InQ Episode 80: “Femme Fatale. Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari”

What do we remember of Mata Hari?


A dancer? Yes. A spy? Yes, that too. But what else?


In this fast-pace biography, Pat Shipman provides a fascinating
account of how Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, Dutch citizen, became
Mata Hari, and how this led her to be executed at the end of
World War One.


Was Mata Hari a likable character, a gorgeous woman victim of her
circumstances? Or was she a vile manipulator, eager and able to
use men to retrieve her only means of sustenance: money? Was she
by far the most intelligent women of her time, or an mere
opportunist?


For anyone who is not familiar with Mata Hari, this is a very
good start and will give the reader a pretty good idea who she
was, what she was all about, and why she is still remembered
today, for better or for worse.