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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
I could barely stomach this book. It grazes of many of Cleopatra's ingenious accomplishments and focuses on her romances. If this book was the only thing I knew of Cleopatra, I would believe she was a naive tart. To be honest, I didn't finish the book. After 209 pages I felt like I gave it a fair shot. I just couldn't imagine reading 800 pages more of this insult to Queen Cleopatra's name
Ich habe das Buch zum ersten Mal gelesen, als ich etwa 12 war. 16 Jahre später habe ich es nun ein zweites Mal gelesen und was soll ich sagen: Ich liebe es noch immer genauso und die letzen Seiten habe ich wieder durchgehend geweint.
Zugegeben, es ist langatmig. Manches könnte man kürzer fassen und viele werden es langweilig finden und weglegen. Aber ich finde es großartig. Meiner Meinung nach wird das Buch auch jeden ansprechen, der mal „Die Säulen der Erde“ gelesen hat oder die Jahrhundert-Trilogie von Ken Follet.
Kleopatra hat schon immer eine Faszination auf mich ausgeübt. Eine Pharaonin, die es schaffte, dass sowohl Caesar als aus Marc Anton ihr zu Füßen lagen. Eine Herrscherin, Mutter und Ehefrau, die es in Zeiten, in denen Rom und seine Männer die Welt beherrschten, schaffte, ein Reich wie Ägypten nicht nur zu erhalten und über die Runden zu bringen, sondern es zu einer Macht zu machen, vor der Rom zitterte.
Leider ist es so, dass so ziemlich alles, was man über Kleopatra weiß, von ihren Feinden geschrieben und verbreitet wurde. Die Autorin hat nun versucht, aus vielen verschiedenen Quellen und der „neueren“ Forschung (das Buch ist ja jetzt auch schon etwas älter, sicherlich gibt es mittlerweile neue Erkenntnisse) ein Bild von Kleopatra zu schaffen, das nicht nur ein Feindbild ist. Und das ist ihr ganz hervorragend gelungen. Vieles im Buch ist historisch belegt und ganz wie Ken Follet auch nimmt Margaret George historisch belegte Tatsachen und haucht diesen Leben ein. Das eine oder andere ist natürlich erfunden, aber alles fügt sich ganz wunderbar zusammen.
Zugegeben, es ist langatmig. Manches könnte man kürzer fassen und viele werden es langweilig finden und weglegen. Aber ich finde es großartig. Meiner Meinung nach wird das Buch auch jeden ansprechen, der mal „Die Säulen der Erde“ gelesen hat oder die Jahrhundert-Trilogie von Ken Follet.
Kleopatra hat schon immer eine Faszination auf mich ausgeübt. Eine Pharaonin, die es schaffte, dass sowohl Caesar als aus Marc Anton ihr zu Füßen lagen. Eine Herrscherin, Mutter und Ehefrau, die es in Zeiten, in denen Rom und seine Männer die Welt beherrschten, schaffte, ein Reich wie Ägypten nicht nur zu erhalten und über die Runden zu bringen, sondern es zu einer Macht zu machen, vor der Rom zitterte.
Leider ist es so, dass so ziemlich alles, was man über Kleopatra weiß, von ihren Feinden geschrieben und verbreitet wurde. Die Autorin hat nun versucht, aus vielen verschiedenen Quellen und der „neueren“ Forschung (das Buch ist ja jetzt auch schon etwas älter, sicherlich gibt es mittlerweile neue Erkenntnisse) ein Bild von Kleopatra zu schaffen, das nicht nur ein Feindbild ist. Und das ist ihr ganz hervorragend gelungen. Vieles im Buch ist historisch belegt und ganz wie Ken Follet auch nimmt Margaret George historisch belegte Tatsachen und haucht diesen Leben ein. Das eine oder andere ist natürlich erfunden, aber alles fügt sich ganz wunderbar zusammen.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
This book took an entire summer for me to read and I am so grateful that I took the time to read it. I learned so much of Cleopatra and her history. Not to mention also so much of Roman politics and culture. It was absolutely fantastic.
Why on earth has this book gotten such rave reviews? Cleopatra is the ruler of Egypt but she does NOTHING but get dressed, get undressed, get her hair done, wear perfume, describe her jewelry, kiss and make out like...OMG, I am done with this. Quitting at the halfway point.
