Scenes from the Life of Cleopatra

by Mary Butts

This Excellent historical novel by British-born writer Mary Butts is the story one of the world's most legendary women. Butts presents Cleopatra and her story in a completely new light. Eschewing the popular notions of Cleopatra as presented by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Shaw, in which Cleopatra is presented either as a tender martyr or a mindless hussy, Butts presents the reader with a figure of a great ruler, who had to choose her lovers in order that her kingdom could survive, but who recognized throughout the danger and potential of those choices.

Genres: Historical Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Mary Francis Butts was a modernist writer whose work found recognition in important literary magazines of the time, as well as from some of her fellow modernists, T. S. Eliot, Hilda Dolittle, and Bryher. After her death, her works fell into obscurity until they began to be republished in the 1980s.

Butts was a student of the occultist Aleister Crowley, and as one of several students who worked with him on his Magick (Book 4) in 1912, she was given co-author credit. She was married to poet, publisher, and pacifist John Rodker from 1918 to 1927; their daughter, Camilla, was born in 1920.

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Butts, who was deeply learned in classical history, has rescued Cleopatra from the scandalous reputation promoted by the man who had her son killed. Cleopatra had a child with Julius Caesar, and that boy was his only son. Before the child Caesarion's birth, Caesar had made his nephew Octavian, later Augustus Caesar, his heir. But when Julius Caesar was assassinated, the Roman Empire was up for grabs.. Shakespeare based his Cleopatra and Antony on the propaganda promoted by Octavian after their deaths. Mary Butts creates a much more believable ruler, deeply conscious of her limited choices and stunningly intelligent. The whole era is painted in detail that is based in serious engagement with the texts written at the time or soon after. This book makes all the film and tv versions of Cleopatra look shabby, misogynist and ridiculous.

[Wayne McNeill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary wrote two historical novels. This is one, the other is about Alexander the Great ("The Macedonian"). Both are worth reading, as are her short stories. She was good friends with the poet/painter/novelist/film critic Oswell Blakeston. Oswell once quoted to me something from one of Mary's postcards: "Oh darling, do you remember those parties when the drugs were simply wheeled in on trolleys?"