Mijn verwachtingen lagen erg laag, want Amerikaanse schrijfster gaat schrijven over een Nederlandse vrouw en de Nederlandse cultuur uit interesse voor Friesland. Maar, Pat Shipman heeft een laagdrempelige (niet zo zeer wetenschappelijke) biografie geschreven op een meeslepende manier; hij is leesbaar voor iedereen. Het verhaal van Mata Hari laat je hart een beetje huilen. Het boek stroomt over van de tragiek. Ik was dan ook blij dat het boek uit was. Niettemin, dikke aanrader.
January 23, 2018
It's very sympathetic to Mata Hari and the author continuously mentions that "no other historian" or "no other biography" looked into some of her sources. I would have liked it more if the prose had been more neutral; Shipman is very persuasive with the case she builds against Mata Hari's ex-husband and the holes in the story of Mata Hari as a master spy, but her pointing it out to the reader breaks the fourth wall in an uncomfortable way.
PopSugar Reading Challenge 2017 | Task 40: Book you bought in a trip (to WWI museum in Kansas City, MO)
PopSugar Reading Challenge 2017 | Task 40: Book you bought in a trip (to WWI museum in Kansas City, MO)
January 13, 2019
Not bad, not great. I certainly know more about Mata Hari than I did before reading it. I give the author a great deal of credit for tracking down as much information as she did. My complaints are that the years between her divorce and 1915 are pretty much glossed over, and that I never felt that I knew her at all. I also found that I was slightly disturbed by this book, because I realized that over 100 years later women are still shamed, scorned, etc. for the same reasons that Mata Hari was.
August 7, 2013
Interesting and generally well written life story of Mata hari. I spent a lot of the book trying to work out if she was indeed a clever woman or a very foolish one. Still not completely sure. I liked the writing style apart from the several times when the author stated 'she was the only biographer' to spot/investigate/discover various aspects of Mata Hari's life. The book stands on its own without this sort of author puff.
January 21, 2009
There was something lacking in this btiography. It felt like too many research students had been on hand and the narrative lost its sparkle. Talk about labouring the point about Mata Hari having an incurable sexual disease. A bit disappointing.
March 6, 2014
My first reaction was must publish my thesis or go bust then I checked out the author - professor of anthropology.
March 5, 2023
The author gives you the facts of Mata Hari’s life very simply and stately, letting you decide whether she was really a spy or not. By the end, the author hints that she doesn’t believe she was…I am unsure still. But either way, Mata Hari’s life was bold but also tragic. And the way she lived webbed a picture that she couldn’t escape from, guilty or not.
January 1, 2009
Born Margaretha Gertruida Zell, Mata Hari was the Paris Hilton of her day.
The daughter of Dutch parents, her father showered her with gifts and fancy clothes and it was clear she was the favorite of the family. When her father went bankrupt, Mata Hari was sent to live with relatives who sent her to a boarding school. Here she learned sex equals power and sex with powerful men equals power AND status.
Mata Hari was in love with being in love which showed when she married a much older Colonel in the Dutch Army. The marriage offered her money and a position in society and it also offered her syphilis which she acquired from her husband. The couple had two children and the marriage went to shit when her first child, a son, died. It was believed the boy died from the mercury treatment he was getting for syphilis. Both parents fell into a deep depression and the Colonel got violent.
Mata Hari left her daughter behind and fled to Paris where she reinvented herself as a mixed-race princess trained in sacred and sexual temple dances of the east. She was the belle of the ball in Europe and danced before large crowds and small garden parties. The cash flowed but Mata Hari spent lavishly on clothes, hats and a lifestyle to which she was accustomed. She left behind great debts and her creditors constantly hounded her. When things were lean she would insist on spending anyway and couldn’t figure out why her creditors took her furniture.