Edited to add: My daughter, who was reading this with me (because misery really does love company), convinced me to finish it, so I am trying. The second half is better than the first. I learned about Antony's famous defeat at Actium, and understood how Rome evolved from a republic to an empire. So I've added a star for that, but all the emphasis on clothing, jewelry, hair, perfume and endless descriptions of the landscape ruined this for me. There are passing references to the duties, decisions, and policies Cleopatra must make as Queen of Egypt, but we very rarely learn what those are. Instead, we are subjected to fictional descriptions of Cleopatra's innermost feelings as she gazes at the landscape or gets her hair done.
Okay, so I'm editing this review one last time to remove the star I added in my last edit. The last straw was when Cleopatra, who is preparing to commit suicide, ponders what dress to wear, how to do her hair, what jewelry should adorn her precious neck, and which perfume she should select for her death throes. OMFG. I admit that I learned a lot while reading this novel, but only because I googled everything even remotely relevant to find out what actually happened.
Edited to add: My daughter, who was reading this with me (because misery really does love company), convinced me to finish it, so I am trying. The second half is better than the first. I learned about Antony's famous defeat at Actium, and understood how Rome evolved from a republic to an empire. So I've added a star for that, but all the emphasis on clothing, jewelry, hair, perfume and endless descriptions of the landscape ruined this for me. There are passing references to the duties, decisions, and policies Cleopatra must make as Queen of Egypt, but we very rarely learn what those are. Instead, we are subjected to fictional descriptions of Cleopatra's innermost feelings as she gazes at the landscape or gets her hair done.
Okay, so I'm editing this review one last time to remove the star I added in my last edit. The last straw was when Cleopatra, who is preparing to commit suicide, ponders what dress to wear, how to do her hair, what jewelry should adorn her precious neck, and which perfume she should select for her death throes. OMFG. I admit that I learned a lot while reading this novel, but only because I googled everything even remotely relevant to find out what actually happened.
What a ride. This book is so long and so BIG (it's like holding a cinder block on my lap) that it feels like a huge accomplishment to finish it.
I first bought this book about 8 years ago after reading another of Margaret George's books (Mary Queen of Scotland - a favourite of mine). But back then I couldn't get through it. I was too young, not in the right frame of mind and lost interest. I picked it up again as a new mother on mat leave during a pandemic and found I was completely engrossed. Although it is a monster of a book to get through, the pages almost melted away as I read about George's Cleopatra.
As someone who went in knowing only the most basic outline of who Cleopatra was and what she was known for, I came out with a deep respect for her - as a queen, a woman, a wife and a mother.
I first bought this book about 8 years ago after reading another of Margaret George's books (Mary Queen of Scotland - a favourite of mine). But back then I couldn't get through it. I was too young, not in the right frame of mind and lost interest. I picked it up again as a new mother on mat leave during a pandemic and found I was completely engrossed. Although it is a monster of a book to get through, the pages almost melted away as I read about George's Cleopatra.
As someone who went in knowing only the most basic outline of who Cleopatra was and what she was known for, I came out with a deep respect for her - as a queen, a woman, a wife and a mother.
The Memoirs of Cleopatra
By Margaret George
Rating 5/5
Find my review here:
http://sravikabodapati.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-memoirs-of-cleopatra-by-margaret.html
By Margaret George
Rating 5/5
Find my review here:
http://sravikabodapati.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-memoirs-of-cleopatra-by-margaret.html
I didn’t say this at the time but finishing this whole book is my greatest achievement of the 2010-2020 decade
more reviews here: themosthappy.me
full review: http://themosthappy.me/2014/01/18/960-pages-of-cleopatra/
I picked up The Memoirs of Cleopatra when I was a ripe twelve years old. When I was younger I was addicted to that gold-edged “Royal Diaries” series of children’s books, and had developed a taste for historical fiction. I don’t know why I thought I could read a nearly one thousand-page book, but read it I did (I think it took me about a month, which I think is pretty impressive. I probably couldn’t repeat the feat today!). When I slid this book off my shelf to review it, I had a moment of muscle memory, almost, remembering how I used to carry it around with me wherever I went.
