Cleopatra — Volume 01

Georg Moritz EbersProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 103K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Cleopatra — Volume 01 by Georg EbersAuthor: Ebers, Georg, 1837-1898,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is Volume 01 of Georg Ebers's Cleopatra, the opening of the historical novel, introducing the main characters and the historical setting and laying out a narrative framework in which the Egyptian court and Roman politics are intertwined. Ebers excels at evoking the ancient world through detail; this volume moves at a relatively leisurely pace, focusing on introducing characters and setting up conflicts, and suits patient readers. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg ebook, it is easily accessible and serves as an introductory sample of how nineteenth-century German historical fiction portrayed the ancient world. Note that the English text retains period language habits and contains long descriptive passages; readers may wish to grasp the character relationships first before moving into details.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want to enter the series systematically from Volume 01
Those interested in historical fiction set in ancient Egypt and Rome
Teachers and students who need a public-domain English long-form work for extracurricular reading

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction who want fast pacing and strong plotting
Readers who only want a standalone biography of Cleopatra
Readers unaccustomed to nineteenth-century long sentences and extensive environmental description

Reading tips

Before starting, note the main characters and their allegiances for easier cross-reference later.
After each chapter, summarize the plot development in one or two sentences to keep the threads from becoming scattered.
If the language is difficult, read relevant Chinese-language historical background first, then return to the original text.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is Volume 01 mainly about?

Volume 01 is the opening of the novel. It mainly establishes the historical setting and main characters and lays out the narrative framework of the Egyptian court and Roman power, setting up later conflicts; the plot advances at a relatively leisurely pace.

How difficult is the English?

The text is nineteenth-century historical-fiction English, with many long sentences and descriptive passages. The vocabulary is not obscure, but the sentence structures are rather elaborate. It suits readers with some foundation in reading long English works; beginners may use supporting materials.

Does the electronic edition have annotations?

The Project Gutenberg edition mainly provides the public-domain text and usually does not include modern scholarly annotations or introductions. Readers who need background explanations can consult historical materials on ancient Egypt and the late Roman Republic separately.

Comments

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About the author

Georg Moritz Ebers Author · German · 1837–1898

Georg Ebers (1837–1898) was a German Egyptologist and novelist. Born in Berlin in 1837, he served as a professor at the University of Leipzig. His major contribution to Egyptology was the discovery, editing, and publication of the famous Ebers Papyrus, which provided valuable material for the study of ancient medical texts. At the same time, he devoted himself to spreading Egyptological knowledge through literature, writing historical novels such as An Egyptian Princess and Uarda. These works weave the social life and historical settings of ancient Egypt into their narratives, making specialized scholarship more accessible to general readers. His works number 172 in the library's collection, including the serialized volumes of An Egyptian Princess and Cleopatra, which shows how widely his historical novels circulated. Overall, Ebers combined scholarly rigor with a novelist's gift for popular expression, occupying a distinctive place in the popularization of Egyptology in the nineteenth century.