Like all good things, they must come to an end. World War I broke out and Mata Hari’s gig as a dancer dried up. So she did what she did best and “entertained” officers and high-powered men in her hotel room in Paris. She fell in love with a Russian spy who was injured in a battle and she agreed to spy for him. Now this is where things get dicey. Pat Shipman points out that Mata Hari probably passed on a secret or two or made a phone call but she was not “responsible for the death of 50,000 soldiers” as she was charged. Plus, she argues, it would be difficult for an easily recognizable person to be a spy. She was simply made a scapegoat for flaunting her lifestyle and sexuality. The evidence against her was weak and the government was suspicious of someone who traveled during war time, had several high-powered lovers, and spoke several languages. She was found guilty anyway.
When she was executed, Mata Hari walked with her head held high and refused a blindfold.
Overall, I found this book to be very satisfying. I did not know anything about Mata Hari going into the book and I enjoyed learning about the infamous Femme Fetale. Shipman’s writing style is very approachable and her research was thorough. The only problem I had was that I did not like Mata Hari. I admired her for doing what she had to do get by but I still didn’t like her. She reminded me of Paris Hilton and seemed only to care about her lavish lifestyle and nothing else. Despite her self-absorption, she did not hurt anyone and did not deserve to be thrown to the wolves.
The daughter of Dutch parents, her father showered her with gifts and fancy clothes and it was clear she was the favorite of the family. When her father went bankrupt, Mata Hari was sent to live with relatives who sent her to a boarding school. Here she learned sex equals power and sex with powerful men equals power AND status.
Mata Hari was in love with being in love which showed when she married a much older Colonel in the Dutch Army. The marriage offered her money and a position in society and it also offered her syphilis which she acquired from her husband. The couple had two children and the marriage went to shit when her first child, a son, died. It was believed the boy died from the mercury treatment he was getting for syphilis. Both parents fell into a deep depression and the Colonel got violent.
Mata Hari left her daughter behind and fled to Paris where she reinvented herself as a mixed-race princess trained in sacred and sexual temple dances of the east. She was the belle of the ball in Europe and danced before large crowds and small garden parties. The cash flowed but Mata Hari spent lavishly on clothes, hats and a lifestyle to which she was accustomed. She left behind great debts and her creditors constantly hounded her. When things were lean she would insist on spending anyway and couldn’t figure out why her creditors took her furniture.
Like all good things, they must come to an end. World War I broke out and Mata Hari’s gig as a dancer dried up. So she did what she did best and “entertained” officers and high-powered men in her hotel room in Paris. She fell in love with a Russian spy who was injured in a battle and she agreed to spy for him. Now this is where things get dicey. Pat Shipman points out that Mata Hari probably passed on a secret or two or made a phone call but she was not “responsible for the death of 50,000 soldiers” as she was charged. Plus, she argues, it would be difficult for an easily recognizable person to be a spy. She was simply made a scapegoat for flaunting her lifestyle and sexuality. The evidence against her was weak and the government was suspicious of someone who traveled during war time, had several high-powered lovers, and spoke several languages. She was found guilty anyway.
When she was executed, Mata Hari walked with her head held high and refused a blindfold.
Overall, I found this book to be very satisfying. I did not know anything about Mata Hari going into the book and I enjoyed learning about the infamous Femme Fetale. Shipman’s writing style is very approachable and her research was thorough. The only problem I had was that I did not like Mata Hari. I admired her for doing what she had to do get by but I still didn’t like her. She reminded me of Paris Hilton and seemed only to care about her lavish lifestyle and nothing else. Despite her self-absorption, she did not hurt anyone and did not deserve to be thrown to the wolves.
May 21, 2021
I have joined one of those book of the month challenges, in part because for January the book had to be an autobiography and I had already picked this one. Whether or not I can manage the next 11 choices remains to be seen.
