![]() ![]() Because of this it seems impossible to ever untangle fact from fiction, to ever really understand her in the context of her own life. ![]() Most of what we think we know about her comes from foreign sources hostile to Cleopatra, most of which were written long after everyone who knew her had died. ![]() Right off the bat, Schiff introduces what is simultaneously the greatest fascination and the greatest struggle in studies of Cleopatra: "In one of the busiest afterlives in history, she has gone on to become an asteroid, a video game, a cliché, a cigarette, a slot machine, a strip club, a synonym for Elizabeth Taylor." She is at once one of the best known historical figures and also one of the least understood. Despite this, I have cherished a passion for Egyptian history for nearly two decades, and Schiff's book on Cleopatra brought it all back in full force. Actually it ended with me writing self-deprecating remarks.IN hieroglyphics though they were most likely wrong. I read The Memoirs of Cleopatra (historical fiction) multiple times, watched The Mummy on repeat throughout my teenage years, and even tried to teach myself hieroglyphics. I was captivated, enthralled, absolutely in love with Ancient Egypt. It all started on that day of days, when The Mummy remake came out in 1999. Reading this book had special significance for me, because Cleopatra and Egypt were my first real historical obsessions. ![]()
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