Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

[Epictetus]

Has anyone picked up this new biography of Cleopatra yet? It seems to be generating a lot of good reviews. I first came across it in a glowing review in The New Yorker, who dubbed it "a work of literature." Then The New York Times was pretty excited, although I question whether Caesar got the idea of a census from Cleopatra :roll: . Finally, Amazon says it is on a host of "best-of" lists:

Seattle Times's Best Biographies of 2010

The New York Times Book Review Top 10 Books of the Year

New York Times Notable Books of 2010

Michiko Kakutani's Top Ten Books of 2010

Time Magazine Top Nonfiction

The New Yorker's 2010 favorites

Los Angeles Times Top Nonfiction

NPR's Alan Cheuse Best Books of Winter

Bloomberg Top Nonfiction

The Week Magazine Top Books of 2010

Obit Mag's Best Biographies of 2010

Apple's Best Books of 2010

Washington Post's Best Books of 2010

Kirkus's Best Biographies of 2010

Boston Globe's Best Books of 2010

Washington Examiner's Best Books of 2010

The Daily Beast's Top 5 Nonfiction Books of 2010

San Francisco Chronicle's Top 10 Books of 2010

Entertainment Weekly's Best Nonfiction of 2010

[Narukami]

Ms. Schiff has received a lot of media "buzz" because of her previous Pulitzer and the fact that her book about Cleopatra has been optioned for a new film to star Angelina Jolie. (The producers are trying to cast Brad Pitt as Antony, for obvious reasons, but Pitt has so far resisted.)

Schiff is clearly a skilled writer (by reputation) and as I have not read her book I can not say anything pro or con the contents or style.

However...

I am just finishing Adrain Goldsworthy's new book, Antony And Cleopatra, and can recommend it without reservation. This is solid scholarship coupled with lively writing leading to an informative and enjoyable read.

http://romanhistorybooks.typepad.com/ro ... orthy.html

http://romanhistorybooks.typepad.com/ro ... patra.html

If you have time to read both, perhaps you can give us a comparison review. However, if you are going to select one book to read I would go with Goldsworthy.

:wink:

Narukami

[Narukami]

For those of you with a subscription to the NY Review of Books you may read Mary Beard's review in full.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archive ... atra-myth/

[size=150nb7gnzg]Cleopatra: The Myth[/size]
JANUARY 13, 2011
Mary Beard

Cleopatra: A Life
by Stacy Schiff
Little, Brown, 368 pp., $29.99


:wink:

Narukami

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I bought Anthony and Cleopatra some time back, but haven't made a start on it yet!
Good to know I have something decent to look forward to!

[Narukami]

You do Gaius.

In fact the 13 page introduction alone is worth the price of admission. (All right, perhaps I'm exaggerating, but not by much.)

Here is a small section about our "obsession" with what Cleopatra looked like.

http://narukamisthunderbolts.blogspot.c ... ntony.html

:wink:

Narukami

[IrenH]

I've read both. David R. posted my Goldsworthy review above.

I have to find the time to comment on the Schiff book. Just briefly: I found stretches of it rather annoying. Schiff is jumping all over the place and is making a lot of assumptions. I've read the complete review by Mary Beard in the NYRB, http://www.nybooks.com/ , which latter requires paid subscription and is well worth it, BTW. Mary is regular contributor. She rightly acknowledges Schiff's qualifications as a biographer in general and terms the book for which Schiff got the Pulitzer prize "excellent." The thing is of course that the generalist biographer should not attempt a biography of a subject from the Ancient history without at least some amount of classical training. The pitfalls are just too many.

[Epictetus]

Thanks for the information. I want to read Schiff at some point, but I already have 5 books waiting. I liked Goldsworthy when I read him previously, so I should put that in my to-do file as well.

[taira1180]

Nice review. Another book to put in my list.

[Epictetus]

I’ve wanted to read Stacy Schiff’s biography of Cleopatra for a long time. The reviews were practically fanatical, and this is simply a fascinating time period.

Let’s start with what the book is not. It is not a traditional “scholarly” biography in the tradition of Birley’s book on Marcus Aurelius, for instance. It does not carefully examine every argument on every contentious point about Cleopatra’s life and this era, describing all the different views of all the different historians. Instead, Schiff tends to follow the most likely narrative, and I know some historians frowned upon this. Only in particularly troublesome cases does she examine the possibilities (Did Cleopatra betray Mark Antony at the end? Why did they flee Actium?).

The book is instead aimed more at the general reader, but Schiff certainly does her research. She examines the sources with a critical eye, and lets these sources talk for themselves, by quoting their absurdities or contradictions. And this is a significant problem with Cleopatra: all of our primary sources were her enemies from a different culture, and often several generations removed from the events they describe. When it is impossible to know something (why did Caesar tarry in Egypt?) she tells us the options and then admits that we don’t know for certain.

Schiff says that she wanted to put Cleopatra back “in context,” and I think she succeeded admirably. Looking at Cleopatra from the eyes of a Roman historian is perilous, and Schiff does the best possible under the circumstances. No, I didn’t always agree with some of her conclusions, but she backs up her reasoning with logic and authority.

Most of the mainstream press has gushed about how well this book is written, and with good reason. By the end of the first page you don’t need to be reminded that Schiff won the Pulitzer Prize, because you already know how extremely skilled she is. It is wonderful to see such writing in non-fiction.

After reading this, I feel that I know Cleopatra better, her motivations, her wants, her actions. It’s hard not to admire the queen. Moreover, I feel that I better understand how the Romans viewed Cleopatra as well as her kingdom. If you are interested in this period of Roman history (and who isn’t?), I recommend this book.

[Narukami]

Thank you for the book review Epictetus.

:wink:

Narukami