Publisher's Synopsis
"Mata Hari, a life through images" is a journey of discovering, through the pictures of places and people, of one of the protagonists of the Belle Époque. Model, dancer, major figure in the Parisian salons, spy considered a "double agent", Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in the late 1800s and she raged on the scenes of early 1900s. Paris went crazy for her and for her innovative shows, which combined Eastern dances with the sensuality of first stripteases. Her sparkling life ended too soon, used and executed as a scapegoat against the background of World War I. All of this is told with the support of more than 700 images, some unpublished, of the people she met and the men she loved, of the places where she lived and of the clubs she frequented. The experience finishes with the list of her shows, of the countries and cities which she visited.
