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61+ Werken 11,674 Leden 394 Besprekingen Favoriet van 16 leden

Over de Auteur

Francine Prose was born on April 1, 1947. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968. She received the PEN Translation Prize in 1988 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991. Francine Prose novel The Glorious Ones, has been adapted into a musical with the same title by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen toon meer Flaherty. It ran at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City in the fall of 2007. Prose has served as president of PEN American Center, a New York City based literary society of writers, editors, and translators that works to advance literature in 2007 and 2008. Prose novel, Blue Angel, a satire about sexual harassment on college campuses, was a finalist for the National Book Award. One of her novels, Household Saints, was adapted for a movie by Nancy Savoca. In 2014 her title Lovers at the Chameleon Club - Paris 1932, made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder
Fotografie: Credit: David Shankbone, 2007

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Werken van Francine Prose

Blue Angel (2000) 1,002 exemplaren
Goldengrove (2008) 587 exemplaren
A Changed Man (2005) 524 exemplaren
The Mrs Dalloway Reader (2003) — Redacteur — 428 exemplaren
After (2003) 413 exemplaren
Mister Monkey (2016) 278 exemplaren
My New American Life (2011) 254 exemplaren
Gluttony: The Seven Deadly Sins (2003) 225 exemplaren
The Vixen (2021) 200 exemplaren
Guided Tours of Hell: Novellas (1997) 192 exemplaren
Caravaggio (2005) 189 exemplaren
Touch (2009) 181 exemplaren
Bullyville (2007) 178 exemplaren
What to Read and Why (2018) 170 exemplaren
The Turning (2012) 155 exemplaren
Hunters and Gatherers (1995) 141 exemplaren
Household Saints (1981) 138 exemplaren
The Peaceable Kingdom: Stories (1993) 134 exemplaren
Bigfoot Dreams (1997) 116 exemplaren
Primitive People (1992) 107 exemplaren
Women and Children First: Stories (1988) 91 exemplaren
Judah the Pious (1973) 53 exemplaren
Dybbuk: A Story Made in Heaven (1996) 53 exemplaren
The Glorious Ones (1974) 48 exemplaren
Hungry Hearts (1983) 34 exemplaren
Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth (2022) 31 exemplaren
Marie Laveau (1977) 30 exemplaren
Stories from Our Living Past (1974) 26 exemplaren
Leopold, the Liar of Leipzig (2005) 17 exemplaren
Tin House 31 (Spring 2007): Evil (2007) 17 exemplaren
Tim Davis: The New Antiquity (2010) 14 exemplaren
Rhino, Rhino, Sweet Potato (2009) 8 exemplaren
Jo Ann Callis: Other Rooms (1700) 8 exemplaren
Animal magnetism (1978) 4 exemplaren
Chihuly: Faxes (2016) 4 exemplaren
Liza Lou (2011) 4 exemplaren
1974: A Personal History (2024) 3 exemplaren
Titian's Pietro Aretino (2020) 2 exemplaren
School For Murder 1 exemplaar
Die Wut (2009) 1 exemplaar

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The Best American Essays 2012 (2012) — Medewerker — 231 exemplaren
We Are the Stories We Tell (1990) — Medewerker — 195 exemplaren
Een klein ogenblik (1983) — Vertaler, sommige edities187 exemplaren
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Loss of Memory Is Only Temporary: Stories (2022) — Introductie, sommige edities21 exemplaren
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This book was fairly tedious and found humor in people who had major problems, something that does not amuse me. Of course the woman who had lived a very difficult life and had very little material sustenance was the person who best understood life and its circumstances. It was truly a book of despair that did not appeal to me.
½
 
Gemarkeerd
suesbooks | 2 andere besprekingen | Mar 3, 2024 |
Thatā€™s it, Iā€™m never reading a novel that has anything to do with a chimp/monkey again.
 
