Book Nook: Cleopatra

Biography and nonfiction isn't for everyone, yet I know there is a subset of people that really love this type of literature. Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff is an excellent amalgamation of historical accuracy and readability. No wonder she won the Pulitzer for this work, it is both entertaining and informative without any of those agonizingly detailed descriptions and tiny erudite footnotes. 

*Gasp* No footnotes?! Well, not exactly. There are informative footnotes that add definition to a particular event or passage, but all the little bibliographic references are listed neatly, by chapter, at the end of the book. However as a historian, I am a little perturbed that none of her nicely number endnotes are reflected in the text. OCD aside, it was probably for the benefit of the casual reader than the academic. That's the gist of the book, this is a biography of an historical icon that is firmly entrenched in the popular imagination. It is not supposed to be a dry academic text for college professors to assign to unwilling students. 

Schiff expertly uses historical sources but denounces the male writers as biased at the same time. Most of the history we know about Cleopatra comes from men like Cicero, who were threatened by Cleopatra's feminine power and wealth. Instead Schiff relies on coins and inscriptions, tangible pieces of the past that are not as biased because they were designed for function instead of posterity. 

What I enjoyed most about this book was Schiff's ability to create perspective. The pyramids to Caesar were as old to him as Caesar is to us. King Herod was a supplicant to Cleopatra before becoming King of Judea. The scope of time has rendered these events as separate entities when in reality they were all tied together. Cleopatra was the last of the pharaohs and even she was so removed from the real Egyptian pharaohs like Ramses and Tutankhamen because she was Greek.

This biography reads easily, entertains and informs, and never completely answers the questions of what Cleopatra looked like. Even the cover of the book, with a richly dress woman turned away from the camera, emphasizes what we just cannot know about her. Yet, at the end you are not upset, just amazed at what she was able to accomplish and just how long she held a crumbling empire together with sheer force of personality. I would highly recommend this book to someone who has just watched Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra or anyone who wants something with more meat in it that fluffy fiction. It is a remarkable piece of writing.

*This blog is part of a grant Medfield has been awarded through the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Library and Services Technology Act administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.