The Femme Fatale & The French President

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the story of Marguerite Steinheil, the woman who shook Paris at the turn of the 20th century with one scandal after the next…one of which involving the French president apparently dying in the midst of a sex act.

Marguerite is an ambitious woman, but being born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage with a failed artist 20 years her senior, she knows her life choices are limited.

So how did Marguerite, who became known as ‘the Red Widow’, find herself at the centre of a scandal (and it’s not even the one involving the president) with both her husband and mother dead?

Author Sarah Horowitz joins Kate Betwixt the Sheets to share Marguerite’s story.

You can find out more about Sarah’s book here.

*WARNING There are adult themes and explicit descriptions about sex and death in this episode. *

Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Annie Coloe.

Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.

This episode includes music by Epidemic Sound.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everyone leaves a legacy.
0:02.2	But a legacy can change over time as new generations
0:05.6	re-examine old preputations.
0:07.6	From Wundery and Gohanger podcasts, I'm F4hersh.
0:11.0	I'm Peter Frankapan, and in a brand new series,
0:13.9	we're exploring the lives of some of the biggest characters in history,
0:17.4	from Napoleon to Picasso.
0:19.2	And asking, what does their past tell us about our present?
0:23.3	This is legacy.
0:24.7	Follow now wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.6	Hello, it's me, Kate Lister, jumping in, as I normally do,
0:36.1	to let you know that we will be talking about grown-up things
0:38.7	in a grown-up way, in a grown-up context.
0:41.4	So maybe you're not grown-up enough,
0:43.2	and if you want to skip this one, you are more than welcome.
0:45.7	But if you're happy to have your ears filled with historical smut,
0:49.0	let's get into it.
0:50.1	It's 1889, and we are in Paris.
1:00.7	And I want you to meet Marguerite Steinhail.
1:04.2	Marguerite is a young and ambitious woman,
1:07.2	but being born into a middle-class family,
1:09.6	and trapped in a marriage with a not-so-fantastic artist
	...

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