In her own lifetime and in the 2000 years since her death, the image of Cleopatra has been repeatedly reinvented, each time in a form that fits the prejudices and fantasies of the age that produced it. This book gives an account of the way in which different generations have viewed Cleopatra. "In this shimmering study, Lucy Hughes-Hallett shows how Cleopatra's image was constantly amended by prevailing female fashions, political morality, sexual neuroses. Cleopatra is brilliant and wily...a book about fabrication, persuasion. Even in Cleopatra's own lifetime the legends of the monstrous yet enticing female ruler were beginning to accumulate. But we all love Cleopatra." - "Observer". "This is a gripping book. Miss Hughes-Hallett is magnificently scholarly, yet she writes with ease and fluency...A fascinating account of the way in which succeeding generations have seen Cleopatra; as virtuous suicide, inefficient housewife, exuberant lover, professional courtesan, scheming manipulator, femme fatale, incarnation of Isis and bimbo." - "The Economist".