Forget the sexy seductress of history.
Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra proves that she was a steely master of realpolitik at home, in war, and grand strategy, writes Michael Korda on The Daily Beast.
Some people are so famous that the legends about them and the cultural aftermath of their life obscure the real human being. But we should now no longer remember the heavy eye make-up of Elizabeth Taylor’s Egyptian queen or Vivien Leigh on stage.
With a clear eye and great courage, Stacy Schiff has created a masterpiece and firmly cemented a new Cleopatra in our minds—one who had enough sex appeal to sleep with the two most powerful men in the world, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
Don’t miss her eminently readable new book out now.
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