I've read a lot of books about Egyptian culture but not a lot of Cleopatra. Thus, this was an interesting read for me and I learned a lot from her history; the struggles to small victories.

I’d like to make it clear that I write this review as an Editor in Academic Classics publishing, with a degree in Classics, my period of specialisation being the Late Roman Republic to Early Imperial Rome (ie. the period of Cleopatra’s reign).

The start of this book was promising. There is a clear discussion of Cleopatra’s family background, situated within the context of the Egyptian and Roman world at the time. Cleopatra is originally given the foreground, and Prose clearly acknowledges the biases and quirks of the ancient sources, and deconstructs them to re-interpret Cleopatra’s genuine role as an intelligent military leader, Queen and mother.

However. Unfortunately, the book involves factual inaccuracies that are significant and also misleading. Prose has twisted certain characters and/or their involvement with Cleopatra to fit her narrative ( the “feminist” retelling) in ways that would mislead readers (in a similar way, I’d like to add, to the heavily biased volume on Cleopatra by Stacey Schaffer - which makes me wonder if Prose leant a little too heavily on her work, without consulting all the facts head on).

This comes up in a couple of places. Prose notes that Cicero was one of Cleopatra’s “most bitter and influential enemies”.

This is not true.

Cicero (who, unfortunately for Prose, is my specialist area) was not an enemy of Cleopatra. He mentioned in two (brief) letters to his best friend (letters that were meant to stay private) that he didn’t like her. He did nothing to proclaim being an enemy of Cleopatra, and she would not have found any reason to consider him an ‘enemy’, either. It is factually inaccurate (and also, totally irrelevant to the book - who cares about Cicero?? Isn’t this meant to be a feminist interpretation of Cleopatra? Why bring another man in??) and misleading to readers who aren’t specialists in the area.

Furthermore, Prose writes “Cicero…who was nearing sixty and had recently divorced his wife to marry his young ward.”

One. This is not true.
Cicero divorced his wife of thirty years because their marriage broke down, because she was stealing (her own) money back from him, and because fundamentally, the trust had gone from their relationship. He respected his wife and - crucially - ALL educated women (as much as a Roman man could in the period). He relied on her for all economic and really practical advice and activities. She managed his finances. A YEAR after he divorced her, when he ran out of money, it was recommended to him that he married into money (which was the only option), and it was recommended he marry into a family he was already financially involved with - that of the 16 he old Publilia. The marriage lasted a week, and Cicero regretted it significantly ( it’s in all of his later letters to his best friend).

Two. Therefore, this is character defamation. Prose leads you on to think Cicero (whose character is totally irrelevant to a book on Cleopatra - why are we being told inaccurate information about his personal life, other than to twist us against him???) was a lecherous, near paedophilic old man, who dumped his lovely wife for a pretty young girl. Furthermore, Cicero comes across as a misogynist which, if we take out the overall inequalities for women in Ancient Rome, he was not. He regularly enjoyed the company and intelligence of educated women, he appreciated the wisdom and calm-headedness of his wife, he encouraged his daughter’s education and wished there were more opportunities for her than were afforded women in Rome, and he regularly represented women in court. If anything, Cicero was as close to a feminist as you can get 50BC. None of what Prose has written about him throughout her book is true or accurate, and it’s horrifying that Yale University Press have allowed this to be published. If anything, it leads me to worry what else is factually inaccurate in this book.


Apologies for this long and negative review, but it needed to be said. It’s such a shame, and I’m disappointed. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why this book is needed - we have hundreds of books on Cleopatra, including many modern “feminist” interpretations (her role as wise, intelligent, strong, bold, charismatic military leader and Queen as opposed to the old-school seductive witch is well-established in scholarship, and has been for many years) and I’m not sure what new information this volume offers. The major intrigue of Cleopatra is that we know essentially very little about her, and maybe it’s time we accepted that.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Yale University Press for this ARC.

Thanks to netgalley for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was informative and an interesting look at how Cleopatra has been portrayed through history- but unfortunately it read like an essay/thesis and was a bit clunky and dry for me

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy e-book. This book is set to publish on November 8th this year.

