PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
SARAH HOROWITZ has a PhD in modern European history from UC Berkeley and is core faculty in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington and Lee University.
Deeply researched and beautifully written, we hear and see Meg in all her maddening glory: sometimes vain and defiant, sometimes perplexing and ridiculous, but always profoundly human...Settle in, because once you pick up Horowitz's book, you won't be able to put it down. -- Robin Mitchell, author of Venus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France In this tawdry little tale, Horowitz recounts the fascinating life of Marguerite 'Meg' Steinhell, the unhappily married seductress who slept her way to the top of Parisian high society. Sex, lies, murder - Meg was willing to use everything at her disposal to amass fame and fortune. Reveling in every lurid detail, Horowitz takes readers on a rollicking ride through the depraved world of the Parisian elite. Wonderfully researched and exquisitely written, Horowitz's book is a reminder that truth really is stranger than fiction. -- Nimisha Barton, award-winning author of Reproductive Citizens: Gender, Immigration, and the State in Modern France, 1880-1945 Dr. Sarah Horowitz's The Red Widow offers the gripping story of a fascinating and flawed woman, Meg Steinheil, mistress to a French president and implicated in the murder of her own husband. The reader will learn much about the political and cultural history of France and the murder and sex scandals that rocked Parisian high society in the early twentieth-century, centered on one mesmerizing individual. This well-written account is not only nuanced and deeply sourced; it is also a terrific read. Horowitz proves that we should encourage more academic historians to write for a popular audience. -- Christine Adams, Professor of History, St. Mary's College of Maryland The preface of this unputdownable book promises a gripping murder mystery, and that promise is more than fulfilled. But The Red Widow is much more than a page-turning true crime narrative. It is a deeply researched social history that brings to rich and complex life the much mythicized world of Belle Epoque Paris. Most of all, it is an unforgettable portrait of a woman who became one of the most notorious figures of her day and whose scandalous story sheds fascinating light not only on her own tumultuous time but ours as well. -- Harold Schechter, author of Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Guinness, Butcher of Men