If Shipman had maintained the momentum of the first 30% or so of this book, it would have been a solid four stars. As it is, it's a shaky 3 because it bogged down badly in the second half. The author is less than impartial, in spite of being a member of academia. Yes, I know that's a ridiculous statement, but there it is. Her strident defense of Mata Hari at every turn gets louder and louder as the book progresses; according to Shipman, she was being punished by the establishment not for espionage, but for openly being a courtesan (ie high-priced prostitute)--but at least she avoided using the buzzword "patriarchy". There were then and have always been courtesans, and Paris did not lack them at the beginning of the century, so IMO that falls rather flat. Repeatedly. She goes on and on about Mata Hari's exotic beauty; well, in all the images I've ever seen she is rather coarse featured and common looking, but aesthetics change over time, and perhaps she was more attractive in person and when speaking and dancing. The images left me more than cold, but then of course that's an opinion, just as Shipman's was. She claims to have some kind of special insight that other authors didn't have, and yet her quotes are poorly translated. She repeatedly mentions the syphilis that was the legacy of Mata Hari's disastrous early marriage to MacLeod, and yet never stops to think that this disease, ineffectively treated, was probably at least partly responsible for the breakdown at the end of her life, as it is well known that in the long term it affects the brain causing erratic behaviour, mood swings etc. By that time Mata Hari had been infected for a couple of decades, and the mercury-based treatments available probably weren't doing her any favours, either. Shipman speaks of the syphilis being "in remission" as if it were some form of cancer simply because there were no skin lesions evident, instead of acknowledging (if indeed she knows it) that it can lie apparently dormant in the body for decades, working away under the surface.
The text is sadly repetitive in the second half; it needed a good editor to cut out the deadwood that abounds and force Shipman to do something about all that "may have, might have, could have" conjecturing. I bet she wouldn't put up with it in papers written by her students! I certainly don't in papers by mine. As I always tell them, "If you can't back it up, don't write it down."
If Shipman had maintained the momentum of the first 30% or so of this book, it would have been a solid four stars. As it is, it's a shaky 3 because it bogged down badly in the second half. The author is less than impartial, in spite of being a member of academia. Yes, I know that's a ridiculous statement, but there it is. Her strident defense of Mata Hari at every turn gets louder and louder as the book progresses; according to Shipman, she was being punished by the establishment not for espionage, but for openly being a courtesan (ie high-priced prostitute)--but at least she avoided using the buzzword "patriarchy". There were then and have always been courtesans, and Paris did not lack them at the beginning of the century, so IMO that falls rather flat. Repeatedly. She goes on and on about Mata Hari's exotic beauty; well, in all the images I've ever seen she is rather coarse featured and common looking, but aesthetics change over time, and perhaps she was more attractive in person and when speaking and dancing. The images left me more than cold, but then of course that's an opinion, just as Shipman's was. She claims to have some kind of special insight that other authors didn't have, and yet her quotes are poorly translated. She repeatedly mentions the syphilis that was the legacy of Mata Hari's disastrous early marriage to MacLeod, and yet never stops to think that this disease, ineffectively treated, was probably at least partly responsible for the breakdown at the end of her life, as it is well known that in the long term it affects the brain causing erratic behaviour, mood swings etc. By that time Mata Hari had been infected for a couple of decades, and the mercury-based treatments available probably weren't doing her any favours, either. Shipman speaks of the syphilis being "in remission" as if it were some form of cancer simply because there were no skin lesions evident, instead of acknowledging (if indeed she knows it) that it can lie apparently dormant in the body for decades, working away under the surface.
The text is sadly repetitive in the second half; it needed a good editor to cut out the deadwood that abounds and force Shipman to do something about all that "may have, might have, could have" conjecturing. I bet she wouldn't put up with it in papers written by her students! I certainly don't in papers by mine. As I always tell them, "If you can't back it up, don't write it down."
December 10, 2018
Not my favorite.
The historian was obviously very fond of Mata Hari and took all opportunities to go on about how beautiful, charismatic or loved/admired every male was by her. She came off more oblivious and men/money hungry than anything else and the world's biggest scapegoat.
I think I was put off at the beginning by a bit of a comment about McLeod's family refusing to let the lock of hair from Mata Hari's son(who passed at a very young age) be tested to prove the Author's theory of syphilis. It just seemed unsympathetic and like the family just didn't get it's importance to history (her book's history more so I think) so they were being selfish.
Meh. I struggled on by definitely not my favorite biography.
The historian was obviously very fond of Mata Hari and took all opportunities to go on about how beautiful, charismatic or loved/admired every male was by her. She came off more oblivious and men/money hungry than anything else and the world's biggest scapegoat.