3.5 stars rounded down. This nonfiction book was more of a dissertation type piece on the thesis that much of what was written about Cleopatra and the films that portrayed her, were more myth than truth due to the male misogynistic voices that wrote the words and the scripts and directed the movies. She brings up a wealth of background, historical context, and facts to distinguish between myth and reality.

The reality is that if Cleopatra were a woman she would be praised for her military strategic intellect and power, not seen only for her lovers. History was written by men who objectified Cleopatra and villainified her because she was a woman.

“It is hard to think of a king or emperor whose prodigious achievements and accomplishments were so widely ignored even as he was ferociously reviled for having conducted two sequential and serious love affairs.”

This book was not organized the most logically, although I did learn a great deal of history and feminist interpretation. I appreciated the last half of the book more than the first half, because the first half read more like my AP world history textbook. It is a helpful read to become more exposed to that time period, culture, and powerful people. Overall, I think the author did justice to Cleopatra in hoping to portray her less through the lens of a seductive woman and more in line with her political achievements and ruling abilities. I appreciated that historical critique.

This is not a book for you if you have zero interest in history or feminism.

I enjoy a good book on history and Cleopatra by Francine Prose did not disappoint. 

Enjoyed learning about the Ptolemies and the struggle to keep their dynasty out of harm's way.  I was aware of the historical romantic escapades of Cleopatra but this feminist interpretation made me aware of her 20 years of successful ruling of Egypt as well.  I learned that she was more than just a femme fatale, she was also very intelligent and astute in Egyptian and Roman politics.  

My thanks to #NetGalley and Yale University Press for this ARC.  This opinion is my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
This book was pretty interesting all told, a good primer on Cleopatra the historical figure. It definitely provides information grounded in historical documents to supplement the audiences understanding of a figure shrouded in myth and more often defined by representations in literature/pop culture, which often misses the nuance.
Like many nonfiction reads though, I did find the authors style a bit dry and hard to get excited about. It also felt more like a primer than a work which truly dug deep into challenging the mythos of the person.

A really interesting and informative book. There is a lot of really well researched information about the great Cleopatra’s life. I did at times find it a bit difficult to follow but still very engaging.

I truly wanted to like this book, but for myself, the writing felt extremely dry. I understand of course, that with historical novels, that is sometimes a given, but I truly could not get into this book. I might have gone in with the wrong expectations and that could have skewed my reading experience. Aesthetically, the cover is beautiful and I really wanted to like it.

As a person, who mostly knew the very surface of Cleopatra story, and not so much about her actual political and socio-economical impact, I was glad to found this book. It put the heavily judged historical figure through a new lens, one of a woman separate from her lovers, a leader trying to keep her country afloat. This feminist lens was something much needed in the bigraphical non-fiction and sets the book up for a fresh angle on one of the most famous women in the world.

I have also enjoyed the language and the structure of the novel, as well as its lenght. It touched upon and analysed the most vital facts from the Cleopatra's life, while bringing in her portrayal in literature, art, and film, commenting the misconseptions and pointing out the flaws in other narratives.

The only critique I have regarding the novel is that my absolutely favourite portrayal of Cleopatra, by Monica Belluci, didn't make it under the analysis, but that can be forgiven taking into the account the author is an American and the film was a work of fiction.

An intriguing, even-handed biography, easily accessible at every point. I craved more color in the narrative, but Francine Prose has clearly done immaculate research into a fascinating woman.

Thanks to Yale University Press and Netgalley for the opportunity of an early read.

"Cleopatra" by Francine Prose" is, a memoir of Cleopatra.

I would give "Cleopatra" by Francine Prose" a one- star review because, honestly, I hated everything about this book.

Ancient Egypt always become my favourite history to read. And for Cleopatra's story isn't lack of adaptation. I am so lucky got my hand to several amazing books.

I found that the writing style is very literature, almost look like textbook. It is straightfoward and informative but not give any additional to another piles information about Cleopatra.
This book is easy to read, short and could be done in one sitting. It will become perfect gift for students or readers who really into ancient Egypt.

Thank you Netgalley and Yale University Press for provided me with this copy. I am grateful but my thoughts are my own.

A straightforward and concise history of Cleopatra. A good read for anyone who isn't familiar with Cleopatra looking to learn more about her. I would have enjoyed a little more character to the writing as opposed to strictly facts, but it was interesting nonetheless.

A fascinating and well-written (if not exactly what I expected) look into the love of Cleopatra. I’m not sure this writing style will be for everyone, but I had a fulfilling reading experience!

This short book (about 200 pages) unfortunately reads more as a thesis or academic paper than a non-fiction book. It's a tad dry for my taste. While historical bits are given in the book about Cleopatra, I found the writing a bit too factual, without giving new insight into who Cleopatra was overall. Information about the times, people, and places could've been more effectively woven through the story.

I've always been fascinated by Cleopatra. Initially, as a young woman, it was that she was a queen and lived in an incredibly interesting ancient world. As I got older, it became clear that her story was refracted through multiple lenses - cultural, historical, and gender, to name a few - making it challenging to approach her as a human. Stacy Schiff's 2010 Pulitzer prize-winning biography, "Cleopatra: A Life," did an excellent job of historically analyzing Cleopatra and placing her in the ancient political context. However, Schiff doesn't examine how we've interpreted Cleopatra through the lens I mentioned above. Cue Prose's excellent work, "Cleopatra," successfully analyzes her through a gendered cultural and historical perspective. I enjoyed how Prose discusses the ancient sources and how their biased views of her have haunted her for centuries and examined why they held those biases. The only thing that kept me from rating this as five stars is that Prose can jump from period to period so that it could be more cohesive. However, it made me think, and it was great to dive deeply into a misrepresented woman of history.

The majority of my knowledge of cleopatra was that she was a woman who wore a lot of black eyeliner, was very beautiful and she killed herself with an asp. So this book will set you completely straight! It’s well researched and a fascinating account of cleopatras life and relationships. I liked how the author appraised the information too and that the book covers her portrayal in films and theatre too!
Definitely worth a read!
Read through netgalley

Francine Prose tells the story of Cleopatra (VII Philopater, if you want to be specific), her entanglement with the Roman Empire, and how she has become distorted in cultural depictions after her death.

In a way, I am reading this book in preparation – I’ve got the reading of a retelling of Cleopatra’s life set in space (!) coming up, and I figured that I’d appreciate it more if I gave myself a better grounding of the historical subject matter first. Also, I’ve always found Cleopatra’s story fascinating, so it was no skin off my nose.

This is a pretty basic, straightforward history of Cleopatra’s life that does not engage in very much speculation, but presents the facts as they are given in ancient sources. F0r this reason, I think it would appeal best to those who don’t know much about Cleopatra and want to learn about her, but don’t want to read a doorstopper of a biography.

I think this book works best when it discusses the myths around Cleopatra and how she is depicted on stage and on screen, as the author discusses how she is portrayed in a number of mediums and sources

However, while Prose does question the veracity of these sources and engages critically with them, I felt that by the end of the book she was leaning pretty hard on Plutarch’s interpretation without gainsaying them much. I also wished Prose had gone a little further and gotten into the murkier parts of Cleopatra’s life, the things that aren’t so well-documented, to give the reader a broader picture of her. While we got Cleopatra’s story, I did not feel we got to know her.

Will be acquiring this title for our historical figures section. I have always had a interest in Cleopatra….especially after hearing my favorite actress Gugu Mbatha Raw would love to play her one day. It’s nice to have a modern take on her instead of the stuffy tombs pun intended that are found in most history classes. I found it so interesting to know there are no records Cleopatra wrote herself and all we have our the stories told by others. It was so interesting to hear the different stories and myths and see them either Origen or debunked and get an inner glimpse of this most fascinating figure. The cover is also very beautiful and eye catching, it makes you want to pick up the book and dive right in!

This feminist look at the myths surrounding Cleopatra was an oddly organized nonfiction book. The narrative was clunky and dry. Giving both history as well as a look at popular culture references.