The Memoirs of Cleopatra

By: Margaret George

Narrated by: Donada Peters

Length: 49 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

This novel allows the unscrupulous and proud Queen of the Nile to recount her own tale. A masterful recreation of history.

©1997 Margaret George (P)1998 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"A thrilling story...[Cleopatra's] 'memoirs' are vivid and enthralling. Read them." (Washington Post)
"Readers looking to be transported to another place and time will find their magic carpet here." (Publishers Weekly)
"An extremely detailed historical novel....this accurate re-creation of a vastly interesting time and place will not disappoint." (Booklist)

What a woman!

Such a wonderfully told story . . . I was glued to my earphones for weeks! I read this book in preparation for a trip to Egypt and, "faction" (fiction + fact) or not, I felt quite prepared once I arrived at the pyramids. George meticulously researches her books and I found her sense of Egyptian history to be quite stirring. The narration was also excellent.

fascinating

I know it's not all true, but various times through the book, I did stop to Google something and it always turned out to be real. I'm floored by the amount of fact in this book and still it riveted me for 40 hours

Amazing Journey

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The story was beautifully complex, rich and captivating! It is like being a very lucky historical fly on the wall.

Would you be willing to try another one of Donada Peters’s performances?

The sound quality its not iPhone speaker compatible. Many mouth sounds and background noises in the recording have been put together in manner that is very distracting.

An absolute pleasure to listen and to learn

This was possibly the single best book that I have listened to on audible to date. The details of Cleopatra' life are captured so fantastically. I recommend this book with much enthusiasm. The only problems with this book are that the chapters as depicted are not as read. That is merely a technical glitch and should be fixed, but takes nothing away from this in any way.

An Epic Story Filled to the Brim With Real History

I own every historical fiction novel worth owning regarding ancient Egypt and the historicity is beyond magnificent. Margaret George created a next-level masterpiece with this writing. The vivid details are exquisite. The character development is first rate and you feel transported.

I loathe the later Ptolemaic dynasty, but with the crushing political and military power of Rome (booooo!) there could ne mo other outcome. Margaret's writing is first-rate and well-researched. I cannot recommend it enough. This book is a crown jewel in my Egyptological listening.

Completely Miscast

The narrator sounds like a late-middle-aged English nanny. Nothing wrong with that but in no conceivable way can this be the voice of Cleopatra.

What would have been a fascinating and engrossing audiobook was fatally flawed by the choice of narrator. I couldn’t keep listening. Incredibly disappointing.

Excellent Writing

Cleopatra becomes a living and attractive human being to the reader as he progresses through her wonderful life in The Memoirs of Cleopatra. Margaret George portrays her as a gifted and intelligent ruler first and a loyal and loving person second. The reader can see the tremendous amount of research that went into this voluminous novel. It is also read by a very competent narrator, Donalda Peters.

The Heart and Mind of a Queen

As Cleopatra herself states within this book, people love an elemental story. What could be more elemental than love, ambition, and power?

I read this book in paper form years ago, and it's a treat to go through it again in audio. The narrator, Donada Peters, sounded familiar to me, and a quick search revealed that I had heard her previously through other pseudonyms, chief amongst them Nadia May. She has an authoritative voice for the historical narratives I've heard her perform, and while she seemed a bit of an odd choice at first for the voice of Egypt's last queen, she quickly won me over for all of the characters. That's important for a story of this scale where character is chief amongst the attributes needed to pull it off.

Margaret George's works never cease to impress me. As an historian, her works are meticulously researched to ensure the known facts are present within the tale. As a storyteller, her pacing is just fast enough to keep things moving, but it's slow and languid enough to really build the details of character and setting. As I said, character is chief amongst the attributes needed to pull off a story like this, and this is where the author's skills truly excel. By the end of this book, you feel like you have spent some quality time with not only Cleopatra, but with Caesar, Antony, and many of the secondary and tertiary characters as well. The humanity of these people are brought to vivid life, to the point where it's understandable why and how the decisions made in their lives unfolded as they did.

Much like with Henry VIII and Helen of Troy, Cleopatra is a subject that Margaret George picked who has little to no voice nor compassion in the realm of public awareness. Most of the stories about her are told by those around her, many of them enemies or political opponents, and in this case, many of those long after she had died. She is largely seen as a powermad opportunist, a political whore, and worse, but rarely is she treated with the respect of a queen and the humanity of a woman. A tale that weaves together the known facts told from her own perspective is immensely satisfying in that the demonized perceptions are lifted like so many veils, one after the next. And in humanizing her, Ms. George has humanized Caesar, Antony, and the rest right along with her. And so, as with Henry VIII, Helen of Troy, and her other novels, this is historical fiction raised to its highest levels, in my own humble estimation. Perhaps I'm biased, already being a fan of hers, and admittedly having been attracted the Cleopatra story some decades ago thanks to the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Claudette Colbert. With any truly great story like this where seemingly everyone is a force of nature, the more you learn, the better it gets, and the more difficult it can be to find that one superior telling of the story. For this particular tale, look no further than this book. The only way it could be better is if perhaps Ms. George decided someday to pen a companion book about Caesar, seeing as how his part is only the last part of his story, but his influence on Cleopatra seems boundless.

Flippers comments

Even though the audio book follows what I have seen in the movie, there are other aspects of her life that are brought into focus with reference to her relationships that are not. I found what I have heard so far to be interesting and informative. Having heard parts 1,2&3, I am looking forward to the upcoming chapters.

I am curious as to how she starts her relationship with Mark Anthony since she has only touched on even recognizing him in the first three parts.

absolutely lovely

If you've ever been intrigued about Cleopatra, and even if not, this is a must! You are brought into her world of love and power and understand the reason to her death. What a wonderful historical fiction. Written well and absolutely lovely!