about a book

mavieenrose:

i just finished reading cleopatra: a life by stacy schiff. if you’re a fan of biographies (and even if you’re not), i would highly recommend this book. 

cleopatra is one of the most famous female rulers in history, but she has been grossly misunderstood and her story, often told by male historians, has been so distorted  that we now just picture her as a seductress who used her beauty and her body to get what she wanted.

in this biography, schiff reclaims cleopatra’s story. she was, in fact, an extremely smart and powerful leader who brought egypt into a golden age that it was never to see again after she died. although she did have famous romances with both julius caeser and mark antony, it is not true that she merely seduced them to gain more power or access to the roman kingdom. in fact, both caeser and antony stood to gain more from her than she from them.

schiff is an excellent writer, and the biography is written more like a novel, so that it never feels dry or overloaded with unnecessary detail. her research is impeccable, and you really feel like you are getting an accurate history.

bottom line: read this book. you won’t regret it.