Kristen Bellamy
November 14, 2002
Honors 141
Fiction Report
I. George, Margaret. The Memoirs of Cleopatra. New York:
St. Martin's Press,
1997.
II. Brief Biographical Sketch of the Author
Margaret George was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father was
in the military. She moved around frequently as a young child. Her
first published work was a letter that she sent to TIME magazine
when she was 13. She attended Tufts University and majored in English
and Biology. She later received her Master's from Stanford in ecology.
Subsequently, she became a science writer in Maryland. She then
met her husband Paul and they moved around some until they settled
in Wisconsin. She published The Autobiography of Henry the VIII
(1986), Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles (1992), The Memoirs
of Cleopatra (1997), and Mary Called Magdalene (2002).
III. Brief Account of Historical/Cultural Background of the Work
The Memoirs of Cleopatra was published in 1997. Throughout the modern
era
Historical romance novels have been very popular. Memoirs follows
this trend.
The sort-of soap opera style of entertainment has always been appealing,
however. Also, the discovery of what my have been Cleopatra's Palace
was unearthed in the harbor of Alexandria and all of those treasures
were being unearthed around this time.
IV. The Principal Sources Used of Traditions Followed
George cites many Roman poets and historians such as: Horace, Virgil,
Sappho, and Dio's Roman History. She then acklowledges, Emil Ludwig,
Robert Graves,
Margaret Price, Caesar, The Greek Anthology, Werner Keller, Louis
Zabkar,
Odes of Horace translated by James Mitchie, and Cleopatra by Jack
Lindsay. It is
interesting because in her author's notes she states that it is
a fact that Cleopatra
was killed by an Egyptian Cobra.
V. A Summary of the Plot or Thesis
George's adaptation of the story of Cleopatra pretty much follows
the plot line of her life as we know it. The novel opens with a
boat trip on the Nile. During this
trip both Cleopatra and her mother both fall overboard during this
trip and this is
how Cleopatra's mother dies. The story line with Julius Caesar begins
with the carpet story. Cleopatra then seduces him into bed with
her. They then begin their
whirlwind love relationship. The novel is filled with flowery language
that
transports the reader to the place and time. Caesar then goes back
to Rome and
Cleopatra passes the time by completing her queenly duties: helping
the poor,
visiting other nobility, etc. Then the invitation finally arrives
for Cleopatra to
come to Rome. Once she arrives her relationship with Caesar heats
up again.
Caesar then dies and Cleopatra thinks that her world is going to
fall apart. She
is very depressed on her way back to Alexandria and when she first
gets there.
Once again she immerses herself in her duties and plays the queen
role, but
George plays this up until Antony comes into the picture. Finally,
she goes
to Tarsus where she and Antony begin their affair. And then back
in Alexandria
their love continues. Their relationship is portrayed as a very
volatile one: they
have so much love and passion for each other that they can't handle
it and they
fight and then get back together. The rest of the novel is simply
the passionate
love-sex-hate-love relationship with some political action thrown
in. At the end
Marc Antony, of course dies and then Cleopatra dies in the classic
way: the snake
bite. But George has the snake as a Cobra and not an Asp.
VI. Evaluation of the Historical/Cultural Accuracy
This novel is mostly for pleasure and not for historical knowledge.
However,
George does do a good job of trying to make the novel as accurate
as possible.
The novel is so "romance-novely" though. There are historical
facts in the work, but so much fiction is thrown in to keep the
reader satisfied that the reader almost loses track of the idea
that this is a true story.
VII. Characterization of the Portrait of Cleopatra
The main aim was to portray Cleopatra as a woman above all else.
She loves the
men in her life, her children, her friends, etc. She is shown as
a passionate
woman that just happens to be the ruler of Egypt. Throughout every
situation she is constantly thinking about what others (Caesar or
Antony) will think and what is the best decision for her people.
She is very passionate and loving and really just wants to be loved.
VIII. Representative Passage Illustrating the Above(and the novel
in general)
"He moved again, and once again we touched, and in what felt
like a long, slow, dreamlike motion- but what surely was not, what
surely happened almost instantly
he turned his head and kissed me full on the lips. Without a censoring
thought I returned the kiss, opening my mouth to his, and felt him
turn halfway and rise
from the chair, pulling me up with him. And now we were standing,
face to face,
kissing, and unbidden, unable to do anything else, I put my arms
around him and
held him against me."
IX. Overall Evaluation as a Work of History
I believe that this is a work of pleasure and not a work of history.
Yes, it has a historical basis and it has historical facts in it
but it is not completely a work of history. It is not really meant
to teach the events of the past. The reader just happens upon the
facts while reading a very, very dramatized account of them.
X. Overall evaluation as a Work of Art/Literature
I liked this book overall. It kept me entertained and it was interesting.
The parts
where Cleopatra was just ruling and there wasn't much else going
on got sort of
tedious, but it wasn't that bad. The author did have interesting
ideas, such as inserting a Jewish person who talks about Yahweh
and a Messiah. I really did have a good time reading this book,
it is too bad that it is so long though.