The Prince

Niccolo Machiavelli

Jan 2003 · Sold by Bantam Classics

About this eBook

The Prince

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. 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.

This Bantam Classic edition of The Prince includes selections from Machiavelli’s Discourses as well as an introduction and notes by the translator, Daniel Donno.

Ratings and reviews

It is very logical, realistic, and of course Machiavellian. It is extremely useful and helpful in being a 'Good Leader' in achieving goals and maintaining power. Must read for all who aspire to lead or are working in a managerial role

A short and easy read packed with information. The central idea isn't being harsh and cruel will bring success, but that one must make judicious use of violence to ensure good ends.

Disturbing, reads like a dictator's playbook. Fear the man you see reading this book in public.

About the author

Peter Constantine, winner of the PEN Translation Prize and a National Translation Award, has earned wide acclaim for his translation of The Undiscovered Chekhov and of the complete works of Isaac Babel, as well as for his Modern Library translations, which include The Essential Writings of Machiavelli, Gogol’s Taras Bulba, Voltaire’s Candide, and Tolstoy’s The Cossacks.
 
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.