I think I was put off at the beginning by a bit of a comment about McLeod's family refusing to let the lock of hair from Mata Hari's son(who passed at a very young age) be tested to prove the Author's theory of syphilis. It just seemed unsympathetic and like the family just didn't get it's importance to history (her book's history more so I think) so they were being selfish.
Meh. I struggled on by definitely not my favorite biography.
August 17, 2010
((Sigh!!)) I was happier when I thought Mata Hari was a double agent. Now I know her for what she truly was - a self-involved, vain, greedy dummy who couldn't see the obvious if it kicked her in the teeth.
I also know that this author will belabor one detail with tons of words like maybe, perhaps, probablys, possiblys, in order to convince the reader that the subject had something (like congenital syphillis - the author was fixated on it) even if she doesn't have any actual proof.
The author was way to enamoured of her subject losing objectivity - She said Colette was catty when the woman was less than impressed with MH's dancing.
I wish I'd read one of the other bio's.
I also know that this author will belabor one detail with tons of words like maybe, perhaps, probablys, possiblys, in order to convince the reader that the subject had something (like congenital syphillis - the author was fixated on it) even if she doesn't have any actual proof.
The author was way to enamoured of her subject losing objectivity - She said Colette was catty when the woman was less than impressed with MH's dancing.
I wish I'd read one of the other bio's.
January 17, 2014
Very serious and well-researched bio of a fascinating character, it throws a lot of light on her conviction as a spy and on the real motives behind it. A sad but illuminating story, entertaining and well-written.
November 25, 2011
The subject is quite interesting since this is the first book on MH I have read.
July 15, 2025
I knew very little about Mata Hari when I started reading this book and found that some of what I did think I knew, wasn't true. I don't think she was a German spy, for the simple fact that she was clearly a narcissist. To spy for either Germany or France would have required her to think so something beyond her own comfort and she clearly was not capable of that.
However, my rating of the book is not based on my opinion of Mata Hari, but on the poor job done by the author of presenting her story in a fair and balanced way. Apparently Mata Hari's charisma has lasted over 100 years because the author was clearly enamored with her to the point of ridiculousness.
Certainly Mata Hari was in a terrible marriage and her husband had issues. However, the contortions the author goes through to try to make Mata Hari seem innocent and that everything was her husband's fault makes the whole story pathetic and unbelievable. Clearly from her later life choices, Mata Hari was not an innocent party in her marriage, but should carry some of the blame for it's breakdown. But instead, the story is twisted and subjections is piled upon inferences and could have scenarios to make the husband the villain in all instances.
After the divorce, when Mata Hari takes on this persona, the author again goes to ridiculous lengths to try to make her a innocent victim of everything that happened to her. Mata Hari somehow can be incredibly naive and very intelligent. She is worldly but innocent. She is a victim in everything and never does any harm to anyone.
This is a woman who continues to try to travel around Europe as it is being torn apart by the worst conflict of the 20th Century. A woman who thought that because she was conniving men from all countries out of their money, she couldn't be seen as doing anything wrong.
The author expresses surprise no other historian has drawn the same conclusions she has. That's probably because they were trying to give a more balanced view of events. But at the same time, the author is indignant that Mata Hari is being seen as guilty because she is an immoral woman. Why do you write a book about Mata Hari without ever trying to understand the society she moved within. Of course in the second decade of the 20th Century she would be seen as guilty because she was considered a loose woman. Morality and criminality went hand in hand in this time period. So the fact Mata Hari was, to be polite, the mistress of anyone who wanted to pay her would make her seem more guilty. If she lived what was seen as an immoral life style, why would anyone believe she had the morality to not sell out France. That attitude is still around today.
I think the saddest thing about this book is that, in trying to make Mata Hari seem a victim of everyone and every situation, the author actually made her less likable. Where if she had been presented as human and someone who lived her life on her own terms, bad judgement and all, she would have been more likable.
However, my rating of the book is not based on my opinion of Mata Hari, but on the poor job done by the author of presenting her story in a fair and balanced way. Apparently Mata Hari's charisma has lasted over 100 years because the author was clearly enamored with her to the point of ridiculousness.