I’ve said before how much historical fiction novels influenced my education and interests when I was a young teen, and this one was no different. After I read it, Hellenistic culture held a mystique for me. I grew obsessed with the fantasy of the Library of Alexandria, and entranced with Egyptian culture and its spirituality. Ten years later, I’m still beguiled by Egypt, and fascinated with Cleopatra. Even now, reading bits of the book here and there, I find myself hurtling into the story again, addicted to the atmosphere of Alexandria and to Cleopatra’s magnetic narration. This is her story, fictionalized and rooted in apocryphal anecdote, but vivid and real between these pages.
The amount of detail in this book blew me away. Ancient Rome and Ptolemaic Egypt appear in all their grandiosity with a vividness that borders on inception (sometimes I felt like I was dreaming all of this. Within a dream. Within a dream ;) ). Truly, the attention to minute detail lends this novel more than your average measure of accuracy. It’s transporting, addictive. I remember reading it slowly, trying to absorb every sentence (probably when I was supposed to be doing homework). From this novel I gleaned a very rudimentary knowledge of Roman politics and the state of the world in the fifty or so years B.C. It’s just so much easier to learn this stuff from a novel than from stuffy textbooks and teachers.
This novel excels most in the voice. I’ve since read and reviewed other George novels that read like juvenile parodies of historical characters but Cleopatra is sophisticated throughout. Cleopatra as a character develops from a scared twenty-year-old willing to sleep with Caesar to negotiate a political position for Egypt, to a willful, wily woman both strong and proud, sensitive and deceitful.
This enchanting tome is a Hellenistic bildungsroman of sorts, and it’s a casual history fan’s dream, because it incorporates apocryphal stories about Cleopatra that have since become legend, like the way she dissolved one of her pearl earrings in vinegar [or wine] and her famous suicide by an asp’s poisonous bite. The inclusion of these legends adds to the aesthetic of the story; whether or not they are accurate is debatable (and many would say doubtful), but historical accuracy takes a backseat in this novel to producing an image of Cleopatra that fits with historical truth and myths as well as with a 21st-century audience. I think the overall effect is successful.
"The banquet, with its costly gifts, had been an enormous expense, but as an investment, it was worth it…But it had not cost a million sesterces, as the company believed. Vinegar cannot dissolve pearls. As an apt pupil in Alexandria, that fount of science, I knew that…No, the pearl was safe inside me, and could be recovered easily enough. But for those who were not fortunate enough to have been educated in science in our Museion, well–they had believed it." (460)
This passage is a prime example of how George plays with myths and persona to create a Cleopatra that is believable to a modern audience and yet a product of her own time. She takes the story of the pearl in vinegar–which modern science indeed does know is impossible–and tweaks it for a modern audience, all the while preserving the “authenticity” of the myth (if a myth may be allowed to be authentic). This passage also shows Cleopatra’s penchant toward manipulation and her considerable brainpower. She even fools Antony with relish.
I think the only aspect of this novel that suffers is trying to replicate some of the stranger customs, like the tradition of Ptolemaic princesses marrying their brothers. George writes for the casual history fan and even those who have no prior knowledge, so the effect is often one of explanation. It’s understandable, in order to make the story digestible to those who are ignorant of these practices, and it is in fact how I learned about them. Still, this is not a history book. It’s pure historical fiction, and some flaws are necessary to engage readers.
“When fate offers you no choice you must appear to relish it.”
“Goddesses do not grow old.”
“Things do not happen, we must make them happen.” — Cleopatra
Cleopatra’s voice is what separates this novel from others I have read by George. In this novel, unlike Elizabeth I or Helen of Troy, George’s literary style and narrative voice is less pervasive, allowing Cleopatra’s quite strong personality to take charge. This novel is simply more believable as a memoir than either of the two I’ve read, buttressed as it is by exhausting detail and mature, developed themes. At very few times does the narration fall into the sentimentality I’ve come to expect from George. Cleopatra is often ruthless, always manipulative, yet ultimately a well-rounded, sometimes vulnerable, and consistently brave character. If this is the image of Cleopatra that our culture accepts as truth, it’s a fine truth to believe in.
full review: http://themosthappy.me/2014/01/18/960-pages-of-cleopatra/
I picked up The Memoirs of Cleopatra when I was a ripe twelve years old. When I was younger I was addicted to that gold-edged “Royal Diaries” series of children’s books, and had developed a taste for historical fiction. I don’t know why I thought I could read a nearly one thousand-page book, but read it I did (I think it took me about a month, which I think is pretty impressive. I probably couldn’t repeat the feat today!). When I slid this book off my shelf to review it, I had a moment of muscle memory, almost, remembering how I used to carry it around with me wherever I went.
