---
title: "Book Review: The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger"
description: "The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger (published by McArthur & Company) is a historical fiction / literary non-fiction. Sally Naldrett is our stalwart protagonist, and an equally sturdy lady's..."
url: https://somisguided.com/2011/01/18/book-review-the-mistress-of-nothing-by-kate-pullinger/
date: 2011-01-18
modified: 2011-01-18
author: "Monique"
categories: ["Book Reviews"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Book Review: The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger

*The Mistress of Nothing* by Kate Pullinger (published by (http://www.mcarthur-co.com/index.php/?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=77&A=BOOKSONIX_MCARTHUR-CO_BOOKSHOP&F=form&AS=FIND|IB|9781552787984|AND|RS|A)) is a historical fiction / literary non-fiction.

[!(https://somisguided.com/wp-content/uploads/mistress-nothing_thumb.jpg)](http://www.mcarthur-co.com/index.php/?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=77&A=BOOKSONIX_MCARTHUR-CO_BOOKSHOP&F=form&AS=FIND|IB|9781552787984|AND|RS|A)

Sally Naldrett is our stalwart protagonist, and an equally sturdy lady’s maid to Lady Lucie Duff Gordon. The two 19th-century women are off to Egypt in an attempt to prolong the Lady’s life. She’s rather sickly. Despite decades of service, Sally is banished from service.

Lady Duff Gordon is a historical figure , a 19th-century writer whose biography is used to form the general plot , but little is known about her maid Sally Naldrett, and it is this story that Pullinger unravels for us through imagination and Duff Gordon’s letters from Egypt.

I won’t spoil the novel by revealing the exact cause of Sally’s disgrace but I will say it’s a Romeo & Juliet tale of star-crossed lovers with equal amounts of spite and disdain, love and compassion.

Some of the novel’s events are based on fact, but really what I love about historical fiction (or literary non-fiction) is the deftness of the writing, the imagination that completes a small puzzle for us and the fact that we don’t really know what is “true.”

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-mistress-of-nothing-by-kate-pullinger/article1286857/singlepage/#articlecontent) addresses the “burden of factuality” and the compilation of a story from a myriad of facts, biographical works, historical tidbits and personal letters.

Having been to Egypt recently, I had a vivid mental image of what a 19th-century Egypt could look like and I loved the passages of the two women travelling in Egypt. I was equally impressed that both learn Arabic and adopt certain local customs. I think I had an easier time imagining 19th-century Egypt than 19th-century British women in Egypt. But that is the wonderful thing about novels.

Enjoyable, quick read.

(http://www.mcarthur-co.com/index.php/?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=77&A=BOOKSONIX_MCARTHUR-CO_BOOKSHOP&F=form&AS=FIND|IB|9781552787984|AND|RS|A) by Kate Pullinger

published by McArthur & Company