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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
All Things Girl Reviews: Signed, Mata Hari,
By
This review is from: Signed, Mata Hari: A Novel (Hardcover)
It's only a short time before her execution and we are in her prison cell. We are in Paris and the year is 1917. We are with Margaretha Zelle, aka, Mata Hari.
In this richly woven tale, Yannik Murphy mixes the facts of Mata Hari's life with nuggets of fiction to share a richly woven tale alternating between Mata Hari in prison, telling stories to her captors to buy back her life within the story of her life. Growing up mostly alone and abandoned and then finding herself in a loveless marriage, she shows that she is a survivor. Margaretha finds her comfort during her time in Java, but also suffers her greatest loss. She then reinvents herself and becomes the dancer, Mata Hari, dressing in veils and being admired by the elite of Europe. Was Mata Hari a spy or was she simply a delusional woman longing for attention? I devoured Signed, Mata Hari. I was left wanting to know even more...wondering where the facts ended and the fiction began. The writing was authentic and it seemed as if I were reading an autobiography. It's a book that will stay on my bookshelf to share with friends, and for the occasional re-read. Signed, Mata Hari is available November 14, 2007 Deb Smouse - Editor in Chief - AllThingsGirl.Com
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating novel about a woman who has become an icon,
By
This review is from: Signed, Mata Hari: A Novel (Hardcover)
I really enjoyed this imagined life of the famous spy Mata Hari; her life in Java is beautifully realized, and even the bleakness of her imprisonment and execution are well rendered.
EyeWitnesstoHistory has a chilling report of her execution, written by an eyewitness, Henry Wales. A few lines from his dispatch: "Never once had the iron will of the beautiful woman failed her. Father Arbaux, accompanied by two sisters of charity, Captain Bouchardon, and Maitre Clunet, her lawyer, entered her cell, where she was still sleeping - a calm, untroubled sleep, it was remarked by the turnkeys and trusties. The sisters gently shook her. She arose and was told that her hour had come. 'May I write two letters?' was all she asked. Consent was given immediately by Captain Bouchardon, and pen, ink, paper, and envelopes were given to her. She seated herself at the edge of the bed and wrote the letters with feverish haste. She handed them over to the custody of her lawyer. Then she drew on her stockings, black, silken, filmy things, grotesque in the circumstances. She placed her high-heeled slippers on her feet and tied the silken ribbons over her insteps. She arose and took the long black velvet cloak, edged around the bottom with fur and with a huge square fur collar hanging down the back, from a hook over the head of her bed. She placed this cloak over the heavy silk kimono which she had been wearing over her nightdress. Her wealth of black hair was still coiled about her head in braids. She put on a large, flapping black felt hat with a black silk ribbon and bow. Slowly and indifferently, it seemed, she pulled on a pair of black kid gloves. Then she said calmly: 'I am ready.'" ***** As Father Arbaux spoke with the condemned woman, a French officer approached, carrying a white cloth. 'The blindfold,' he whispered to the nuns who stood there and handed it to them. 'Must I wear that?' asked Mata Hari, turning to her lawyer, as her eyes glimpsed the blindfold. Maitre Clunet turned interrogatively to the French officer. 'If Madame prefers not, it makes no difference,' replied the officer, hurriedly turning away. Mata Hari was not bound and she was not blindfolded. She stood gazing steadfastly at her executioners, when the priest, the nuns, and her lawyer stepped away from her. *** Robert C. Ross 2007 2008
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
LOVELY AND INFORMATIVE,
By MOVIE WATCHER (Los Angeles, Ca.) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Signed, Mata Hari: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is a beautifully rendered portrait of the life of the woman who called herself Mata Hari, undoubtedly one of the most famous but one of the least known about women in modern history. Her name appears in songs and movie titles. She was even the subject of a failed Broadway musical yet we really know very little about her. In elegant, graceful prose, Ms. Murphy tells us the ambiguous story of this complicated, illusive woman with compassion and radiant intelligence. The approach is kalaidoscopic. The author moves effortlessly from being the first person voice of her cental character to a third person observer, perhaps the author herself. From Mata Hari's tragic marriage right up to the final moment in front of a firing squad, there is never a false note or a misplaced moment. The result is a moving, delicate and ultimately very personal work and one that I very much admired.
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