Certainly Mata Hari was in a terrible marriage and her husband had issues. However, the contortions the author goes through to try to make Mata Hari seem innocent and that everything was her husband's fault makes the whole story pathetic and unbelievable. Clearly from her later life choices, Mata Hari was not an innocent party in her marriage, but should carry some of the blame for it's breakdown. But instead, the story is twisted and subjections is piled upon inferences and could have scenarios to make the husband the villain in all instances.
After the divorce, when Mata Hari takes on this persona, the author again goes to ridiculous lengths to try to make her a innocent victim of everything that happened to her. Mata Hari somehow can be incredibly naive and very intelligent. She is worldly but innocent. She is a victim in everything and never does any harm to anyone.
This is a woman who continues to try to travel around Europe as it is being torn apart by the worst conflict of the 20th Century. A woman who thought that because she was conniving men from all countries out of their money, she couldn't be seen as doing anything wrong.
The author expresses surprise no other historian has drawn the same conclusions she has. That's probably because they were trying to give a more balanced view of events. But at the same time, the author is indignant that Mata Hari is being seen as guilty because she is an immoral woman. Why do you write a book about Mata Hari without ever trying to understand the society she moved within. Of course in the second decade of the 20th Century she would be seen as guilty because she was considered a loose woman. Morality and criminality went hand in hand in this time period. So the fact Mata Hari was, to be polite, the mistress of anyone who wanted to pay her would make her seem more guilty. If she lived what was seen as an immoral life style, why would anyone believe she had the morality to not sell out France. That attitude is still around today.
I think the saddest thing about this book is that, in trying to make Mata Hari seem a victim of everyone and every situation, the author actually made her less likable. Where if she had been presented as human and someone who lived her life on her own terms, bad judgement and all, she would have been more likable.
June 28, 2017
In Femme Fatale.. , Pat Shipman does a lot of research to discover whether Margaretha Zelle (Mata Hari) was truly a spy or just a woman who lived an unconventional life. Her early life in Holland was happy, she had a father who doted on her. This was upset by her parents' divorce and subsequently, her mother's death. Margaretha was forced to live with unwilling relatives. She made an unwise marriage looking for an escape, only to find another cage. Her marriage to Lt. MacLeod led to a few years in Dutch West Indies- which gave birth in some way to her alter ego, Mata Hari. Her marriage was unhappy. The unhappiness grew to misery after death of their child, a little boy named Norman. Shipman speculates as to whether Norman was the victim of congenital syphillis as well as both parents being afflicted. Their young daughter, Non, survives but MacLeod is increasingly mistrustful of his wife. Their relationship becomes more volatile until "Gretha" contacts her father for help in procuring a divorce. MacLeod frees her with the stipulation that she will never see her daughter again. She heads for Paris and reinvents herself as Mata Hari. A patron showcases her dancing, bordering on striptease, and suddenly she is the toast of the town. Engagements in opera houses and theatres ensue, but these paying jobs can't keep her out of debt. She becomes the mistress of many of Europe's elite- a financial arrangement for the pleasure of her company. This extravagant and loose lifestyle is what ultimately gets her into trouble. When WWI breaks out, she is in Berlin, engaged by the opera for several weeks. Mata Hari breaks her contract and her trunks of clothes, costumes, furs, and jewels are seized. When she goes to a German official to see if she can recoup her belongings and obtain a visa for Paris, she sets a series of events into motion that lead to her conviction and execution for espionage. Fascinating subject matter- not sure why there hasn't been a more recent film biography of this larger than life character.
May 6, 2021
I didn't know much more about Mata Hari than her name until I read this book. She almost defines the word infamous, however, and this book highlights the fact that she has been at best misrepresented and at worst, wrongly executed.
This book covers Mata Hari's life, including the early years of her marriage before she was famous and was living in Indonesia. It makes no bones about the fact that she was famously promiscuous, truly profligate with her spending (to the point that she squandered the equivalent of £1million in a couple of years) and that she was undoubtedly involved in espionage.
However, the book provides a new and objective viewpoint on her alleged crimes and questions whether her famous promiscuity is more to blame for her conviction than anything else.
