This is one of Shakespeare’s historic plays and tells the story of the ill-fated love affair between Mark Antony and Cleopatra. It’s actually quite a rare instance where I have very little to say in my review. I wasn’t bored when I read it by any means, but ultimately, all I can really say is that it is what it is.
Perhaps the biggest talking point of the book is Cleopatra who, some argue is Shakespeare’s most well written/well developed female character. While I would personally say that Lady Macbeth is the character who holds that distinction, I will say this about Cleopatra – she’s alright. Not an awful character, but not spectacular either. It’s nice to see a woman in a position of power in a Shakespeare play, rather than just as a fawning side-character… but then, the position of power that she has is owed to history, not to Shakespear’s mind… and she still spends an awful lot of time fawning over Mark Antony, to an extent that she seems almost infantilised at times.
I could just recount aspects of the storyline, but that wouldn’t really be much of a ‘review’ so, other than that, I guess the best way to describe it is as follows: it’s interesting and will give you what is (I imagine) a highly fictionalised account of the historic events between the two titular characters. Afterwards you’ll think “Huh, that was alright” and that’s it. It’s a sequence of events that are made more interesting by the fact that they’re based on history, but a sequence of events that will prompt very little food for thought. It all just kind of happens.
Fans of classical literature like me, or fans of Shakespeare at large, will definitely enjoy it, and I enjoyed it too… but, it just felt very middle of the road. Nothing amazing, nothing amazingly bad. I read it, it was okay, and then it was over, and unlike most things I read, it didn’t lead to any interesting conversions with fellow readers. Make of that what you will.
Five out of ten seems like the only appropriate score for this, but while I’ve given other books that score for having a huge amount of bad, and also an equal list of good things, this one has nothing egregious wrong with it – it’s just good in the mildest way.
Score: 5/10
