THE MISTRESS OF NOTHING
by Kate Pullinger
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Pub Date Sep 01 2009 | Archive Date Sep 01 2012
Description
Lady Duff Gordon is the toast of Victorian London. But when her debilitating tuberculosis means exile, she and her devoted lady’s maid, Sally, set sail for Egypt. It is Sally who describes, with a mixture of wonder and trepidation, the odd ménage marshalled by the resourceful Omar, which travels down the Nile to a new life in Luxor. When Lady Duff Gordon undoes her stays and takes to native dress, throws herself into weekly salons, language lessons and excursions to the tombs, Sally too adapts to a new world, affording her heady and heartfelt freedoms never known before.
But freedom is a luxury that a maid can ill-afford, and when Sally grasps more than her status entitles her to, she is brutally reminded that she is mistress of nothing.
But freedom is a luxury that a maid can ill-afford, and when Sally grasps more than her status entitles her to, she is brutally reminded that she is mistress of nothing.
Advance Praise
Praise for The Mistress of Nothing:"This scorchingly powerful story of a compromised Victorian servant-mistress relatinship evolves in the white heat of Egypt. Based on the life of Lady Duff Gordon, a socially seductive magnet of a woman, the tale is told by her dutiful but singularly aware maid, Sally. As they travel together to relieve Lady Gordon's tuberculosis, their Englishness slips from them, their corsets are discarded." Good Housekeeping ‘Absorbing, intimate, Pullinger’s story of a loyal English maidservant’s awakening during a journey to an 1860s Egypt in turmoil is also a subtle observation of the play of power and love.’ Lisa Appignanesi ‘The Mistress of Nothing serves up spicy passion and romance and biting social comment in one delicious dish. Kate Pullinger’s fascinating novel brings 1860s Cairo and Luxor to life, not as an Orientalist fantasy, but as they might actually have been.’
‘Pleasantly disturbing... its sensitive exploration of the “bad mother” is a refreshingly honest corrective to all the gooey-eyed books on the subject’ Guardian
‘Brilliantly conveyed... a must-read’ Daily Mail
‘Pullinger expertly demonstrates the harshness of her characters’ world through the coolness of her writing’ Independent on Sunday
Anthony Sattin
Praise for Kate Pullinger's A Little Stranger:‘Pleasantly disturbing... its sensitive exploration of the “bad mother” is a refreshingly honest corrective to all the gooey-eyed books on the subject’ Guardian
‘Brilliantly conveyed... a must-read’ Daily Mail
‘Pullinger expertly demonstrates the harshness of her characters’ world through the coolness of her writing’ Independent on Sunday
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9781552787984 |
| PRICE | |