I enjoyed reading this book and found it provided a fascinating picture of the "Belle Epoque" before the first world war. Over the span of nearly a hundred years, it manages to provide a clear picture of a lifestyle and society that no longer exist, and give a sense of the legendary woman and what shaped her.
My criticism of this book is that the pictures were a little disappointing - I would have liked to see larger, glossy pictures (particularly as I am referring to the hardback edition where cost considerations are not so critical). Also, although it is interesting the book focuses on the evidence for Mata Hari's conviction along with her early life while skimping a little on the erotic dancing / bed hopping sections which traditionally have been of most interest, and let's be honest, still are!
(One of my old reviews which I am consolidating on Goodreads).
This book covers Mata Hari's life, including the early years of her marriage before she was famous and was living in Indonesia. It makes no bones about the fact that she was famously promiscuous, truly profligate with her spending (to the point that she squandered the equivalent of £1million in a couple of years) and that she was undoubtedly involved in espionage.
However, the book provides a new and objective viewpoint on her alleged crimes and questions whether her famous promiscuity is more to blame for her conviction than anything else.
I enjoyed reading this book and found it provided a fascinating picture of the "Belle Epoque" before the first world war. Over the span of nearly a hundred years, it manages to provide a clear picture of a lifestyle and society that no longer exist, and give a sense of the legendary woman and what shaped her.
My criticism of this book is that the pictures were a little disappointing - I would have liked to see larger, glossy pictures (particularly as I am referring to the hardback edition where cost considerations are not so critical). Also, although it is interesting the book focuses on the evidence for Mata Hari's conviction along with her early life while skimping a little on the erotic dancing / bed hopping sections which traditionally have been of most interest, and let's be honest, still are!
(One of my old reviews which I am consolidating on Goodreads).
October 22, 2019
I was interested in this because Mata Hari is one of those prominent figures I know of, but not much about, other than that she was probably innocent. Shipman's book makes that "definitely."
When WW I broke out, Margaretha Zelle MacLeod was a divorce, a celebrated dancer (claiming Mystic Rituals of the East to turn her semi-nude performances into something educational and spiritual) and a woman with a whole string of lovers, many of them officers (she liked men and their money, they liked her and paid her bills). When she was identified, by chance, as a possible spy (she'd traveled all over Europe), suspicion of her lifestyle and the desire by the authorities to catch a big important spy outweighed trivial things like the utter lack of evidence (there was some, but Shipman makes a good case it was forged). And so the myth of Mata Hari, whose betrayals cost the lives of 50,000 allies, was born ...
When WW I broke out, Margaretha Zelle MacLeod was a divorce, a celebrated dancer (claiming Mystic Rituals of the East to turn her semi-nude performances into something educational and spiritual) and a woman with a whole string of lovers, many of them officers (she liked men and their money, they liked her and paid her bills). When she was identified, by chance, as a possible spy (she'd traveled all over Europe), suspicion of her lifestyle and the desire by the authorities to catch a big important spy outweighed trivial things like the utter lack of evidence (there was some, but Shipman makes a good case it was forged). And so the myth of Mata Hari, whose betrayals cost the lives of 50,000 allies, was born ...
December 23, 2019
Feminists and lovers of women's history should read this book because Mata Hari was truly a victim of her times. It all began as a result of her "dark complexion" which, despite being 100% Dutch, generated rumors throughout the Indonesian colonies that she was "half-caste". All she really yearned for was adventure and officers, so she created a persona to free herself from the inadequacies of marriage. Unfortunately, her regal bearing and lack of modesty, even going so far as to refer to herself as an "international woman" (i.e. promiscuous), found her on the wrong side of the French military, which decided she was a spy and prosecuted her as such. Shipman does a wonderful job recounting the real facts of Mata Hari's life, so if you like page-turners about wild women embracing their sexuality despite society's restrictions, I highly recommend Femme Fatale.
