---
product_id: 12573853
title: "Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari"
brand: "pat shipman"
price: "R482"
currency: ZAR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/12573853-femme-fatale-love-lies-and-the-unknown-life-of-mata
store_origin: ZA
region: South Africa
---

# Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari

**Brand:** pat shipman
**Price:** R482
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari by pat shipman
- **How much does it cost?** R482 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.za](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/12573853-femme-fatale-love-lies-and-the-unknown-life-of-mata)

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## Description

Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari

## Images

![Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ftB8qXvaL.jpg)
![Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51r1vANl1nL.jpg)
![Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/310Nq62bW5L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    France always needs a scapegoat...
  

*by E***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2016*

During the First World War, just as during the Dreyfus case, officials in Paris needed a scapegoat for their deficiencies. This time, Mata Hari was a convenient victim.In the author's words:  "The Allied commanders, especially the French, needed someone to blame, to punish—to defeat, as they were being defeated by the Germans.  And there she came, the perfect scapegoat: a tall, dark woman..."So Mata Hari was sacrificed.To quote the author again:”Years later, after the Second World War, the prosecutor André Mornet spoke to a writer, Paul Guimard, about Mata Hari. Guimard wrote: “He did not confide in me to the fundamental basis of the [Mata Hari] affair, but he told me with a supreme indifference, ‘Between you and me, there wasn’t enough [evidence] to flog a cat.’”Mata Hari's trouble was that she was getting too old to dance for the public and in any case the war made a stage career impossible. But she needed money to lead the kind of life she wanted and, in the end, she was not wise enough to fade into the background, to forego the luxuries she preferred.She trusted so many men, so many officials; she had so much confidence in her ability to keep men enthralled. But even her last lover turned against her when she was charged with espionage.Years after the execution, France went on to the humiliating defeat of World War II. France always loses ignominiously, as it did later in Algeria and Vietnam.This book is well organized. The writing is clear, easily passing from one sentence to the next and one paragraph to another. The style is excellent.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Fascinating but Partial View
  

*by J***Z on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 5, 2014*

One main focus of this book was on the possibility that Mata Hari had syphilis, that she acquired it from her first husband, and that it caused the death of her children. Though some interesting information was presented regarding the treatment and prevalence of the in general disease, far too much space was taken by this consideration, which is rather a side-light to her career. Another point that deeply engaged Shipman was the gathering by French Intelligence of pseudo-evidence against Mata Hari:, the treatment of this seems comprehensive. But as with the syphilis theme, the results could have been summarized, rather than being documented and examined in laborious academic style.The material on the Dutch involvement in the East Indies, and the life of the military there, was highly relevant and extremely interesting.What was missing was any discussion of Mata Hari's artistic accomplishment. We are left ignorant of what she did or didn't learn from traditional Indonesian dance. Likewise, we are no wiser as to what people saw in her besides "novelty and nudity". Admittedly the only photographic record is in the form of risque postcards, but these show remarkable charisma and sense of drama. Surely there were reviews of her performances? She gave countless interviews: couldn't some of these could have been excerpted to reveal her aesthetic?The image that emerges from this book's interesting but rather partial view of Mata Hari is of a brave, brilliant and audacious woman whom one would like to learn more about.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Emme Fatatle
  

*by B***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2007*

A good biography of one of the 20th. Centuries most interesting  spys/nonspy...Professor Shipman writes a no hold barred tale of Mata Hari...The book is really two stories. The first is how Margaretha Zelle born of Dutch parents became Mata Hari...Margaretha Zelle was a woman of enormous talents in language who mastered besides her native Dutch, German, French, English and Spanish along with with the languages of the Dutch East Indies where she pent her years as a young woman married to a Dutch Colonial Officer...Marrage, an abusive husband and the hard colonial life were not for her and after a few years she divorced here husband and returned to Holland...This was the begaining of her transformation from a wife and mother to a performer and a high priced courtesan...The second story was how she got involved in espionage and spying or not...Professor Shipman lays out the "factual information" we have on Mata Hari and then leaves it to the reader to determine if Mata Hari was a spy or because of her notarity and the fact that she had been a paid mistress of some many powerful men it was best to silence her...The reader has to determine if she was an agent for the Germans, French, both or some other country, the facts are not clear...If you like an honest well scribed book then you will enjoy Femme Fatle, but don't expect the author to spoon feed you any speculative ending.

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*Product available on Desertcart South Africa*
*Store origin: ZA*
*Last updated: 2026-01-24*