The Spy by Paulo Coelho
It’s a story based on the life of a woman, whom history knew as ‘Mata Hari’ and who was falsely accused as ‘The Spy’. The only crime she did was that she dared to follow her dreams fearlessly in the world where men ruled. And the result was, she was convicted of espionage even though the only thing she traded was the gossip.
This story or a historical instance is another example depicting that no matter in whichever century we are and whichever zone of the earth we live, whenever a woman dares to be different and wants to follow her own path and marks her own destiny, society will let her down.
When I read the synopsis, it’s the subject which grabbed my attention and made me read the whole story. The book started off well, however, I found the story disconnected at few places which made me lost the track of the story at times while reading.
I would recommend this book so as to know about the history of this epic woman ‘Mata Hari’.
Plot of the Story:
One week before her day of execution, Mata Hari started writing a letter addressed to Mr Clunet (her lawyer) in the hope that one day her only daughter might read it to find out who her mother was, and the kind of life her mother dared to live and price she had to pay for that.
Mata Hari’s, real name was Margaretha Zelle. She was the daughter of Adam and Antje Zelle, who sent her away to school in another city with the objective that she had the finest education. There she met an officer named Rudolf Macleod, who was 21 years elder to her and an officer in Dutch army stationed in Indonesia then. She married Rudolf and moved to Indonesia in the hope of exploring and voyages to new places. Nothing of what she thought happened, rather she was humiliated, insulted and was left alone by her husband. Margaretha was extremely beautiful and due to this she was always envied by other girls in her school and was now constantly kept tabs on by the other officers which made Rudolf so insecure that he kept her under house arrest. In between all this, she gave birth to a daughter.
Until one fine day when Andreas, Rudolf’s senior hosted a party and all officers with their wives were invited. Rudolf left with no option, took Margaretha there. The incidents that happened in the party instilled new confidence in Margaretha.
And then, one day she left for Paris leaving her husband, daughter and everything else behind with the changed identity of Mata Hari, who was from the East Indies and an oriental dance performer. Over there in Paris, she met the first person named Mr. Guimet who gave her first chance to perform at his private museum in exchange for sex. Mata Hari never considered it a wrong thing in exchange for favors, money, luxuries, jewelry, and gowns, pricey accommodations she used to get in return for this. And this was how she was connected to all-powerful, rich and wealthy men of the society.
During her first dance performance, she took off her clothes veil by veil with artfulness and with seductive and orgasmic dance moves. And as her dance performance ended, each member of the audience was left enthralled and applauded her and gave her standing ovation except one woman Mrs. Guimet, who invited her next morning for a walk and gave her a piece of advice :
‘Never fall in Love. Love is a poison. Once you fall in love, you lose control over your life- your heart and mind belong to someone else. You start to do everything to hold on to your loved one and lose all sense of danger. Love, that inexplicable and dangerous thing, sweeps everything you are from the face of the earth and, in its place, leaves only what your beloved wants you to be.’
Overnight she was everywhere in the media and within few years she became a public figure and was desired by all rich, wealthy and powerful men of the society be it an artist, lawyer, businessman, officer.
But as years passed she was getting older and articles started publishing demeaning her and soon people considered her nothing more than a whore who stripped in public under an artistic pretense. During this time, Astruc helped her gained the confidence back and soon she signed a new contract with Franz to perform in Berlin, Germany. And it was during this that war was about to begin between Germany and France which led to the cancellation of all scheduled events, and she was given money by Franz and was asked to return to Holland as it was a neutral country in war. A year passed, soon Mata Hari was running out of money and then a person named Karl Kramer from Germany came and kept a proposal in front of Mata Hari. She was given twenty thousand Francs and a ticket to Paris, in return or exchange of any information to help Germany during wartime. Desperate to go to Paris, she accepted the proposal, though she never exchanged a single piece of information with Germany, suspicions aroused and without any concrete evidence, she was accused of espionage. And since, no one wanted their name to be associated with Mata Hari in the fear of spoiling their reputation so no powerful or elite man came to help and stand by Mata Hari. And thus, Mata Hari was accused of espionage- someone who was spying for Germany.
Lines from the book I liked the most:
‘Men love to explain things, and they have opinion on everything.’
‘Memories are full of caprice, where images of things we’ve experienced are still capable of suffocating us through one small detail or insignificant sound.’
‘Memory is a river, one that always runs backward.’
‘Flowers teach us that nothing is permanent: not their beauty, not even the fact that they will inevitably wilt, because they will still give new seeds. Remember this when you feel joy, pain, or sadness. Everything passes, grows old, dies, and is reborn.’
‘Love kills suddenly, leaving no evidence of the crime.’
‘When we don’t know where life is taking us, we are never lost.’
‘A lady of class does not act on impulse.’
‘Love does not obey anyone and will betray those who try to decipher its mystery.’
‘The man is not only what he thinks, but mostly what he feels.’
‘There is a time for every intention, a time for every deed.’
Rating: 3/5
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