The "Prince"

by Niccolo Machiavelli

SparkNotes (Editor)

"SparkNotes Literature Guides" is an invaluable series tackling some of the most important novels ever written and studied. Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, these indispensable study aids are thorough and informative. They feature explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols, detailed analyses of major characters and important quotes, plot summaries and analysis, an exploration of historical context, plus key facts and potential essay topics - everything a student needs to be thoroughly prepared!

• ISBN10: 1411407148
• ISBN13: 9781411407145
• Publish Date: 1 June 2008 (first published 4 April 1913)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 22 January 2010
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Spark Notes
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 75
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Non-negotiable: read Ada Palmer’s five-part (plus?) series on Machiavelli. I’ll wait. She makes sense of the enigma, the real Machiavelli, neither lionized nor maligned. The brave thinker; the frightened statesman. Charismatic, unorthodox, forming a response to the Borgia tyranny, trying to save his beloved Florence, playing pranks on the monks, centuries ahead of his time.

It’s the reason I read this book again. I liked it the first time; the context, of which I had grasped only part, makes it even more remarkable now.

Although credit where due: the introduction to this translation does a fair attempt at that context. It’s too Borgia-lite to paint the full bloody picture, but it has Savonarola right there on the first page, so it’s on the right track.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

I can see why people use this book as the basic of how to be a leader; the book is about ‘how to get power and keep it’. The Prince is one of the first books about modern politics; and I feel like it’s almost ‘The Art of War’ of politics. I really enjoy this book, while a lot of the book is logical, it does give you a lot to ponder and digest. I think this book has been the blueprint of modern politics.