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This title in other editionseBook editionsSisters of Salomeby Toni Bentley
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:As the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, a short-lived but extraordinary cultural phenomenon spread throughout Europe and the United States — ?Salomania.? The term was coined when biblical bad girl Salome was resurrected from the Old Testament and reborn on the modern stage in Oscar Wilde?s 1893 play Salome and in Richard Strauss?s 1905 opera based on it. Salome quickly came to embody the turn-of-the-century concept of the femme fatale. She and the striptease Wilde created for her, ?The Dance of the Seven Veils,? soon captivated the popular imagination in performances on stages high and low, from the Metropolitan Opera to the Ziegfeld Follies.
This book details for the first time the Salomania craze and four remarkable women who personified Salome and performed her seductive dance: Maud Allan, a Canadian modern dancer; Mata Hari, a Dutch spy; Ida Rubinstein, a Russian heiress; and French novelist Colette. Toni Bentley masterfully weaves the stories of these women together, showing how each embraced the persona of the femme fatale and transformed the misogynist idea of a dangerously sexual woman into a form of personal liberation. Bentley explores how Salome became a pop icon in Europe and America, how the real women who played her influenced the beginnings of modern dance, and how her striptease became in the twentieth century an act of glamorous empowerment and unlikely feminism. Sisters of Salome is a dramatic account of an ancient myth played out onstage and in real life, at the fascinating edge where sex and art, desire and decency, merge. Review:"First the frame: this book breaks the Yale mold. No crusty academic tome, this daring, playful work reads like a trade book. The seductive and colorful author's photograph on the back flap surprises readers expecting a certain kind of product from Yale. Next the substance: this book traces the cultural influence of Oscar Wilde's play 1893 Salome. The idea that the heroine of a Wilde play could induce free-thinking women at the beginning of the 20th century to risk danger and wing their way through life holds real interest for scholars. Through chapters on Colette, Maud Allan, Mata Hari, and Ida Rubenstein—'crazy' women of the day—the author explores a fresh take on how, little by little, sisters started doing it for themselves. Defiantly throwing caution to the wind, the femme fatale has her way in these engaging vignettes." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review) Review:?No other historian has told the story of the femme fatale in nineteenth-century culture so well and so engagingly. Bentley brings four memorable women to life — women who seized the mythic role of Salome and used it creatively and powerfully.? Charles Rearick, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Review:?This fascinating slice of popular culture will appeal to both social and dance historians.? Choice Review:?The author recounts the personal stories of the four extraordinary women who embodied and embraced the freedom represented by Salome and her uniquely empowering striptease. This fascinating slice of popular culture will appeal to both social and dance historians.? Booklist Review:?A former Balanchine dancer, profoundly alerted by a visit to the Crazy Horse in Paris, explores the history and philosophy of stripping, from its inspiration in Wilde?s Salome to her own personal experimental demonstration in a TriBeCa club.? New York Times Book Review Review:?A book that will scare the pants off John Ashcroft....A highbrow survey of what generally passes as a lowbrow art, Sisters of Salome locates the origins of what we know as modern stripping in the Salome craze that held Paris in its vise grip at the turn of the century....The detail is as delicious, and as revealing, as a Dance of the Seven Veils.? Stacy Schiff, New York Times Book Review Review:?Bentley has written a lively book that ties in performance art, high and low culture, and the policing of women?s sexual expression in an accessible manner. Recommended for women?s studies, drama, and dance collections.? Library Journal Synopsis:A study of the "Salomania" that spread through Europe as the 19th century gave way to the 20th. It discusses the four women who personified Salome and performed her seductive dance, how Salome became a pop icon, and how her striptease became an act of glamorous empowerment. Synopsis:This book details for the first time the Salomania craze and four remarkable women who personified Salome and her seductive dance. Bentley shows how each embraced the persona of the femme fatale and transformed the misogynist idea of a dangerously sexual woman into a form of personal liberation. 22 illustrations. Description:Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. About the AuthorToni Bentley is a former New York City Ballet dancer who is now an independent scholar and writer. Her previous books include Winter Season: A Dancer?s Journal, Holding On to the Air (the autobiography of Suzanne Farrell), and Costumes by Karinska. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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