Intelligent, gripping and extremely readable, this is the best biography I’ve read in some time.Ĭleopatra was not, of course, genetically Egyptian. It’s packaged like a lightweight historical novel, with the traditional faceless woman in historical costume and lashings of pink and gold. The publisher has done the author no service in that respect. In this beautifully-written biography, Stacy Schiff tries to peel away the centuries of accretions in the form of purple prose, propaganda and the overheated male gaze, to reveal the ruler beneath. What do you think of when you think of Cleopatra? The asp? The siren lure of Egypt? Danielle de Niese, dripping with jewels? Elizabeth Taylor? Whatever we think of, it’s almost certainly incorrect.
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