Mary Magdalene, despised as a sinner, venerated as a saint, admired as someone who breaks every taboo. There is probably no other female figure in history whose image has been so strongly influenced by the culture and the history of past European centuries, whether in literature, the theater, opera or more recently in films. Ingrid Maisch leads her readers through those centuries, developing the images of Mary Magdalene current in each era and shows that she is always a bellwether for the image of women at a particular time.
