In his new novel, Paulo Coelho, bestselling author of The Alchemist and Adultery, brings to life one of history's most enigmatic women: Mata Hari. HER ONLY CRIME WAS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless. Within months she was the most celebrated woman in the city. As a dancer, she shocked and delighted audiences; as a courtesan, she bewitched the era’s richest and most powerful men. But as paranoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari’s lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1917, she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs Elysees, and accused of espionage. Told in Mata Hari’s voice through her final letter, The Spy is the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to defy convention and who paid the ultimate price.

In this new biography, published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of her execution, Mata Hari is revealed in all of her flawed eccentricity; a woman whose adult life was a fantastical web of lies, half-truths and magnetic sexuality that captivated men. Following the death of a young son and a bitter divorce, Mata Hari reinvented herself as an exotic dancer in Paris, before finally taking up the life of a courtesan. She could have remained a half-forgotten member of France's grande horizontale were it not for the First World War and her disastrous decision to become embroiled in espionage. What happened next was part farce and part tragedy that ended in her execution in October 1917. Recruited by both the Germans and the French as a spy, Mata Hari – codenamed H-21 – was also almost recruited by the Russians. But the harmless fantasies and lies she had told on stage had become part of the deadly game of double agents during wartime. Struggling with the huge cost of war, the French authorities needed to catch a spy. Mata Hari, the dancer, the courtesan, the fantasist, became the prize catch.

Dancer. Courtesan. Spy. Executed by a French firing squad in 1917. 100 years on from her death, questions are still raised about her conviction. Now, the lesser-known, often tragic story of the woman who claimed she was born a princess, and died a figure of public hatred with no one to claim her body, is told by breakout talent writer Emma Beeby (Judge Dredd), artist Ariela Kristantina (Insexts), and colorist Pat Masioni drawing on biographies and released MI5 files. In this first part of a five-issue miniseries, we meet Mata Hari in prison at the end of her life as she writes her memoirÑpart romantic tale of a Javanese princess who performed ''sacred'' nude dances for Europe's elite, and part real-life saga of a disgraced wife and mother, who had everything she loved taken from her. But, as she sits trial for treason and espionage, we hear another tale: one of a flamboyant Dutch woman who became ''the most dangerous spy France has ever captured''Ña double agent who whored herself for secrets, lived a life of scandal, and loved only money. Leading us to ask . . . who was the real Mata Hari? Mature readers.

This book explores the life of the controversial and historical figure, Mata Hari -- the exotic dancer, convicted double agent, and original femme fatale--told from her own perspective. It collects the five-issue series and includes additional historical material and an artist's sketchbook. Dancer. Courtesan. Spy. Executed by a French firing squad in 1917. One hundred years on from her death, questions are still raised about her conviction. Now, the lesser-known, often tragic story of the woman who claimed she was born a princess, and died a figure of public hatred, with no one to claim her body is told by break-out talent writer Emma Beeby (Judge Dredd), artist Ariela Kristantina (Insexts), and colorist Pat Masioni drawing on biographies and released MI5 files We meet Mata Hari in prison at the end of her life as she writes her memoir--part romantic tale of a Javanese princess who performed "sacred" nude dances for Europe's elite, and part real-life saga of a disgraced wife and mother, who has everything she loves taken from her. But, as she sits trial for treason and espionage, we hear another tale, of a flamboyant Dutch woman who became "the most dangerous spy France has ever captured"--a double agent who whored herself for secrets, lived a life of scandal and loved only money. Leading us to ask . . . who was the real Mata Hari?

At the turn of the twentieth century, exotic dancer Mata Hari lived and loved by her own rules. *** My Name is Mata Hari tells the story of the infamous dancer and courtesan who began as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, a young Dutch woman who married the older Rudolph MacLeod, a military officer, and traveled with him to the Dutch East Indies. Claiming her mother's Javanese ancestry, she changed her name to Mata Hari, Malay for "eye of the day." Mata Hari danced on stages across Europe and the Middle East, and took many high-ranking military and government officials as her lovers. At the end of a tumultuous life, convicted for espionage during the First World War yet sustained by her pride, she said, "I am a genuine courtesan. And I am a dancer in the true sense." *** Remy Sylado is the pen name of noted Indonesian novelist, poet, playwright, and musician, Yapi Tambayong. He also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning film, Ca Bau Kan (2002). Novelist and journalist Dewi Anggraeni delivers a creative rendition of startling depth and sensitivity for the first of Sylado's novels to appear in English.

Biography of the most infamous woman of the early 20th century, the Dutch courtesan and alleged spy Margaretha Zelle (1876-1917), - Mata Hari Mata Hari was the prototype of the beautiful but unscrupulous female agent who used sexual allure to gain access to secrets, if she was indeed a spy. In 1917, the notorious dancer Mata Hari was arrested, tried, and executed for espionage. It was charged at her trial that the dark-eyed siren was responsible for the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. Irrefutably, she had been the mistress of many senior Allied officers and government officials, even the French Minister of War: a point viewed as highly suspicious. Worse yet, she spoke several European languages fluently and travelled widely in wartime Europe. But was she guilty of espionage? For all the publicity Mata Hari and her trial received, key questions remain unanswered. These questions concern not only her inadequate trial and her unproven guilt, but also the events in her personal life. What propelled Margaretha Zelle, destined to be a Dutch schoolteacher, to transform herself into Mata Hari, the most desirable woman in early 20th-century Paris? She danced before enthusiastic crowds in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Monte Carlo, Milan and Rome, inspiring admiration, jealousy, and bitter condemnation. Pat Shipman's brilliant biography pinpoints the powerful yet dangerous attributes that evoked such strong emotions in those who met Mata Hari, for hitherto the focus has been on espionage, not on exploring the events that shaped her life and caused her to transform herself from rural Dutch girl to international femme fatale.

A biography of Mata Hari, a Dutch-born performer who was executed as a German spy in France in 1917.