Cleopatra Book Cover

Cleopatra


A work of Non-fiction


Subgenres:

  • Biography,
  • Ancient Egypt,
  • Feminist History
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This book is for you if you're into...

  • Deep dives into how history gets rewritten by its storytellers
  • Feminist takes on legendary women misrepresented by myth and media
  • Ancient sources reexamined through a modern lens
Publisher Description

A feminist reinterpretation of the myths surrounding Cleopatra casts new light on the Egyptian queen and her legacy.

The siren passionately in love with Mark Antony, the seductress who allegedly rolled out of a carpet she had herself smuggled in to see Caesar, Cleopatra is a figure shrouded in myth. Beyond the legends immortalized by Plutarch, Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, and others, there are no journals or letters written by Cleopatra herself. All we have to tell her story are words written by others.

What has it meant for our understanding of Cleopatra to have had her story told by writers who had a political agenda, authors who distrusted her motives, and historians who believed she was a liar?

Francine Prose delves into ancient Greek and Roman literary sources, as well as modern representations of Cleopatra in art, theater, and film, to challenge past narratives driven by orientalism and misogyny and offer a new interpretation of Cleopatra’s history through the lens of our current era.

More Francine Prose

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