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Jan Stradling
2008
The Summary
Jan Stradling's book recounts the lives of 22 the world's "most powerful, shocking, amazing, thrilling, and dangerous women of all time," including ladies like Cleopatra, Boudica, Catherine II of Russia, Malinali, Cixi, Madame Mao, Mata Hari, and Elizabeth Bathory. From Ancient Egypt to the modern world, Stradling looks into the lives, reputations, and psychology of history's most legendary women.
The Good
Bad Girls is full of intriguing material and interesting women; in fact, Stradling appears to make a point of investigating some of history's more obscure figures and providing an incredible amount of detail into their personal histories (and, occasionally, their psychological states).
More importantly, while Stradling does work from an academic perspective - that is, she attempts to produce a scholarly endeavor with her work - her book is concise and consistently interesting. She has presented her content in such a way that it reads like a narrative, which makes Bad Girls attractive to read but, also, makes it convenient to merely search for the section to interest you most.
Bad Girls is full of intriguing material and interesting women; in fact, Stradling appears to make a point of investigating some of history's more obscure figures and providing an incredible amount of detail into their personal histories (and, occasionally, their psychological states).
More importantly, while Stradling does work from an academic perspective - that is, she attempts to produce a scholarly endeavor with her work - her book is concise and consistently interesting. She has presented her content in such a way that it reads like a narrative, which makes Bad Girls attractive to read but, also, makes it convenient to merely search for the section to interest you most.
The Bad
Stradling's work is fairly hefty. Considering the author researches 22 separate individuals and presents individualized chapters on each of these ladies, there's a fair bit of content through which to wade to find the most interesting tidbits.
Admittedly, I did spend quite a bit of time skimming through Stradling's novel. Being occasionally speculative with certain historical elements and dense, Bad Girls is one of those books that, while sure to keep your interests at different times, proves easy to skim. It's simple to flip to the pages you want to find and still get the gist of everything else.
Admittedly, I did spend quite a bit of time skimming through Stradling's novel. Being occasionally speculative with certain historical elements and dense, Bad Girls is one of those books that, while sure to keep your interests at different times, proves easy to skim. It's simple to flip to the pages you want to find and still get the gist of everything else.
The Ugly
The ladies compiled in Stradling's book are all powerful, dangerous, daring women with very unique skills and very unique dispositions for the times in which they lived. Many of these infamous women, however, frequently suffered under the violence of others (or enacted terrible violence of their own) and, more often than not, met a violent and gruesome end.
Cleopatra, for instance, committed suicide. Elizabeth Bathory, after committing terrible atrocities (among them genocide) in the pursuit of youth and beauty, was locked away for the remainder of her life in complete solitude. Belle Starr, after spending her life involved in crime, was shot in the back and killed. Mata Hari, once one of the most sought after exotic dancers in Europe and one of its more infamous courtesans, was charged with treason and executed via firing squad.
And many others met similar fates.
The long and short of it, Bad Girls can seem pretty gruesome.
The ladies compiled in Stradling's book are all powerful, dangerous, daring women with very unique skills and very unique dispositions for the times in which they lived. Many of these infamous women, however, frequently suffered under the violence of others (or enacted terrible violence of their own) and, more often than not, met a violent and gruesome end.
Cleopatra, for instance, committed suicide. Elizabeth Bathory, after committing terrible atrocities (among them genocide) in the pursuit of youth and beauty, was locked away for the remainder of her life in complete solitude. Belle Starr, after spending her life involved in crime, was shot in the back and killed. Mata Hari, once one of the most sought after exotic dancers in Europe and one of its more infamous courtesans, was charged with treason and executed via firing squad.
And many others met similar fates.
The long and short of it, Bad Girls can seem pretty gruesome.
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