The Complete Antony And Cleopatra

In this final novel in the Roman series, McCullough turns her attention to the legendary romance of Antony and Cleopatra.

Like Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra is an archetypal love story but of more mature lovers. However, the play isn't only that; it is also an epic rife with political machinations. In addition it is a character study, revealing Antony beset by very human emotions and a tragic weakness, and Cleopatra, as a self-deluding, aging siren. Of course Antony pays for his weakness as does Cleopatra. Yet even in death they are united, buried together andlinked by scholars and lovers for all time.

The tragic love affair of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is a staple of popular ancient history, immortalised by Shakespeare and Hollywood and mercilessly parodied in Carry on Cleo.

The tragic love affair of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is a staple of popular ancient history, immortalised by Shakespeare and Hollywood and mercilessly parodied in Carry on Cleo. In this dual biography Patricia Southern attempts to rescue both from the stereotypes, portraying their alliance as a mutually advantageous one, and both of them as capable political operators. Southern has a flair for this kind of narrative-history-with-argument, but she has already written extensively on both Antony and Cleopatra as well as Caesar, and for those who have read those earlier books there will be little new here.