Philip C. Almond, _Mary Madalene: A Cultural History_

AS THE SUBTITLE alerts us, Almond is interested not only in the woman identified in the gospels as the the first person (or one of the first two or three persons) to learn and report that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead, but also in the complicated figure cobbled together in western Christianity over the next few centuries.

Accordingly, Almond goes over the passages in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in which Mary Magdalene appears, then moves on to:

-- the Mary Magdalene of the 2nd and 3rd century Gnostic Gospels, in which she always seems to get Jesus's point before anyone else does, is singled out as his "companion," and even gets kissed on the mouth by him;

-- the "composite" Mary Magdalene declared by Pope Gregory (the Great) in the late 6th century, blending the Mary Magdalene of the Easter story with Mary of Bethany (sister to Martha and Lazarus, washer and anointer of Jesus' feet) and with the sinful woman in Luke 7 (who, likewise, washed and anointed Jesus' feet); 

-- the Mary Magdalene of medieval saints' legends, who evangelized France and later withdrew to a contemplative life and grew her hair out until it reached her ankles;

-- Mary Magdalene the penitent sex worker who, hair unbound and at least partly undressed, was depicted in painting after painting after painting for centuries; 

-- the Mary Magdalene of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and a few works of highly speculative, not to say fantastical "scholarship," who actually married Jesus and had children with him.

Almond is conversant and highly comfortable with the relevant scholarship, and writes briskly, engagingly, and sometimes even playfully ("Henry VIII was ambiguously to embrace Protestantism so that he might bigamously embrace Anne Boleyn"). It's a short book, just over 300 pages, and a brilliant detailed introduction to a fascinating figure.