Cleopatra. The Life of the Legendary Queen

The last sovereign of Egypt, the famous queen Cleopatra is rightly regarded as one of the most striking and ambiguous women in world history. Her image has been recreated by William Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, while many of our contemporaries judge the appearance and character of the queen by her cinematic 'double' - the brilliant Elizabeth Taylor. However, much information about the queen's life has been lost or mythologized, and her personality has been obscured by romanticized images. In her extensive research, translated into 30 languages, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and master of the biographical genre Stacy Schiff has done a virtuoso job with a vast array of classical sources to reveal the true Cleopatra: a strong ruler, a shrewd strategist, and a skillful negotiator.
'Boldly, bluntly, visibly, she emerged in world politics and influenced the course of history. She convinced the people of Egypt that dusk is dawn and she strove with all her might to bring that dawn closer. In desperate situations, she improvised fiercely, then improvised again - some define genius this way. The brilliance and grandeur were present in her story long before Octavian and Shakespeare touched her… From her first to her last appearance, we are amazed by her ability to conceive the scene and set the stage. Until the very end, she remained the director of her life' (Stacy Schiff).