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  • Published: 2 March 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099518495
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $19.99

The Prince

The Classic Analysis of Statesmanship and Power




A refreshingly accessible new translation of this timely and dynamic classic work about the corrupting effects of power

Machiavelli’s highly influential treatise on political power

'It is far safer to be feared than loved...'

The Prince shocked Europe on publication with its advocacy of ruthless tactics for gaining absolute power and its abandonment of conventional morality. Niccoló Machiavelli drew on his own experience of office under the turbulent Florentine republic, rejecting traditional values of political theory and recognising the complicated, transient nature of political life. Machiavelli made his name notorious for centuries with The Prince, his clever and cynical work about power relationships. The key themes of this influential, and ever timely, writer are that adaptability is the key to success and that effective leadership is sometimes only possible at the expense of moral standards.

'Everyone should have a copy of Machiavelli's The Prince, whose original purpose may have been to counsel Renaissance rulers in the art of statecraft but is still applicable to and, indeed, acted on by modern politicians and power-brokers' Guardian

  • Published: 2 March 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099518495
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $19.99

Other books in the series

On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

About the author

Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Florence. He served the Florentine Republic as a secretary and second chancellor, but was expelled from public life when the Medici family returned to power in 1512. His most famous work, The Prince, was written in an attempt to gain favour with the Medicis and return to politics.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine statesman who was later forced out of public life. He then devoted himself to studying and writing political philosophy, history, fiction, and drama.

Also by Niccolo Machiavelli

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Praise for The Prince

If one were to assign a single edition of Machiavelli's works, this most certainly would be it

John. P. McCormick, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

Everyone should have a copy of Machiavelli's The Prince, whose original purpose may have been to counsel Renaissance rulers in the art of statecraft but is still applicable to and, indeed, acted on by modern politicians and power-brokers

Guardian

A 16th Century handbook of wily political thinking that tells you how to get the upper hand in every conceivable situation

Mail on Sunday

How amazing, that anyone's ideas should be controversial after five centuries. Machiavelli expressed a certain attitude to power - it's a good thing, and the problem is how to get and keep it - so well that he has never become out dated

Guardian

One of most influential books ever

Mirror

Machiavelli was not an evil genius, or a fiend, or a miserable coward of a writer; he is nothing but fact. And not just Italian fact, but European fact, sixteenth-century fact.

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables