Santi di Tito, Niccolo Machiavelli, 16th century. via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Penguin Classics
The Prince
Power, described rather than praised; written for a Medici.
$12.00
Available · worldwide delivery
- Author
- Niccolò Machiavelli; trans. George Bull
- Publisher
- Penguin Classics
- Published
- January 2003
- Pages
- 0
- Format
- Paperback
- Size
- Standard
- Language
- English
The Library Essay
Power Described, Not Praised
Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513, dismissed from Florentine service, tortured and exiled to his farm, hoping the little book would recommend him to the Medici it flatters. It did not, and it made his name immortal for a different reason: he described how power is actually won and kept, virtue where it serves and cruelty where it serves, and refused to pretend that ruling was an exercise in being good.
Published only in 1532, after his death, it was placed on the Church's Index of forbidden books and has been read continuously ever since by the people it describes. George Bull's Penguin Classics translation renders it in the brisk, unornamented English the argument deserves; the scandal was never the style but the honesty.
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