02/01/2021
Italian TV host Angela casts Cleopatra as “an amazingly modern woman” in this spirited yet somewhat overwrought account. Focusing on the period between March 44 BCE, when Cleopatra returned to Egypt from Rome after the assassination of her lover and ally Julius Caesar, and her suicide in August 30 BCE following military defeat by Octavian, Angela portrays Cleopatra as an astute ruler who enabled Egypt to retain sovereignty despite creeping Roman influence over the Levant. He recounts the saga of Cleopatra’s doomed romance with Marc Antony, but also explains the significance of her deliberate combination of Hellenistic influences, rooted in her Greco-Macedonian ancestry, with ancient Egyptian culture and religion, in particular the goddess Isis. Though Angela strives to make the ancient world accessible to modern readers, long sections in which he plays tour guide through the streets of Rome and Alexandria offer genuine insights but slow the narrative pace, and the significance of Cleopatra and Marc Antony’s first meeting is undercut with comparisons to Lady Gaga and Jim Carrey’s “jaw dropping to the ground” in The Mask. This well-intentioned history swings and misses. (Mar.)
Angela strives to make the ancient world accessible to modern readers . . . [offering] genuine insights.” — Publishers Weekly
“[Cleopatra] combines scholarship with novelistic detail and character depth . . . Alberto Angela effectively draws on previous scholarship, wading through legend and myth to get at the truth of what actually occurred . . . a character-rich historical biography.” — Kirkus Reviews
“The political machinations, betrayal, and battles may appeal to those fans of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series interested in a real-world game of thrones.” — Booklist
“Maybe we think we know everything about this charming woman, yet Alberto Angela, with his thirst for art and culture, will tell us things that will perhaps surprise us and surely remain in our minds and hearts.” — Roberto Baldini, Sololibri
“Cleopatra is more than a book; it is like being immersed in a documentary expertly narrated by the one Italian who can do it best: Alberto Angela. […] Written well, in a precise and engaging way, it reads lightly despite the topics covered.” — Silvia Capelletto, Leggere A Colori
“Its fidelity to historical sources is complimented by its imaginative, light-on-its-feet narrative style.” — Il Messaggero
“Cleopatra dismantles falsehoods and stereotypes to reconstruct a more authentic and reliable portrait of its central figure.” — La Stampa
“A compelling and convincing fresco, full of action and emotion.” — La Repubblica
Cleopatra is more than a book; it is like being immersed in a documentary expertly narrated by the one Italian who can do it best: Alberto Angela. […] Written well, in a precise and engaging way, it reads lightly despite the topics covered.”
The political machinations, betrayal, and battles may appeal to those fans of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series interested in a real-world game of thrones.
Cleopatra dismantles falsehoods and stereotypes to reconstruct a more authentic and reliable portrait of its central figure.”
A compelling and convincing fresco, full of action and emotion.
Its fidelity to historical sources is complimented by its imaginative, light-on-its-feet narrative style.”
Maybe we think we know everything about this charming woman, yet Alberto Angela, with his thirst for art and culture, will tell us things that will perhaps surprise us and surely remain in our minds and hearts.”
The political machinations, betrayal, and battles may appeal to those fans of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series interested in a real-world game of thrones.
2021-01-16
A readable narrative of the legendary Egyptian queen that combines scholarship with novelistic detail and character depth.
First published in Italy in 2018, this popular history captures the essence of one of the most iconic figures in world history, a “stunning-looking, intelligent, and elegant woman with a deep gaze, and oozing sensuality.” Italian scholar, paleontologist, and journalist Angela focuses his inquiry on a key question, one that Cleopatra scholars have explored for centuries: “How did a delicate, lone woman, in an ancient world dominated by men, lead the kingdom of Egypt to its greatest expansion ever and become one of history’s brightest stars?” The author devotes the first 100 pages of his lengthy study building up to the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E., showing how the watershed event affected Cleopatra’s own vulnerable standing in the geopolitical realm. She took protection under Rome to stabilize her position of power in relation to her ambitious brothers and ensure Egypt’s autonomy. Upon Caesar’s death, however, she had to cultivate good standing with the new leadership. Using her singular combination of beauty, confidence, intelligence, and cunning, she was able to seduce Mark Antony, a process that Angela re-creates with fairly over-the-top description. Notwithstanding the author’s lapses into overheated language (“we can picture the queen on her bed, her curves rising with every breath, as she gazes at Antony confidently, intensely, invitingly, her full lips half open”), he effectively draws on previous scholarship, wading through legend and myth to get at the truth of what actually occurred. Angela engages readers with rhetorical questions and emphasizes that Cleopatra was a thoroughly modern woman, instrumental in paving the way for the Roman Empire under the ruthless Octavian. “Cleopatra is not only an alluring woman and a queen very capable of managing power,” he writes, “but also an incredible historical catalyst.”
A character-rich historical biography that will have special appeal to young students of history.
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