The Red Dancer: The Life and Times of Mata Hari

By Richard Skinner

Book Overview

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,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0066213665
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Ecco
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

A woman victim of weak personalities....

Strange how Paris was associated with such type of exotic oriental style dancers who, by the end of the day, became involved in espionage activities. This brunette mundane woman was alleged to have had experience shared by high-ranking military officers of Russian, German, and French nationalities. In WWI the Netherlands remained neutral and as a Dutch citizen Mata Hari was able to cross borders freely, unnecessarily taking a longer routes by travelling via Spain and England, that her twisted itineraries attracted suspicions she could have been a double agent. On record tracking, the British discovered that her lovers always ended relationships, prematurely, with silly disputes. The British in particular interrogated Hari and reported she had said she had been working for the French military intelligence, but the French never confirmed her allegations. The German Military attaché in Madrid cabled Berlin describing the assistance they were getting from `a German Spy'- code-named H-21. (`H' is probably Hari), French intelligence intercepted the message and was able to relate H-21 to Hari. Hari was not beautiful as to produce a `killing' association with her lovers like that of `Delilah' on `Samson' for instance. Hari was an elegant woman who wore her dark smooth hair brushed upwards in the style of the day. She was always fashionably and expensively dressed. When she was incarcerated, her features and eyelids bore traces of the fatigues of eventful evenings. But whose fault was it that such a weak woman of 41 was, allegedly, able to exercise a malign influence on the destinies of Germany, France and England. What was the mettle of the ineffectual officers on whose sides there was Hari on one hand and the destinies of their countries on the other. Hari was executed by firing squad at WWI when France was at the lowest point in the war with Germany. The French vented their anger on Mata Hari A woman victim of weak characters of the men in charge of the destinies of Europe ...........

entertaining read, good historical novel

so maybe this book is a little postmodern--hence the other reviewers irritation at its fragmentation. however, i really appreciated the multiplicity of points of view in the novel--skinner allows you to reach your own interpretation about mata hari rather than spoonfeeding you his own conclusion about her. the writing is pretty good, but not outstanding, but the book is very effective in it's evocation of orientalism and of an era.

History in narrartive

I have been aware of the name mata hari for many years. However, I suddenlt became fascinated with this extraordinary woman's life story when it was dramatised on radio 4 in the autmn of 2003. Red Dancer, follows in that vein. Rather than an hostorical biography in the traditonal sense, the author presents a series of what are effectively vignettes whereby different characters in the story tell their own tale of this ambitious, talented, notorious but ultimately tragic woman. I found it very absorbing particularly as there is a clever balance of imagined accounts of her life as told by others and historical and media information (press cuttings etc) from the time. Well worth a read

A moving fictional biography

Skinner's first novel is a delight from start to finish and has received woefully muted response on its initial publication (to my knowledge). This book took me on a journey all over the world, made me feel for a historical character I initially had no particular interest in and yet manages to keep that element of mystery that still surrounds the figure of Marta Hari. Skinner constantly launches surprises on the reader with multiple narrators, alternating small chunks of history in a non-fiction format with personal points of view. There are some heart-rending scenes (the fate of Mata Hari's son in Java, for example) and clever cameos (Picasso has a walk-on part) sewn into these pockets of historical background; and there is skulduggery and drama deftly and economically handled which other authors might well have bashed the reader over the head with (in the form of hundreds of pages). Well worth the read.Brian Howell...

A moving fictional biographhy

Skinner's first novel is a delight from start to finish and has received woefully muted response on its initial publication (to my knowledge). This book took me on a journey all over the world, made me feel for a historical character I initially had no particular interest in and yet manages to keep that element of mystery that still surrounds the figure of Marta Hari. Skinner constantly launches surprises on the reader with multiple narrators, alternating small chunks of history in a non-fiction format with personal points of view. There are some heart-rending scenes (the fate of Mata Hari's son in Java, for example) and clever cameos (Picasso has a walk-on part) sewn into these pockets of historical background; and there is skulduggery and drama deftly and economically handled which other authors might well have bashed the reader over the head with (in the form of hundreds of pages). Well worth the read.