Sometimes I really want to read something challenging; different from the fiction that I usually read. However, maybe biographies by Stacy Schiff should be avoided. Over the past year I have attempted to read Cleopatra: A Life and found myself finally jumping ship. While the book was interesting and painted Cleopatra in a very glorious and flawed light it failed to hold my interest. I felt like the book was disorganized. I felt like it jumped all over the place; though sometimes the prose was wonderful and well written the book simply fell flat.
I will say that I do not regret reading the book. It was a good read; I learned some very interesting things about a woman that history often paints as a home wrecker. Cleopatra was well read, a women of great intellect. She was well spoken and could hold her own, she was a woman of great strength. Also, she took no shit. I think women living in our time could learn a thing or two from this queen of ancient Egypt.
Here are some of the quotes I loved:
"Friends often turn into enemies in time of disaster, he conceded (Caesar). He might equally well have noted that at times of disaster enemies reinvent themselves as friends."
"Herodotus: "Egyptian women ventured into the markets while the men sat at home tending their looms...women urinate standing up, the men sitting down"
"Cleopatra had every reason to believe she hailed from a superior world. No one in Rome had a pedigree to rival hers. It bothered Cicero that she seemed to know as much."
"Sometimes It seemed as if there were only ten women in Rome...and Mark Antony has slept with every one of them."
"If one prefers not to be perceived as a King, one is ill advised, for starters, to spend one's time consorting with a queen."
And just for fun; here are some photos found on Pinterest....sharing because they are just awesome..
