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Our Price: $1.50
Product Details
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| Shipping Weight: |
0.50 |
| Author(s): |
Barbara Steadman |
| Vendor: |
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC |
| Publisher: |
Dover Publications |
| Published: |
28 August, 1996 |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0486292533 |
| Store Code: |
21139 |
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Genre: Egypt; Juvenile literature; Children: Grades 3-4; Biography & Autobiography - People of Color; Queen of Egypt,; Juvenile Nonfiction; Children's Books/Ages 4-8 Nonfiction; History - Ancient; Cleopatra,; Biography & Autobiography - Cultural Heritage; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Kings, queens, rulers, etc; Queens; d. 30 B.C.; Biography;
Review: A Child's (or Beginner's) Introduction to Cleopatra: This book isn't a history or academic work. In fact, it's a picture book designed for children ages 7 and up. However, that should not suggest that it's not worth a read even for adults as an introduction to the life and times of Cleopatra, Antony, and the fall of the Roman Republic. The author presents a detailed, fact-based account of the queen's life, including pertinent and amazingly helpful references and quotations from Plutarch's histories. No fictional flourishes were added to richen the story, and though sometimes opinion slips in in a description of a descision or event, the story is very unassuming and true to historical evidence and generally accepted fact. So, as a short academic text, this book lays out the basics of her life (her marriage and civil war with her brother Ptolemy, wishes for an empire combinging East and West, affairs and marriages to Caesar and Antony, defeat at Actium and suicide in Alexandria,) in an inviting, exciting manner. But, in this case, its more important role is as a picture book, a role that it magnificently fills and excels in. Stanley's illustrations are beautiful and lavish, scenes of the beautiful queen and the people of her life set among breathtaking scenery such as the Alexandrian palace and harbor, the streets of Rome, and flowing sea. One particular favorite of mine is the illustration of Cleopatra's vessel as she approaches Antony's encampment at Tarsus, in which she sits reclining, dressed as Venus, in all of her splendor upon the magnificent boat and splendid sea. For the fledgling historian (particularly a child interested in history) this book is a must. I recommend it to anyone wanting a springboard from which to learn about the wonderful, tragic, and tumultous life of the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, and the fall of the Ptolemaic empire.
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