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 *** ‬3‭ ‬Stars

By Gabrielle Pantera‭

Mistress of Nothing, a Victorian maid has an affair in Egypt

HOLLYWOOD,‭ ‬CA‭ (Hollywood Today) ‬12/31/2010‭ ‬-‭ ‬“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.‭ ‬I‭’‬m rating it as three stars because 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,‭ ‬Omar joins them as a servant and guide.‭ ‬Gordon and Sally begin to learn the language and experience the country.‭ ‬When Sally falls in love with a‭ ‬Omar who is a‭ ‬married Egyptian man,‭ ‬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.‭”

This is a novel,‭ ‬not a work of nonfiction or biography.‭ ‬All the detail in the novel about Sally and Omar,‭ ‬their affair,‭ ‬how they spoke and acted with one another,‭ ‬the emotional content and context of Sally’s life,‭ ‬are the invention of Pullinger.

‭“‬In a way,‭ ‬Sally‭’‬s relationship with Omar is a profound rebellion,‭ ‬even though she does not see it that way herself,‭”‬ says Pullinger.‭ ‬“It seems to me that to be able to survive in the post of lady‭’‬s maid for as long as she did,‭ ‬leaving England,‭ ‬giving everything up for Lucie,‭ ‬Sally‭ ‬would have to be a very buttoned-up person in the first place,‭ ‬someone in complete control of themselves at all times.‭”

“The fact that she allows herself to embark on loving Omar in the first place is hugely significant,‭”‬ says Pullinger.‭ ‬“For me the moment when she returns to Lucie‭’‬s boat in Cairo,‭ ‬defying Omar,‭ ‬and asking Lucie for money,‭ ‬is also very profound.‭ ‬She would have had to go against all her instincts to carry that through.‭ ‬So I really do view her whole life,‭ ‬from the first time she kisses Omar‭ ‬onward,‭ ‬as a series of steps toward breaking free of the constraints of class,‭ ‬race,‭ ‬and servitude that bind her.‭”

While it‭‘‬s a novel about love,‭ ‬Pullinger looks hard at the social conditions of the day.‭ ‬“I think that,‭ ‬at the end of the day,‭ ‬you can‭’‬t really underestimate the gulf between classes in Britain at that time.‭ ‬The aristocracy has not survived for as long as it has by being fair-minded.‭”‬

“Egyptian politics are very complex and I worked hard to try to understand the situation both in the‭ ‬1860s and in the present day,‭”‬ says Pullinger.‭ ‬“However,‭ ‬despite whatever is going on,‭ ‬both then and now,‭ ‬life continues as it always has done and people go about their business,‭ ‬falling in love,‭ ‬having children,‭ ‬working toward a better life.‭”

Pullinger says one of the great pleasures of writing this novel was the research on Egypt.‭ ‬“I had a great time reading everything I could get my hands on about this period,‭ ‬as well as lots of Egyptian fiction in translation.‭ ‬Katherine Frank‭’‬s biography,‭ ‬of course,‭ ‬and also‭ ‬Lucie‭’‬s own‭ ‬Letters from Egypt.‭ ‬Lucie’s book‭ ‬Letters from Egypt‭ ‬has been in print almost continually since it came out in the‭ ‬1860s and is easy to find online,‭ ‬as is Katherine Frank‭’‬s biography.‭”‬

Of translated Egyptian fiction,‭ ‬Pullinger found the most useful were the‭ ‬Cairo Trilogy‭ ‬novels by Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz.‭ ‬“Though these novels are set more than forty years after‭ ‬The Mistress of Nothing,‭ ‬I drew a great deal of inspiration from Mahfouz‭’‬s detailed descriptions of an Egyptian household and family,‭ ‬especially in terms of what it might have been like to be a woman in that society,‭ ‬venturing forth from your father or husband’s house only rarely.‭”

Pullinger had spent nearly a month traveling in Egypt when she was twenty,‭ ‬but only had days to visit Egypt while writing the book.‭ ‬“I went to Luxor for four days.‭ ‬I stayed in the oldest hotel in Luxor,‭ ‬built a few years after Lucie‭’‬s death,‭ ‬near to where the French House would have been.‭ ‬These days most tourists stay on boats,‭ ‬so at night Luxor empties of people and returns to the sleepy village Sally and Lucie knew so well.‭ ‬Despite the fact that I could not travel to‭ ‬1860s Luxor,‭ ‬the hills across the Nile remain the same,‭ ‬the sky at night remains the same,‭ ‬the awesome presence of the ancient civilization remains the same.‭”

The Mistress of Nothing‭ ‬reveals how the country starts to change the characters.‭ ‬Once settled in Luxor,‭ ‬Lady Lucie Duff Gordon changes how she dresses to be cooler.‭ ‬She starts holding weekly salons at her home as she did in England.‭ ‬When Sally changes and pushes her in a direction she wasn’t willing to go. That‭’‬s why she acts as she did.‭ ‬There‭’‬s also Lucie‭’‬s almost total isolation from her own family,‭ ‬something hard for us to understand in a world of mobile phones and e-mail.‭

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