An Analysis of Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life
Schiff, Stacy. Cleopatra: A Life Little, Brown & Co. (US) Ebury Publishing/Virgin Book Reviewed by Drew Chapman
In Stacy Schiff’s award winning biography, Cleopatra: A Life, she penetrates the life of Queen Cleopatra and breaks down her origin, major events, and all the other accomplishments of the young queen. This would be a very pleasing book for readers who really want to know more about Queen Cleopatra or are just learning of her. The author provided a great deal of detail to the life of Cleopatra when it came to the queen’s origin and uprising to power. Schiff went into great depth with the structure of her novel in how she exclaimed how Cleopatra rose to the throne at age eighteen and the many ways she sustained her power in the kingdom as well as making allies. The author’s tone and interpretation of Cleopatra really make this book that much better in my opinion. But I could not really decipher the author’s thesis but to the best of my ability I see it as the author is trying to get her readers to envision Cleopatra in a whole new light as the powerful queen that Schiff sees.
The way Schiff interprets Cleopatra’s life really does give you a clearer more subjective view on Cleopatra as a whole. For example in the book Schiff tell her readers that not only is the queen of Greek descent but a member of the Ptolemaic. But in most textbooks those authors says she is a full blood Egyptian. The history of Cleopatra and the Greek royalty was also interpreted well. Schiff went through and broke down the two love affairs Cleopatra had with King Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. On the other hand the author did not really touch too much on what happened to Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s son which was probably the only downside of this reading. Most authors leave out small details as these but Schiff did fill in a few blanks for me with the concept of Cleopatra. Overall the way Cleopatra’s life is interpreted in my opinion was phenomenally done and done with a
In Stacy Schiff’s award winning biography, Cleopatra: A Life, she penetrates the life of Queen Cleopatra and breaks down her origin, major events, and all the other accomplishments of the young queen. This would be a very pleasing book for readers who really want to know more about Queen Cleopatra or are just learning of her. The author provided a great deal of detail to the life of Cleopatra when it came to the queen’s origin and uprising to power. Schiff went into great depth with the structure of her novel in how she exclaimed how Cleopatra rose to the throne at age eighteen and the many ways she sustained her power in the kingdom as well as making allies. The author’s tone and interpretation of Cleopatra really make this book that much better in my opinion. But I could not really decipher the author’s thesis but to the best of my ability I see it as the author is trying to get her readers to envision Cleopatra in a whole new light as the powerful queen that Schiff sees.
The way Schiff interprets Cleopatra’s life really does give you a clearer more subjective view on Cleopatra as a whole. For example in the book Schiff tell her readers that not only is the queen of Greek descent but a member of the Ptolemaic. But in most textbooks those authors says she is a full blood Egyptian. The history of Cleopatra and the Greek royalty was also interpreted well. Schiff went through and broke down the two love affairs Cleopatra had with King Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. On the other hand the author did not really touch too much on what happened to Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s son which was probably the only downside of this reading. Most authors leave out small details as these but Schiff did fill in a few blanks for me with the concept of Cleopatra. Overall the way Cleopatra’s life is interpreted in my opinion was phenomenally done and done with a