Gemarkeerd
lelandleslie | 19 andere besprekingen | Feb 24, 2024 |
pages to mark when I buy this title: xv, xvi, 13, 117, 225, 257, 264, 268 -9, 271, 272 (entered 11.19.23)
tag 'Powells' means I saw author at reading there
 
Gemarkeerd
Overgaard | 3 andere besprekingen | Nov 19, 2023 |
Dismissing Historical Misogyny & Hollywood Luridness
Review of the Yale University Press paperback (October 17, 2023) of the original Yale University Press hardcover (November 1, 2022).

She continues to fascinate us to this day. The final ruler of Egypt before its annexation to the Roman Empire is known to us as Cleopatra (c70 BCE - 30 BCE), but was actually Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemic Dynasty. She was a descendant of Ptolemy I (367 BCE to 282 BCE), one of Alexander the Great's Greek Macedonian generals who ruled Egypt as one of the several successor kings who carved up their conquered empire after the death of their leader.

Because of some gaps in the knowledge of her parental lineage, there is speculation that she may have been of mixed race. This has resulted in recent controversies such as the reaction to the Netflix documentary (2023) and the possible casting of the mixed race actor Zendaya in a rumoured future feature film.

Francine Prose gives a "feminist reinterpretation" of both the ancient historical accounts and the later Hollywood film depictions. All of these emphasize her as a diabolical temptress and seducer who led "noble" Romans such as Julius Caesar and Marc Antony astray. Those early accounts were written by Roman historians of course, often well after the actual events. These accounts often ignore the fact that she was the ruler of Egypt and sought to protect her children and the independence of Egypt for the future. She unfortunately allied herself with the losing forces who were either assassinated such as Caesar or committed suicide such as Antony. Cleopatra herself chose to commit suicide rather than be paraded through the streets of Rome by Octavian (later known as Emperor Augustus).

Sidenote: A lot of this reminded me of the blackening of the reputation of the last Plantagenet-Yorkist King Richard III in the later Tudor accounts such as Shakespeare's play. Recent history has sought to restore that reputation. Mystery fans should read Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time (1951) for a fictional reexamination of the murder of the princes in the Tower of London.

Back to Cleopatra. In any case, Prose makes an interesting argument for reading those early accounts with a grain of salt and remembering who they were written by and for whom. Hollywood of course takes the most extreme stories and builds on them even further. So we have bizarre stories handed down such as Cleopatra being presented to Caesar after being rolled up in a rug and later committing suicide with the aid of an asp being smuggled in a basket of figs.

See photograph at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Kleopatra-VII.-Altes-M...
Bust of Cleopatra VII in the Altes Museum Berlin. Image sourced from Wikipedia where it is described as a Roman sculpture of Cleopatra wearing a royal diadem, mid-1st century BC (around the time of her visits to Rome in 46ā€“44 BC). For an interesting video on What Did Cleopatra Look Like? based on extrapolating from this bust, see Trivia below.

See graphic at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Kleopatra-Cesarion-god...
Cleopatra introduces her son Caesarion to the Egyptian falcon-headed god of war Montu. Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

I enjoyed this reinterpretation of the life of Cleopatra and look forward to reading more of the Ancient Lives series from Yale University Press. I had previously read Sarah Ruden's Vergil, The Poet's Life (2023).

Other Reviews
Francine Prose dispels the sexualized mythology surrounding a powerful ruler by Allison Arieff, Datebook SF Chronicle, October 31, 2022.

Trivia and Links
See a video of What Did Cleopatra Look Like? at the Royalty Now YouTube channel here.

Read an excerpt from the book at The Legend of Cleopatra at Yale University Press.

Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth is part of Yale University Press's Ancient Lives series which currently includes: Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor (expected publication February 2024), Vergil: The Poet's Life (2023), Ramesses the Great: Egypt's King of Kings (2023), Julian: Romeā€™s Last Pagan Emperor (2023), Crassus: The First Tycoon (2022), and Demetrius: Sacker of Cities (2022).
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
alanteder | Nov 12, 2023 |

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Werken
61
Ook door
65
Leden
11,674
Populariteit
#2,018
Waardering
3.9
Besprekingen
394
ISBNs
320
Talen
12
Favoriet
16

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