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The Prince (Modern Library Classics)

by Machiavelli and Constant

ISBN13: 9780812978056
ISBN10: 0812978056
All Product Details

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The first modern treatise of political philosophy, The Prince remains one of the world’s most influential and widely read books. Machiavelli, whose name has become synonymous with expedient exercises of will, reveals nothing less than the secrets of power: how to gain it, how to wield it, and how to keep it. But curiously, this work of outspoken clarity has, for centuries, inspired myriad interpretations as to its author’s true message.

The Introduction by noted Italian Renaissance scholar Albert Russell Ascoli provides a perfect opening to Peter Constantine’s illuminating new translation of this seminal work.

"Constantine elegantly captures in English the pith of Machiavelli’s brilliant Italian prose."

–Edward Muir, Clarence L. Ver Steeg Professor in the Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University

“Peter Constantine’s excellent translation belongs in everyone’s library. Perhaps now more than ever we have much to learn from this Renaissance thinker, present at the birth of the modern world.”

–John Jeffries Martin, professor of history, Duke University

Review:

“[Machiavelli] can still engage our attention with remarkable immediacy, and this cannot be explained solely by the appeal of his ironic observations on human behaviour. Perhaps the most important thing is the way he can compel us to reflect on our own priorities and the reasoning behind them; it is this intrusion into our own defenses that makes reading him an intriguing experience. As a scientific exponent of the political art Machiavelli may have had few followers; it is as a provocative rhetorician that he has had his real impact on history.” –from the Introduction by Dominic Baker-Smith

From the Hardcover edition.

Synopsis:

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince . . . a king . . . a president. When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. In The Prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast, fox and lion. Today, this small sixteenth-century masterpiece has become essential reading for every student of government, and is the ultimate book on power politics.

From the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Florence. He served the Florentine republic as secretary and second chancellor, but was expelled from public life when the Medici family returned to power in 1512. His other works include The Discourses, The Art of War, and the comic satire The Mandrake.

Peter Constantine is the recipient of a PEN Translation Prize and a National Translation Award. His Modern Library translations include The Essential Writings of Machiavelli, Voltaire’s Candide, and Tolstoy’s The Cossacks. He lives in New York City.

Albert Russell Ascoli is Gladys Arata Terrill Distinguished Professor of Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and was awarded the Rome Prize for study at the American Academy in Rome.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

: bruce erickson, February 20, 2008 (view all comments by bruce erickson)
Machiavelli may have lived in Florence, Italy five hundred years ago but his writing and insights into government, politics, war, military occupations and administering defeated cities remain brilliant, relevant and illuminating. I rediscovered my Modern Library College Edition recently while cleaning out boxes of old paperpacks. I picked it up, started reading and couldn't stopped. Forty years after being required to read it, I finally had the life experience to enjoy and understand his discourses.
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Product Details

ISBN:: 9780812978056
Author:: Machiavelli And Constant
Publisher:: Modern Library
Translator:: Constantine, Peter
Introduction:: Ascoli, Albert Russell
Author:: Machiavelli, Niccolo
Subject:: Classics
Subject:: Political science
Subject:: Political ethics
Subject:: History & Theory - General
Edition Description:: Paperback
Series:: Modern Library Classics
Publication Date:: February 2008
Binding:: Paperback
Language:: English
Pages:: 126
Dimensions:: 803x540x43 30

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