As childhood was not a subject of great interest to the ancients, Schiff explains, “players tended to emerge fully formed” into the public consciousness, their recorded livesīeginning when they first influenced history. The woman left no primary sources.īorn in 69 B.C., Cleopatra ascended the throne of Egypt at 18. Was a subspecialty.” As Schiff observes, Cleopatra may boast “one of the busiest afterlives in history,” including incarnations as “an asteroid, a video game, a cliché, a cigarette,Ī slot machine, a strip club, a synonym for Elizabeth Taylor,” but the single piece of documentary evidence that might be traced to her own hand is “perhaps and at most, one written word” (translatedĪs “Let it be done,” with which she or her scribe signed off on a decree).

Who initially depicted Cleopatra were mostly Roman and all male, writing, for the most part, a century or more after her death with the intent to portray her reign as little more than a sustained striptease.Īnd although Alexandria was the intellectual capital of the known world and Egypt an ancient pioneer of gender equality, the country had “no fine historian” to counter the agendas of those for whom “impugning independent-minded women Whom “citing her sexual prowess was evidently less discomfiting than acknowledging her intellectual gifts.” Lucan, Appian, Josephus, Dio, Suetonius, Plutarch - the poets, historians and biographers Although it’s not Schiff’s purpose to present us withĪ feminist revision of a life plucked from antiquity, in order to “restore” Cleopatra - to see her at all - one must strip away an “encrusted myth” created by those for Epic.“Mostly,” Schiff says of “Cleopatra: A Life,” “I have restored context.” The claim stops sounding humble when we understand what it entails. 'Explores the darkness and hope of a city on the brink of revolution. 'Warm-hearted, compelling, hugely enjoyable' Times 'Leaves you simultaneously heartbroken and full of hope' Sunday Times 'Sweeping, cinematic and oh-so-gripping' Sunday Telegraph And then, just as the political turmoil in the country deepens, Aria falls in love with a boy caught on the wrong side of the revolution. As Aria grows she is torn between the three women fated to mother her: the harsh wife of the man who rescued her a wealthy widow, who offers her refuge but cannot offer her love and the mysterious Mehri, whose secrets will shatter everything Aria thought she knew about herself. In an alleyway an abandoned baby cries into the night, attracting the attention of the young man who will save her.Īnd so begins the story of Aria, an orphan girl who comes of age on the volatile streets. a Doctor Zhivago of Iran' Margaret Atwoodġ950s Tehran. 'A sweeping saga about the Iranian revolution as it explodes.

Aria nazanine hozar