The Red Widow

The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind it All

Sarah Horowitz

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Hardback

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English

Sourcebooks, Inc
06 September 2022

Biography: historical, political & military; French Revolution

Sex, scandal, and the real-life femme fatale of Paris

Sex, corruption, and power- the rise and fall of the Red Widow of Paris

Paris, 1889- Margeurite Steinheil is a woman with ambition. But having been born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage to a failed artist twenty years her senior, she knows her options are limited.

Determined to fashion herself into a new woman, Meg orchestrates a scandalous plan with her most powerful resource- her body. Amid the dazzling glamor, art, and romance of bourgeois Paris, she takes elite men as her lovers, charming her way into the good graces of the rich and powerful. Her ambitions, though, go far beyond becoming the most desirable woman in Paris; at her core, she is a woman determined to conquer French high society. But the game she plays is a perilous one- navigating misogynistic double-standards, public scrutiny, and political intrigue, she is soon vaulted into infamy in the most dangerous way possible.

A real-life femme fatale, Meg influences government positions and resorts to blackmail-and maybe even poisoning-to get her way. Leaving a trail of death and disaster in her wake, she earns the name the ""Red Widow"" for mysteriously surviving a home invasion that leaves both her husband and mother dead. With the police baffled and the public enraged, Meg breaks every rule in the bourgeois handbook and becomes the most notorious woman in Paris.

An unforgettable true account of sex, scandal, and murder, The Red Widow is the story of a woman determined to rise-at any cost.

By: Sarah Horowitz
Imprint: Sourcebooks, Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 166mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 508g
ISBN: 9781728226323
ISBN 10: 1728226325
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 06 September 2022
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

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.

Reviews for The Red Widow: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind it All

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