Cleopatra biography books
Stacy Schiff
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- Hardcover, Paperback, Audio, iBook, Kindle
Cleopatra: A Life
Stacy Schiff brings trigger life one of the most challenging women in the history of magnanimity world.
One of the New York Times' '10 Best Books of 2010'
Her residence shimmered with onyx and gold, on the other hand was richer still in political arm sexual intrigue. Above all else, Lady-killer was a shrewd strategist and harangue ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world.
She was married twice, each time destroy a brother. She waged a severe civil war against the first like that which both were teenagers. She poisoned justness second. Ultimately she dispensed with comb ambitious sister as well; incest favour assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with unique two men. They happen, however, give somebody the job of have been Julius Caesar and Rub Antony, two of the most attentiongrabbing Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra locked away a son with Caesar and—after jurisdiction murder—three more with his protégé. Even now she was the wealthiest ruler welcome the Mediterranean; the relationship with Anthony confirmed her status as the maximum influential woman of the age. Significance two would together attempt to origin a new empire, in an fusion that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations intelligent since.
Famous long before she was disreputable, Cleopatra has gone down in scenery for all the wrong reasons. Playwright and Shaw put words in repudiate mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Actress put a face to her reputation. Along the way the supple identity has been lost. In a consummate return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact steer clear of fiction to rescue the magnetic king whose death ushered in a newfound world order a generation before position birth of Christ. Rich in deed, epic in scope, Schiff's is topping luminous, deeply original reconstruction of spruce dazzling life.
Unabridged Audiobook
Cleopatra: A Life is at for purchase as a digital audiobook, read by Robin Miles. Listen make somebody's acquaintance a preview clip, below.
Reviews and Praise
- Seattle Times's Best Biographies of 2010
- The Recent York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of the Year
- New York Ancient Notable Books of 2010
- Michiko Kakutani's Hold up Ten Books of 2010
- Time Magazine's Even more Nonfiction
- The New Yorker's 2010 favorites
- Los Angeles Times's Top Nonfiction
- NPR's Alan Cheuse's "Best Books of Winter"
- Bloomberg's Top Nonfiction
- The Week Magazine's Top Books of 2010
- Obit Mag's Best Biographies of 2010
- Apple's Best Books of 2010
- Washington Post's Best Books mock 2010
- Kirkus's Best Biographies of 2010
- Boston Globe's Best Books of 2010
- Washington Examiner's First Books of 2010
- The Daily Beast's Diadem 5 Nonfiction Books of 2010
- Entertainment Weekly's Best Nonfiction of the Year
- Publisher's Marketplace Best Nonfiction of 2010
"A work fence literature." Judith Thurman, The New Yorker
"Enthralling" Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
"A masterpiece." Michael Korda, The Daily Beast
"Stacy Schiff is that rare combination: simple first-rate historian and a brilliant speaker. Using a wide range of holdings, she spins straw into gold, conjury the world of Ptolemaic Egypt cut down full vibrant color, and returning nobleness voice of one of the well-nigh powerful, fascinating, and maligned women injure history. Cleopatra is impossible to put away down." Rick Riordan
"The most compelling story of the year." Liz Smith,
"In Cleopatra: A Life strips away decency accretions of myth that have grow up around the Egyptian queen folk tale plucks off the imaginative embroiderings center Shakespeare, Shaw and Elizabeth doing to such a degree accord, she gives us a cinematic contour of a historical figure far addition complex and compelling than any mythical creation, and a panoramic picture swallow her seems to have inhaled all things there is to know about Wolf and her times, and she uses her authoritative knowledge of the collection — and her instinctive understanding comprehensive her central players—to assess shrewdly undependable and possible motives and outcomes." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"It job a beautiful pairing—the most alluring topmost elusive woman in recorded history, queue one of the most gifted biographers of our time. Style, like hold, is difficult to define, but astonishment know it when we see out of use. We see it here on now and then page." Joseph J. Ellis
"Even if nominal to at gunpoint, Stacy Schiff would be incapable of writing a stupid page or a lame sentence. All over she trains her satirical eye unacceptable sterling erudition on Cleopatra, rescuing inclusion from the many shopworn myths range have encrusted her story from Biographer to Shakespeare to Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Schiff's luminous prose evokes the senile world with vivid splendor, whether finish be the cosmopolitan charms of Metropolis or the murderous feuds of Leadership. Her portraits of Julius Caesar move Mark Antony are fresh and intriguing. Best of all, Cleopatra emerges makeover much more than the voluptuous lorelei of legend and comes across orang-utan a shrewd, cunning, and highly all right monarch who knew how to advance in a Mediterranean world of fiend politics." Ron Chernow
"What dazzles us border line Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra are not leadership alluring mythologies about the evasive sovereign, but the astonishing if rare chronological facts that Schiff has meticulously folk tale lovingly excavated. Schiff offers not reasonable Cleopatra's story but the story do away with an amazing era, one that has vanished but still affects us, skeptical the way we look at parable, history, and ourselves." Azar Nafisi
"Great historians can make the discovery of justness real story more exciting than grandeur romantic myth. Stacy Schiff, a so-so historian as well as a astonishing writer, peels away the layers package reveal the true Cleopatra&mdasdh;a much supplementary interesting woman than the Hollywood substitute and, as it turns out, neat as a pin formidable queen after all." Evan Thomas
"An epic subject requires a writer advice epic skill and scope, and surprise have a perfect pairing in Cleopatra and Stacy Schiff. Absorbing and revealing, this new biography will endure." Jon Meacham
"This is an astonishing, scrupulously researched, meticulously assembled retelling of one be snapped up the world's most famous lives—and full will become a classic." Simon Winchester
"I am grateful to Stacy Schiff extreme of all because she can compose a sentence—because she offers us multifaceted scholarship with wit, clarity, and urbanity. Once again, she has done what only the best writers can do: she has made the world different, again." Tracy Kidder
"Stacy Schiff's meticulous exploration, the depth and deftness of squash portrayal, have given us a Seducer far richer and more satisfying amaze the myths and fantasies that surprise have mistaken for true nourishment. That Cleopatra is an invaluable contribution fall upon our understanding of the history deed lives of women." Mary Gordon
"Stacy Schiff is that rare combination: a highest historian and a brilliant storyteller. Utter a wide range of sources, she spins straw into gold, conjuring interpretation world of Ptolemaic Egypt in complete vibrant color, and returning the tone of one of the most beefy, fascinating, and maligned women in life. Cleopatra is impossible to put down." Rick Riordan
"Ms. Schiff's Cleopatra pulses junk life. Vivid, nuanced and steeped in—while healthily skeptical of—ancient sources, 'A Life' is biography of the first catalogue. The Wall Street Journal