Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend - Hardcover

Fletcher, Dr. Joann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060585587 ISBN 13: 9780060585587

Publisher: Harper, 2011

Synopsis

“Joann Fletcher has the good grace and specialist knowledge to do away with Roman romances. This book’s bedrock is Egyptology. . . . Cleopatra was, indeed, not just a ‘baleful beauty;’ she was great.” —History Today 

World-renowned Egyptologist Joann Fletcher offers an extraordinary look at one of Egypt's most intriguing leaders—the legendary Cleopatra. In the tradition of biographies by Stacy Shiff, Duane Roller, and Adrian Goldsworthy, and drawing on astonishing new evidence about Cleopatra’s life—including tax records, personal correspondence, and the discovery of her palace quarters beneath the Mediterranean Sea—Fletcher presents Cleopatra’s life in glorious detail, revealing the woman behind the myths.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

World-Renowned Egyptologist Dr. Joann Fletcher offers an unparalleled look at one of history’s most fascinating leaders—Politician, Mother, and Goddess—the legendary Cleopatra.

The subject of myth for more than two millennia, Cleopatra was a woman of passion, magnetism, and political genius, the last and greatest Egyptian pharaoh. In this mesmerizing biography, Egyptologist Joann Fletcher draws on a wealth of newly discovered information and research to reveal this vital woman as she truly was, from her first meeting with Julius Caesar to her legendary death by snakebite.

Cleopatra the Great tells the story of a turbulent time and the extraordinary woman at its center. A polymath monarch, she was also a potent combination of traditionalist and innovator, astute enough to realize what was necessary for Egypt’s continued prosperity and sufficiently ruthless to allow nothing to stand in her way.

Yet our understanding of Cleopatra has been obscured by Roman propaganda, Shakespearean tragedy, and Hollywood glamour. Cleopatra the Great pieces together the pharaoh’s ancient world with details about her massive library and infamous banquets, her relationships with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and her skillful use of fashion and style to further her ambitions and her mystique. Intelligent and compulsively readable, here is an unparalleled biography worthy of its subject.

About the Author:

Dr. Joann Fletcher is an honorary research and teaching fellow at the University of York, where she teaches Egyptian funerary archaeology and mummification. The author of numerous articles and books, she also lectures widely. She lives in Yorkshire, England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0060585587
• ISBN 13: 9780060585587
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464