I’ve said before how much historical fiction novels influenced my education and interests when I was a young teen, and this one was no different. After I read it, Hellenistic culture held a mystique for me. I grew obsessed with the fantasy of the Library of Alexandria, and entranced with Egyptian culture and its spirituality. Ten years later, I’m still beguiled by Egypt, and fascinated with Cleopatra. Even now, reading bits of the book here and there, I find myself hurtling into the story again, addicted to the atmosphere of Alexandria and to Cleopatra’s magnetic narration. This is her story, fictionalized and rooted in apocryphal anecdote, but vivid and real between these pages.
The amount of detail in this book blew me away. Ancient Rome and Ptolemaic Egypt appear in all their grandiosity with a vividness that borders on inception (sometimes I felt like I was dreaming all of this. Within a dream. Within a dream ;) ). Truly, the attention to minute detail lends this novel more than your average measure of accuracy. It’s transporting, addictive. I remember reading it slowly, trying to absorb every sentence (probably when I was supposed to be doing homework). From this novel I gleaned a very rudimentary knowledge of Roman politics and the state of the world in the fifty or so years B.C. It’s just so much easier to learn this stuff from a novel than from stuffy textbooks and teachers.
This novel excels most in the voice. I’ve since read and reviewed other George novels that read like juvenile parodies of historical characters but Cleopatra is sophisticated throughout. Cleopatra as a character develops from a scared twenty-year-old willing to sleep with Caesar to negotiate a political position for Egypt, to a willful, wily woman both strong and proud, sensitive and deceitful.
This enchanting tome is a Hellenistic bildungsroman of sorts, and it’s a casual history fan’s dream, because it incorporates apocryphal stories about Cleopatra that have since become legend, like the way she dissolved one of her pearl earrings in vinegar [or wine] and her famous suicide by an asp’s poisonous bite. The inclusion of these legends adds to the aesthetic of the story; whether or not they are accurate is debatable (and many would say doubtful), but historical accuracy takes a backseat in this novel to producing an image of Cleopatra that fits with historical truth and myths as well as with a 21st-century audience. I think the overall effect is successful.
"The banquet, with its costly gifts, had been an enormous expense, but as an investment, it was worth it…But it had not cost a million sesterces, as the company believed. Vinegar cannot dissolve pearls. As an apt pupil in Alexandria, that fount of science, I knew that…No, the pearl was safe inside me, and could be recovered easily enough. But for those who were not fortunate enough to have been educated in science in our Museion, well–they had believed it." (460)
This passage is a prime example of how George plays with myths and persona to create a Cleopatra that is believable to a modern audience and yet a product of her own time. She takes the story of the pearl in vinegar–which modern science indeed does know is impossible–and tweaks it for a modern audience, all the while preserving the “authenticity” of the myth (if a myth may be allowed to be authentic). This passage also shows Cleopatra’s penchant toward manipulation and her considerable brainpower. She even fools Antony with relish.
I think the only aspect of this novel that suffers is trying to replicate some of the stranger customs, like the tradition of Ptolemaic princesses marrying their brothers. George writes for the casual history fan and even those who have no prior knowledge, so the effect is often one of explanation. It’s understandable, in order to make the story digestible to those who are ignorant of these practices, and it is in fact how I learned about them. Still, this is not a history book. It’s pure historical fiction, and some flaws are necessary to engage readers.
“When fate offers you no choice you must appear to relish it.”
“Goddesses do not grow old.”
“Things do not happen, we must make them happen.” — Cleopatra
Cleopatra’s voice is what separates this novel from others I have read by George. In this novel, unlike Elizabeth I or Helen of Troy, George’s literary style and narrative voice is less pervasive, allowing Cleopatra’s quite strong personality to take charge. This novel is simply more believable as a memoir than either of the two I’ve read, buttressed as it is by exhausting detail and mature, developed themes. At very few times does the narration fall into the sentimentality I’ve come to expect from George. Cleopatra is often ruthless, always manipulative, yet ultimately a well-rounded, sometimes vulnerable, and consistently brave character. If this is the image of Cleopatra that our culture accepts as truth, it’s a fine truth to believe in.