Interview with author Kate Pullinger and a review of her new novel about a Victorian English lady’s maid and her mistress living in Egypt
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I didn’t intend to portray Lucie as monstrous; she must have been very frightened, facing prolonged illness and death, so far from her own family,” says The Mistress of Nothing author Kate Pullinger. “I felt that Lucie’s treatment of Sally, which is all based on fact, must have come from a hugely complicated web of emotions that she herself didn’t understand and couldn’t control. The betrayal of her lady’s maid pushed her too far…at least, that’s my theory.”
The Mistress of Nothing explores the class distinction in Victorian England and in Egypt. Pullinger paints a neat picture of their life in Luxor and what Sally felt and did. Sometimes the novel could move more quickly and it could have had the first person narrative more lushly worded.
The Mistress of Nothing is based on the real lives of the famous traveler Lady Lucie Duff Gordon and her maid Sally Naldrett. Having fallen ill, Lucie is sent to Egypt for the heat and dry air to clear her lungs. Naturally, she’s attended by her lady’s maid Sally. In Cairo, a local Egyptian Omar joins them as a servant and guide for their life in Luxor. Gordon and Sally begin to learn the language and experience the country. When Sally falls in love with Omar, who is a married, she must decide whether to risk it all for love.
“I was inspired to write the story of Sally Naldrett after reading Katherine Frank’s wonderful biography Lucie Duff Gordon,” says Pullinger. “The episode with Sally is a tiny part of Lucie’s eventful and fascinating life. But, Sally struck me as a strong character herself. I knew right away that I wanted to try to tell her side of the story.”
Pullinger says her novel sticks very close to the established facts up to the moment that Sally leaves Lucie’s household. “She really did give birth on the Nile on Christmas Eve. She and Omar did marry subsequently, despite Lucie’s objections. However, no further records remain of Sally, apart from the fact that she did return once to ask Lucie for money. So, from that point onward I was free to imagine Sally’s life. Since there’s no record of her death in England, I felt I could assume that she stayed in Egypt. That led me into imagining how it might be possible for a woman like Sally to survive on her own in Cairo.”
Kate Pullinger lives in London. She’s the author of several novels and collections of short stories. She collaborated with Jane Campion on the novelization of the film The Piano. The Mistress of Nothing is Pullinger’s first American novel. It won the Canadian Governor General Literary Award. Her website is www.katepullinger.com.
The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Touchstone (January 4, 2011) Language: English. ISBN: 978-1-4391-9386-0 $24.00
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