SIGNED MATA HARI by Yannick Murphy (fic)

Mata Hari (an Indonesian word meaning sun) was such a sensation in her day that almost a century later we still recognize her name, whether we know her as a vamp, an exotic dancer, a spy, or a naughty postcard model.  Mata Hari was born Margaretha Zelle in Holland in 1876.  She was married at 17 to an alcoholic army officer named McCloud who was 20 years older than she.  He was posted to Java which was in Dutch hands during that period. 

As the novel opens, we find Mata Hari in a French prison accused of spying for the Germans as Agent H21.  The story takes the reader back and forth between her time in prison and her previous life.  Her contacts in prison are three;  her doctor, her inquisitor and a nun who views Mata Hari with deep sympathy.  Mata Hari supposedly was a double agent also working for the French.  Up until the time of her death by a firing squad, she denied working for the Germans.  It was only after World War II that evidence was produced that proved that she was in fact passing information to the Germans. 

The Mata Hari of this novel is childlike and dreamy.  There seems nothing in her passive character to connect her to the danger of being a spy, nor does she seem to possess the intelligence to work as a double agent.

One wonders how she went  from being a mother of two and housewife to being an exotic dancer and courtesan renowned throughout Europe.  Certainly her marriage was a rocky one.  If the story is to be believed her husband beat her and both of her children became mortally ill while in Indonesia.  Her daughter survived, but her son died or a vague infectious illness.  There is some indication that the children could have contacted syphilis from a parent, though Mata Hari always claimed they had been poisoned by their nanny. 

Mata Hari eventually left McCloud and took up with a secession of men.  Before she left Java, she learned exotic dancing from the natives and took this with her to France where she became a popular stage dancer practiced in the art of striptease.  Whether her spying really had any impact on French and German relations, she was nevertheless executed by a firing squad in 1917.  She faced her executioners bravely, refusing a scarf to cover her eyes.

Yannick Murphy writes lyrically and presents Mata Hari as a sympathetic character that was caught up in an unfortunate situation during a time when there were few ways for single women to earn a living.  She remains a woman of mystery and intrigue.