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The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and
… More »The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and--after his murder--three more with his prot g . Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since. Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life.
« LessDead men don't bite
Cleopatra captures the old man by magic
The golden age never was the present age
Man is by nature a political creature
We must often shift the sails when we wish to arrive in port
Anobject of gossip for the whole world
Illicit affairs and bastard children
The wickedest woman in history.
Introduction: That Egyptian woman -- Dead men don't bite -- Cleopatra captures the old man by magic -- The golden age never was the present age -- Man is by nature a political creature -- We must often shift the sails when we wish to arrive in port -- Anobject of gossip for the whole world -- Illicit affairs and bastard children -- The wickedest woman in history.
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Add a SummaryReally awfull. This is a book in search of an editor. The sentences are very awkwardly constructed, so it is very slow and difficult to read. Overuse of parenthetical phrases and dashes add to the problems. Sad, because there is a lot of interesting information here-just not really a pleasant read. I kept wanting to get out my red pen the whole time I was reading it!
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What do you think when you hear the name Cleopatra?
Stacy Schiff asked people on the streets of New York City "What do you think of when you hear the name Cleopatra?" The answers were surprising, and completely unedited.
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Add a Commentin addition to Cleopatra's story, the information on the education and role of women is fascinating
Schiff does not present all the known versions of Cleopatra's life. She picks and chooses, most of the time with good judgment and explanation, but sometimes simply to create a spicy story. The book I had contained corrections from some random person exposing some of the flaws in Schiff's book (ex. She claims Zeus's mother was born from an egg). I would choose Roller's biography of Cleopatra as a more informative, unbiased text. It's a little boring though
an apparently thorough biography of the last queen of Egypt marred only by an obfuscating style, the author demystifies the legend but too often does the reverse to her prose
intellectual trip back to the rebellious 1960's. Not a quick read but a rewarding one.
I really liked this biography of Cleopatra. The author manages to sift through the known facts and various myths of this enigmatic woman and presents a portrait of her that doesn't quite fit the romanticized legend we are more familiar with. Highly recommended.
this book started out very academic, then it shifted to a crazy crazy story about power, money, love, revenge and trust. amazing story. I really enjoyed the way she really wove the tale of "we don't actually know much about cleopatra, but based on this research and these stories, this is what we can piece together." what she pieces together is a fascinating tale of a woman who was smart, powerful and determined.
The author cleverly stays away from too much detail about Cleopatra's early life and instead focuses on her life as a young woman and pharaoh. She helped me to understand everything that happened before the Romans entered the picture.
Setting the stage in the opening material for the conflicitng material available in the original sources regarding the last queen of Egypt. Despite the disinformation and shortage or material, Sciff shares a picture of accomplishment and focus.
Interesting reading. Though historical gaps abound, Schiff adroitly reveals the truth behind the myth of Cleopatra. Just a heads up: This is a biography not a story so the tone is scholarly. This author really does her research and writes accessibly and very well.
This biography is superb, a total page turner. Schiff is careful to distinguish what the record is clear on, and what it's not. Even so, she brings clearly to life a Cleopatra for our age, and she's not Elizabeth Taylor. She's carefully set in the context of her time and place, no hero, very complex, always keeping in the forefront of her mind the needs of Egypt. This is in contrast to her lovers Caesar and Mark Antony, whom she may or may not have loved, but for whom sheer power mattered even more than Rome. They too emerge as well rounded characters, as does Octavian. The only off note is the cover picture, which, though not showing her face, makes her look beautiful, something Schiff insists she probably wasn't, in spite of the legends to the contrary.