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Musings on Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff — 14 Comments

  1. Pingback:Book Club Day: Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

  2. I’ve got to watch the entire Taylor movie someday. And Claudette Colbert! Love her – another to add to the list. I love watching historical movies over time, seeing how 1940s Britain interpreted the 1800s versus 1960s America, for example. Or the differences in how 1950s covered the turn of the century (1900) vs the 1960s, even. Every age brings their own lens to historic interpretation.

  3. I think one of the things Schiff does well in her book is try to separate Cleopatra the historical figure from Cleopatra of stage and film. But of course, it is only because the life of the real Cleopatra was so remarkable that the myth developed.

  4. I really want to watch the Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra. They always refer to it in Sound of Music documentaries, as in Cleopatra nearly brought down 20th Century Fox and Sound of Music saved it. It must be epic!

  5. I know I’ve seen bits and pieces of the Liz Taylor Cleopatra but I’ve never seen the Claudette Colbert movie. That would make for a great weekend. Maybe once the weather gets cooler and it’s time to snuggle under a blanket and just watch movies. Interesting post!

  6. I haven’t seen any of those movies, but the book has already really surprised me at what assumptions I’ve had in my mind about Cleopatra. Maybe I’ll rent one of the movies once I finish the book…to compare like you suggest. Would be interesting!

  7. I struggled with this book and set it aside. I know some of it was timing – my dad made a turn for the worse as I was reading it. Anyway, I passed it on to my mom and she recently read it and was fascinated by it – she thought it was fantastic!

  8. Joy,
    What a great juxtaposition of the two movies and this new book. I only vaguely remember snip-its of the Cleo starring Liz Taylor – being aired on PBS when I was a child. I have never watched it in its entirety, but what an interesting thing to do now that I know all I gathered from Schiff’s book. Great post.

  9. Pingback:Literary Giveaway Blog Hop — Cleopatra | Joy's Book Blog

  10. I too have never seen the Cleopatra movies; the only thing that’s come close for me was the play “Antony & Cleopatra.” I think it would be interesting to read a book that could replace that image of Elizabeth Taylor in one’s mind.

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