The Mistress of Nothing (2009) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Sally Naldrett: Lady's maid to Lady Duff Gordon.
• Lady Lucie Duff Gordon: The Lady for whom Sally cares, her illness forces them to leave for Egypt
• Mr. Omar Abu Halaweh: Domestic Servant and cook
• Abdullah: Add a description of this character.
• Ahmed: fetches water for the trio at the French House in Luxor
• Mabrouka: Omar's wife
• Mustafa Agha
• Roberto Magni: Sally's employer for a while in Cairo.
• Miss Janet/Mrs. Ross: Lady Duff Gordon's daughter, who is married now and lives in Alexandria
• Mr Taylor: Friend of the family in Alexandra and the one who found Omar for the ladies!
• Mr Hekekyan Bey: Egyptian man who would visit Lady Duff Gordon in Cairo
• Yasmina: Mabrouka's daughter
• Rainey: Lady Duff Gordon's young daughter
• Ellen: Sally's sister
• Mr Thayer
• Umm Mahmoud
• Mr Smith
• Mick
• Laura
• Maurice
• Mr Meredith
• Mr Gillespie
• Ismail Pasha
• Cook

Quotes edit see section history

• “I am desperate for a solution. Everyone is desperate for a solution because, in our hearts, we know there is no cure.”

  Sally

• “What happens when you leave everything behind? When you leave everything familiar, not just houses and streets and we windy winter-time, but husbands, children friends?....None of these things have followed me to Egypt. Does this mean I am no longer the same person? Does this mean that I too have changed?”

  Sally

• “My lady cast off her English clothes and it was as though in that moment our relationship shifted as well, in some unspoken, unpredicted way. I was not her equal, I was part of her routine, part of her life, my care for her so intimate that it was as though I was part of her body – a hand perhaps.”

  Sally

• “We assured each other that everything- everything – would be fine. We promised each other that the future looked grand, as though we were master and mistress of our own fates. And, in fact, Omar was master of his own house-hold, however infrequently he was able to attend to it, while I was mistress of nothing.”

  Sally

• “I had realised, from the day of my first visit to Omar’s father’s house, that I would, in fact, be happy in Mabrouka’s life, that I would trade places with her any day, that I had had enough insecurity to last a lifetime, and all I wanted was peace and quiet for myself and my child. But this was not to be. I had made my bed, and now I had to continue to make it, over and over again.”

  Sally

• “I hated her beautifully; my hatred was polished and hard and shiny and, truth be told, at times it sustained me.”

  Sally

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• And, in fact, Omar was master of his own household, however infrequently he was able to attend to it, while I was mistress of nothing.

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• I was not a real person to her, not a true soul with all the potential for grace and failure that implies.

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• “I’m not surprised, Sally Naldrett, to find you capable of this.” At the time I heard one meaning. Now I hear another.

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• But while all of this is true, it is a mistake to think that the people are so preoccupied with the Nile and its inundation of the land—an inundation that destroys while at the same time rebirthing—that they will continue to labor under the sun, oblivious to the passing of the centuries. Instead, they lie in wait, like a scorpion on a rock, like a crocodile among the reeds, and from time to time they rise up and they bite.

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• The Egyptian people live among the ruins of their former selves and they accept as given the strange and monumental remnants of their past.

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• body—a hand, perhaps. A foot. Something indispensable, to which you do not give much thought. But from that moment hence, things shifted between us, and life changed.

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• I am accustomed to doing as I am told; to do otherwise would be frightening.

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• could be so perfect. My Lady had come to Egypt to evade death, but in Egypt I found life.

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• Why is the world full of people who see fit to dispense with others as soon as it suits them? But I stop myself from having these thoughts, from thinking these things, and I get on with the task at hand. I’m very good at getting on with the task at hand: it’s what suits me.

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• Sometimes now I think that perhaps the disease was more responsible than my Lady herself for what she did to me. But the fact is that I had too much at stake to be quite that forgiving.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London
• Egypt
• Luxor
• Cairo
• England
• French House
• Alexandria
• Europe
• Aswan
• Boulak
• Ramadan
• Germany
• Qena
• Edfu
• Paris
• Islam

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Kate Pullinger (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Governor General's Literary Awards (2009: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary