The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt.
Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator.
Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and--after his murder--three more with his protégé. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.
Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life.
Stacy Schiff is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Saint-Exupéry, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize and the Ambassador Book Award. Schiff has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. The recipient of an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in New York City.
说起那个名叫克丽奥佩特拉的埃及女王,你会想到什么:是与罗马最为瞩目的两个男人间惊世骇俗的罗曼史,亚历山大港湾里令人瞠目的奢靡排场,还是她香销玉殒时臂弯里的角蝰? 不过有一点可以肯定,那条噬咬她的毒物从未真正夺去她的生命:数千年来,克丽奥佩特拉以各种...
评分说起那个名叫克丽奥佩特拉的埃及女王,你会想到什么:是与罗马最为瞩目的两个男人间惊世骇俗的罗曼史,亚历山大港湾里令人瞠目的奢靡排场,还是她香销玉殒时臂弯里的角蝰? 不过有一点可以肯定,那条噬咬她的毒物从未真正夺去她的生命:数千年来,克丽奥佩特拉以各种...
评分说起那个名叫克丽奥佩特拉的埃及女王,你会想到什么:是与罗马最为瞩目的两个男人间惊世骇俗的罗曼史,亚历山大港湾里令人瞠目的奢靡排场,还是她香销玉殒时臂弯里的角蝰? 不过有一点可以肯定,那条噬咬她的毒物从未真正夺去她的生命:数千年来,克丽奥佩特拉以各种...
评分说起那个名叫克丽奥佩特拉的埃及女王,你会想到什么:是与罗马最为瞩目的两个男人间惊世骇俗的罗曼史,亚历山大港湾里令人瞠目的奢靡排场,还是她香销玉殒时臂弯里的角蝰? 不过有一点可以肯定,那条噬咬她的毒物从未真正夺去她的生命:数千年来,克丽奥佩特拉以各种...
评分说起那个名叫克丽奥佩特拉的埃及女王,你会想到什么:是与罗马最为瞩目的两个男人间惊世骇俗的罗曼史,亚历山大港湾里令人瞠目的奢靡排场,还是她香销玉殒时臂弯里的角蝰? 不过有一点可以肯定,那条噬咬她的毒物从未真正夺去她的生命:数千年来,克丽奥佩特拉以各种...
这部史诗般的巨著,成功地将我带入了一个我从未真正了解的古代世界。作者的笔触细腻入微,对角色的心理刻画入木三分,让人仿佛能亲眼目睹那些历史人物的挣扎与辉煌。开篇对亚历山大里亚港口繁华景象的描绘,简直是一场视觉的盛宴,空气中弥漫着香料、汗水和海盐的味道,宏伟的法罗斯灯塔矗立云端,那是智慧与权力的象征。叙事节奏把握得极好,时而如缓流的尼罗河般平静,讲述着宫廷内部的暗流涌动和微妙的权力平衡;时而又如同季风过境般迅猛,将读者卷入宏大的战役和致命的政治阴谋之中。我尤其欣赏作者在处理历史细节上的严谨态度,那些关于建筑、服饰、乃至宗教仪式的描述,都充满了考据的痕迹,但绝不显得枯燥,反而为整个故事增添了令人信服的真实感。读完之后,我不仅为那些帝王将相的命运唏嘘,更对那个时代复杂的文化交融留下了深刻的印象,它绝非简单的权力更迭,而是一部关于文明碰撞与融合的宏大叙事。
评分说实话,一开始我对这种鸿篇巨制有些望而却步,但作者高超的叙事技巧很快就让我放下了所有的疑虑。最让我印象深刻的是,作者似乎掌握了一种时间折叠的魔术。章节之间的时间跨度极大,但过渡得丝滑自然,你不会感到任何跳跃的突兀感,仿佛只是轻轻地翻过了一页,就已经从十年战乱走入了十年和平。这种对时间尺度的驾驭能力,本身就是一种文学上的胜利。而书中对地域风貌的描绘,也极其传神,从干燥炎热的沙漠边缘到富饶的三角洲地带,每一种场景都有其独特的气味和声响,仿佛作者用文字为我们搭建了一个多维度的感官体验馆。我特别留意到对“遗产”这一主题的探讨——无论是物质的建筑遗留,还是精神上的文化影响,都被置于一个宏大的历史视角下审视,让人不禁反思我们自身所处的时代,以及我们终将留下什么。
评分这本书的叙事结构堪称精妙,它不像许多历史小说那样采用线性叙事,而是巧妙地运用了多重视角和闪回,构建了一个立体且充满张力的时空网。我最震撼的是它对“魅力”这一抽象概念的具象化处理。你读到那些关于人物决断力的描述时,会不由自主地被他们所吸引,即使明知其结局注定悲剧,依然会为他们每一次扭转乾坤的努力而屏息凝神。文字的密度非常高,每一个句子都似乎承载着双重甚至三重含义,初读时可能会觉得需要放慢脚步去品味,但一旦进入状态,那种沉浸感是无与伦比的。它迫使你去思考:在绝对的权力面前,个人意志究竟能占据多大的分量?那些关于爱、背叛与野心的描写,没有落入俗套的狗血情节,而是扎根于那个特定时代背景下的必然选择,冷峻而真实。这不仅仅是一部历史小说,它更像是一堂关于人性复杂性的深度哲学研讨课,读完后,你对“英雄”与“恶人”的界限会产生更深刻的困惑与理解。
评分我花了整整一周的时间才从这部作品带来的震撼中走出来。它的语言风格极其古典,却又饱含现代的洞察力,这是一种非常难以平衡的艺术。尤其是在描绘战争场景时,作者摒弃了那种血腥的、感官刺激过度的手法,转而聚焦于战略的博弈和士兵们在巨大历史洪流中的无力感。例如,某一场关键海战的描写,不是刀光剑影,而是关于风向、船只吃水深度以及后勤补给线的冷酷计算,这种知识性与文学性的完美结合,令人拍案叫绝。书中的女性角色群像刻画得尤为出色,她们不只是政治联姻的工具或附属品,而是拥有着极其强大内生动力的个体,她们的智慧、隐忍与爆发,构成了推动历史进程不可或缺的力量。阅读过程中,我感觉自己仿佛站在了历史的瞭望塔上,俯瞰着那些曾经叱咤风云的人物,他们的每一步棋都充满了宿命的悲凉感。这本书的价值,在于它提供了超越教科书的、有血有肉的历史体验。
评分这部作品的节奏控制简直是教科书级别的典范。它不是那种平铺直叙、旨在告知读者的历史陈述,而是一场精心编排的、充满悬念和反转的戏剧。我经常发现自己在阅读时,会不自觉地预测下一秒的走向,但作者总能以一种更深邃、更具历史必然性的方式揭示真相,这种“意料之外,情理之中”的叙事效果,极大地提升了阅读的愉悦感。特别值得称赞的是,作者在处理复杂的家族关系和外交联盟时,保持了极高的清晰度,即便牵涉到多国的条约和继承权问题,描述也条理分明,绝无含混不清之处。它成功地将宏大的政治版图与微观的人类情感纠缠在一起,展现了在时代巨变面前,个体命运的渺小与伟大并存的悖论。读罢全书,留下的不仅是知识的充实,更是一种对人类文明演进规律的深刻敬畏。
评分历史人物中的女偶像,a badass queen
评分Beautiful and informative. A queen at the helm of the time.
评分一女领导在我告别firm时推荐我看的书,非常flattered的被她说我有相似点。千百年历史包括现在,真觉得女王才是最女权的英雄,也遭遇了这个男权世界给女人的最大轻视。她驾驭了男人,也驾驭了天下,能做到任何一点都是超能力。女王自然是偶像的了。
评分Beautiful and informative. A queen at the helm of the time.
评分Beautiful and informative. A queen at the helm of the time.
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