8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Publication date December 4, 2007 Originally published 4 December 2007 Publisher Simon & Schuster Genre Historical drama | 4/5 Goodreads Series Masters of Rome series Media type Print (Hardback) Preceded by The October Horse Country Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pages 567 pp (first edition, hardback) ISBN 1-4165-5294-4 (first edition, hardback) Similar Works by Colleen McCullough, Masters of Rome books, Rome books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Antony and Cleopatra is the seventh and purposely last novel in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, published in 2007.
Contents
Plot summary
McCullough continues her Masters of Rome series with the seventh and final installment, Antony and Cleopatra. The novel spans the years 41 BC to 27 BC, from the aftermath of the Battle of Philippi and the suicide of Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus until the downfall of the second triumvirate, the final war of the Roman Republic and the renaming of Octavian to Augustus in 27 BC . The novel, which was McCullough's last in the series, focuses mainly on the famous love story between Mark Antony, victor at Philippi, and queen Cleopatra, earlier the lover of Julius Caesar.
This book differs greatly from Shakespeare's treatment of these events; Cleopatra is portrayed as no great beauty, but rather an inept politician who helps ruin Antony's cause by publicly meddling in affairs of state, and Antony is, for much of the book, far more in love with Cleopatra's wealth than her person. Caesarion is portrayed as a gifted, idealistic youth who would be far happier had he never been a king, and who is not happy with his mother's ambitious plans to make him ruler of all the East. Octavian and his wife Livia are depicted as pragmatic to the point of total ruthlessness but not needlessly cruel.