The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
List: $2.99 | Sale: $2.10
Club: $1.49

The Prince

Author: Niccolò Machiavelli

Narrator: Auto-narrated

Unabridged: 3 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2023


Synopsis

The most famous book on politics ever written, The Prince remains as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation of tyranny, it has more recently been defended as the first scientific treatment of politics as it is practiced rather than as it ought to be practiced. Harvey C. Mansfield’s brilliant translation of this classic work, along with the new materials added for this edition, make it the definitive version of The Prince, indispensable to scholars, students, and those interested in the dark art of politics.
This revised edition of Mansfield’s acclaimed translation features an updated bibliography, a substantial glossary, an analytic introduction, a chronology of Machiavelli’s life, and a map of Italy in Machiavelli’s time.
“Of the other available [translations], that of Harvey C. Mansfield makes the necessary compromises between exactness and readability, as well as providing an excellent introduction and notes.”—Clifford Orwin, The Wall Street Journal
”Mansfield’s work . . . is worth acquiring as the best combination of accuracy and readability.”—Choice
”There is good reason to assert that Machiavelli has met his match in Mansfield. . . . [He] is ready to read Machiavelli as he demands to be read—plainly and boldly, but also cautiously.”—John Gueguen, The Sixteenth Century Journal

About Niccolo Machiavelli

Considered one of the great early political analysts, Niccolò Machiavelli is a historical figure in the turning point from the Middle Ages to the Modern World. He was born in Florence, Italy, on May 3, 1469. He was the second son of Bernardo di Niccolo Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute, and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility.

In Machiavelli's youth, Florence was a great Italian power under the leadership of Lorenzo de' Medici, Il Magnifico. In 1494, the downfall of the Medici and the establishment of a free republican government gave Machiavelli his entrance into politics. After four years in a minor post, he rose to chancellor and secretary to the Second Chancery, the commission that oversaw military matters and foreign affairs.

However, the republic collapsed in 1512, and the Medici returned to power. Although Machiavelli vainly hoped to serve the new rulers, he was dismissed from his post. Shortly thereafter, having been accused of involvement in a conspiracy against the Medici, he was imprisoned and tortured before being released.

For the next eight years, Machiavelli lived quietly at his small property in San Casciano, near Florence, and he devoted himself to literature. Here he wrote The Prince, his most famous work, which, ironically, he dedicated to the very man who had ordered his imprisonment in hopes of regaining his lost office.

Gradually, his literary fame grew, and he returned to Florence in 1520, where he became involved in the attempt to reform the city's constitution. This was the height of Machiavelli's literary activity and increasing influence. Coincidentally, he died within a few weeks of the second expulsion of the Medici in 1527, at the age of 58.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sasha on June 11, 2024

I'm weirdly pleased that The Prince lives up to its reputation: it is indeed Machiavellian. Here's his advice on conquering self-governing states (i.e. democracies): "The only way to hold on to such a state is to reduce it to rubble." Well then. I'd like to say that any guy whose last name becomes a......more

Goodreads review by Henry on August 30, 2024

Italy in the early 1500's was a sad, dispirited land of constant wars, deaths, destruction, political betrayals, schemes of conquest by greedy aristocrats, trying to enlarge their petty Italian states, invasion by ruthless, foreign troops, from France, Spain, the Swiss, rulers being overthrown and k......more