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Richard Skinner is the author of three novels, all published by Faber Faber. His work has been nominated for prizes and published in seven languages. He has written reviews and features for the Guardian, Financial Times, Sunday Times and Sight Sound. He is Director of the Fiction Programme and mehr anzeigen tutor at the Faber Academy. weniger anzeigen

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UK

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Set against the dramatically imagined backdrop of Europe on the brink of the Great War, The Red Dancer re-creates the life of Mata Hari, last century's most romantic, enigmatic, tragic spy.

In 1895, Margaretha Zelle, a destitute young woman from The Hague, answers a personal ad placed by a Dutch army captain twice her age seeking a wife. After a speedy marriage, she departs with him for a posting in Indonesia. Marred by violence, infidelity, bitter feuding, and their son's disturbing death, the marriage collapses. Returning to Europe, Margaretha travels to Paris, where, inspired by the exotic enchantment of Eastern dance, she reinvents herself as the erotic dancer Mata Hari ("Eye of the Dawn"), the likes of which the Continent has never seen. Just as the major European powers lurch toward explosive conflict, Mata Hari's reputation as a dancer and courtesan starts to attract the attention of powerful admirers from Madrid to Vienna, from Berlin to St. Petersburg. Entrapped, Mata Hari is drawn into a military intrigue that will affect the course of World War I.

Narrated by historical figures whose lives intersected with Mata Hari's -- from her husband to her executioner -- The Red Dancer explores the mystery and downfall of a woman at the center of a notorious espionage scandal that has inspired historians and artists for generations. Ranging from exotic Indonesia to the seedy dance halls of Paris, it brilliantly depicts the delicious and eerie decadence of fin de sicle Europe and the onset of a global conflict that ended an era.
… (mehr)
 
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Alhickey1 | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 26, 2020 |
"The Red Dancer deftly reconstructs the life of Mata Hari into an artful collage of historical documents and imaginative stories. The reader will learn a great deal about fin de siècle Europe and World War I, as well as the person of Mata Hari--who became a notorious double agent following a sensational career as an 'oriental' dancer. A good read, innovative, and compelling."---Marilyn Yalom, author of A History of the Wife
 
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Alhickey1 | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Jan 30, 2020 |
So this is a fictitious account of the life of Mata Hari. I must confess I knew little about her before I read this book and so the gradual unfolding of events was a complete surprise to me and very enjoyable. The book is written from varying points of view (very rarely those of Mata Hari herself) and interspersed with factual information from the time and newspaper clippings of her reviews,
which greatly add to the atmosphere of the book.

The events of Mati Hari's life are thrilling - she certainly lived a full and licentious life - truly fascinating. As soon as I had finished the book, I was straight on google trying to glean further details about her and see how much of this novel was "true".

For me, the main failing of this book was that I never, at any stage, understood more than her surface-level motivations. There is no real examination of her inner mind and hence she remains a total mystery. It's clear that this was Skinner's intention but it did leave me wanting more.
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Pummzie | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 6, 2010 |

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Werke
19
Mitglieder
151
Beliebtheit
#137,935
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½ 3.6
Rezensionen
3
ISBNs
28
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2

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