June 26, 2017
Ενδιαφέρουσα βιογραφία αυτής της αμφιλεγόμενης προσωπικότητας, με πολλά στοιχεία και πολλές λεπτομέρειες για τη ζωή της και την καριέρα της, ειδικά για το πολύ σημαντικό θέμα της καταδίκης της για κατασκοπεία, το οποίο μας το αναλύει η συγγραφέας ιδιαίτερα διεξοδικά, αποκαλύπτοντας αυτό που κατά τη γνώμη της ήτανε μία άδικη καταδίκη. Το πρόβλημα, βέβαια, είναι ότι για κάποιες περιόδους της ζωής της δεν γνωρίζουμε και πολλά πράγματα οπότε αναγκαστικά η συγγραφέας κάνει κάποιες υποθέσεις που η αλήθεια είναι ότι δεν ξέρω ακριβώς αν στέκουν. Κατά τα άλλα, όμως, το βιβλίο είναι φανερά προϊόν ενδελεχούς έρευνας, κάτι που κάνει η ιδανική πηγή για όσους ενδιαφέρονται να μάθουν περισσότερα για το θέμα.
March 28, 2018
Femme Fatale was a good biography, especially for someone who doesn't know a lot about Mata Hari, her origins and the story itself. I can say that before I read this, the name was used as a reference to a seductress, but really I had no clue about who this person ever was. So from that perspective I found the book really interesting and it certainly helped me shape a picture of who Mata Hari is.
It appears that the consideration of her NOT being a spy is perhaps a unique angle, and the imprisonment and subsequent trial are documented sensitively and persuasively.
An easy book to follow, plenty of images to put faces to names, and an interesting snapshot of a woman who is infamous so many years later.
It appears that the consideration of her NOT being a spy is perhaps a unique angle, and the imprisonment and subsequent trial are documented sensitively and persuasively.
An easy book to follow, plenty of images to put faces to names, and an interesting snapshot of a woman who is infamous so many years later.
July 16, 2023
Shipman expends a lot of text garnering sympathy for the convicted WWI spy. She explores her dysfunctional early life and her abusive marriage to a Dutch military officer in the Dutch East Indies in detail that greatly impacted the direction her life took which is often glossed over to arrive at the point in her life when she becomes the salacious exotic dancer Mata Hari. Shipman insinuates that she was not a spy that she was in fact persecuted for moral offenses. It would seem that Mata Hari would have fared better if she had been born during the Free Love, anything goes era of the 60s/70s. On hearing of her execution, her ex-husband stated “Whatever she’s done in life, she did not deserve that”. My thoughts exactly…
July 14, 2019
Si pongo 4 estrellas es en apoyo a tremenda búsqueda de información que hizo la autora, pero la verdad es que molestó en partes la apariencia de objetividad cuando es bastante subjetiva en ciertos temas, hubiera preferido que hable en primera persona a veces. Igual aprendí un montón sobre la vida de Mata Hari como dudo que se pueda aprender en otro libro, y aunque no sé si realmente era inocente de espiar (pues ella mintió mucho en su vida y era una mujer de mundo como para ser tan ilusa de lo que pasaba), si queda claro que su condena fue absolutamente injusta y se apoyó en su vida sexual libre.
August 23, 2019
Interesting read if you're not very familiar with the story of Mata Hari, like I was. The book describes Mata Hari with a lot of sympathy as a strong and resourceful woman making her fortune in a completely male-dominated world. The inevitability of her downfall is a heartbreaking story. The book is on the whole well written, making good use of contemporary letters and other documents. However, the writer has two theories to prove that probably would have been in better hands with a professional historian, since she interprets all available evidence to argue the cases of Mata Hari's husband's syphillis, and of her innocence as a spy. There seems to be sufficient reason to doubt both hypotheses. However, the book does a very good job at describing her early years before she came to Paris. Surprisingly, her subsequent rise to fame is only given cursory treatment with the remainder of the book more like a detective story about spying in the First World War.
April 1, 2020
The book was wrote by a journalist after the execution of dancer mata hari aka Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. She was declared as a German spy during WWI and executed as a show off. I found mata hari as an insecure mother who is very lack of maturity. If only she had taken decisions that hurry her could be different. Very recently around after 100 years of her death french govt published all the files related to Mata Hari and declared herself not guilty. In real she was sacrificed for the country.
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