The Prince (Penguin Pocket Hardbacks)

Have lofty aspirations of world dominance?

Dream of the laments of your enemies?

Do you want to learn to bend the masses to your will?

Here's the book for you!

I used the knowledge I gained from this book to depose the pretender to the throne of Carthage last week. And I'm only halfway through.

I also used its power to trick my wife into switching sides on the bed so I could be closer to the fan.

I'm drunk with power.

Come and join me.

Machiavelli's writing style seems long winded but makes sense with the translation of such an old text.

The publication has a few typos but is largely correct and legible. The publication does not follow a coherent format (narrative, instructional, fable, etc.) and is hard to follow at times and requires a second read.

A total steal at $0.99. Great purchase.

Recommended reading on the nature of politics. Short volume with some interesting insights in a 16th century context. Niccolò Machiavelli offers some useful rhetoric for discourse with today's weasels or empty suits. It's a great description of the dark angels of our nature. It would be nice in these historic volumes if one could double click into some analysis from scholars...

Afshin, Afshin, Afshin!!!!!!! You have done an exceptional job with this book. Prince: A Private View is simply sublime. Words can't express how wonderful it is to experience this. I am just awed, just awed!!!!!! The photos are great but the story that accompanied the photos are gems. It's just nice to read about my hero.

"The Prince" reminded me of Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer". Both are full of aphorisms about life and the use of power. Power is gained, maintained and often lost. TP has sayings to aptly fit each situation. The sophomore political science major will quickly relate: "It's easier to hold power if you first gained it by ability than gained it by luck". (W take heed!). "Be feared but neither be hated nor loved". "Don't trust mercenaries". These may be trite but the author does include some cynically useful advice for the day our sophomore graduates to the real world: "One must be sometimes a lion and sometimes a fox. One avoids snares, the other avoids wolves." "No one will lift you to your feet. If he does, it will only be to his advantage". "Make provisions in calm times. Build dikes and levies for the storms to come". If carefully read, TP could be beneficial to the reader considering political life, to anyone faced with hardball office politics-or a boss who is a jerk. TP does, to its credit, suggest purely defensive moves that one could use for self -preservation. This is on a higher plane than using dirty tricks to gain advantage. One tactic I disagree with is the author's suggestion to always take sides in a dispute. (Win or lose, neither side will respect you when battle is done). What a way to make enemies! For such a short work, TP is strangely challenging. It is frequently repetitive, set in small typeface and the historical examples can be obscure, with references to Spartans, Persians, Medes, Moses, Cyrus the Great and old Popes. Students of history should still take a chance on TP. They will undoubtedly learn from it. TP first appeared in 1513(!) and is still selling. Old Niccolo, who was in exile at the time, must have done something right.

This book should be required reading for persons intending to go into politics

The Starlight Club: The Mob (Starlight Club Series Book 1)

Great price, great shipping cost. good quality book. great translation. BUT! I am removing 1 star for one of the most mind-numbingly stupid things one could do to a collectible book.

someone slapped a BIG BLUE STICKER right smack-dab ont he middle of the front cover!!!!!!!!!!

I was able to peal it off very carefully and it is all, but completely gone. to the untrained eye, it has never been there, but I see it everytime I look at the book and so will anyone else who knows a bit about books. It damaged the cover and while the book is still very much readable and in that sense its value has not been damaged. it DID damage its collection value and that is very sad.

all in all I am happy, aside fromt hat sticker-business. STOP THAT!

This particular edition is terrible. I will change this rating if I discover differently. A search for Caspuccio yields nothing and a search for Lucca yields one result. I am not sure why it is so incomplete. The W.K. Marriot version doesn't seem to have these problems. The Prince without Caspuccio???

I trusted that something called the store Classics would be ok. My mistake.

If you love His Royal Badness, you will love this book. Great pics and wonderful memories recorded with most of them. Only drawback, covers his years with Manuela & ends when he started up with Ta'mar, only bout ten of his illustrious years. It's a must have for The Purple Army. RIP Beautiful One.

Beautiful! Having been a Prince fan 30 + years.. I never would have imagined that there were too many pictures I hadn't seen. I was delighted by the expression and the genuineness of each photo. If you're a Prince fan this is a must!

Avoid this version. It is filled with awkward editing and has too many typographical and grammar errors. I shared with the store that this product does not meet its high quality standards. As an alternative, I suggest the Barnes and Noble version, which is translated smoothly and contains informative endnotes.

Beautiful! Having been a Prince fan 30 + years.. I never would have imagined that there were too many pictures I hadn't seen. I was delighted by the expression and the genuineness of each photo. If you're a Prince fan this is a must!

Avoid this version. It is filled with awkward editing and has too many typographical and grammar errors. I shared with the store that this product does not meet its high quality standards. As an alternative, I suggest the Barnes and Noble version, which is translated smoothly and contains informative endnotes.

There was considerably more than what I expected in the book. It's unfortunate if one only come away with the idea that the ends justify the means. As with Caesar's Commentaries, I read the Spark Notes as the names and places were foreign to me...no pun intended.

It is a pleasure to read Meditations, although the English is not always easy to follow, at least for a non native speaker. Marcus Aurelius leads us into a travel in the challenges and mysteries of life and makes us wonder about what is truly important. His thoughts appear surprisingly modern, as modern are many of his ideas - from himself or borrowed from other philosophers - about nature, matter and universe. Despite all the scientific and technical progress, men from ancient times were not that different from ourselves in what the position to the eternal problems relates.

A more challenging read, being written 500 years ago and all. Its only 70 pages long, but feels longer. Machiavelli has an interesting take on gaining and maintaining power within monarchies, but can apply to other positions of power and government. Its cool to see anecdotes from the 1500's, and his methods for taking power make sense, though it is a VERY repetitive book. A lot of his tactics and ideals would not stick or be successful in todays world, but the perspective that the "prince" must keep is fascinating. I was almost going to give it 3 stars, but for $2 its a great deal.

Written with an accessible yet supremely elegant prose, I found Machiavelli's most famous work a delightful, provocative chronicle of political realism. Written as an open letter to a Renaissance-era ruler, Machiavelli prescribes the ins and outs of how to seize, defend and expand a kingdom, using countless historical examples to support his claims. However, The Prince finds is true power not in the political answers it offers to its readers, but the difficult questions it raises. In today's day and age, chances are, if you're on the store.com reading this review, you're living in a democracy. You were probably raised to revere democratic and republican ideals, and if that's the case, you will feel uncomfortable reading The Prince at times, although I found this aspect exciting. Machiavelli seems to unapologetically endorse oppression, violence and cruelty at times, but does so in pragmatic way that will make you question your ideals. These moments represent what I personally love about books, and what I consider to be the true power of literature - and Machiavelli's work, despite being a relatively short 129 pages, has them in spades.

Unlike a few reviewers, I had no problem with the translation. I haven't tried reading any other versions, but I found the Enriched Classic version very pleasant and definitely readable; in fact, I was impressed with how well Machiavelli's Italian was translated into such beautiful, flowing English. It's a great size, and you can take it pretty much anywhere, so if you're like me and tend to cram your reading into your fleeting moments of free time throughout the day, it's perfect. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It no doubt deserves its status as a classic, and I heartily recommend it to anyone willing to consider politics from a different angle.

Every leader should read three books: "The Prince" by Machiavelli, "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, and The Holy Bible.

Anyone who possesses the knowledge of the first two will need the third to keep him in check.

Observations, insights and conclusions regarding the human condition and the behavior of those in power and those who seek it. As relevant to those seeking to understand power as it was when it was written over five centuries ago.

It is impossible to honestly rate a classic such as this book. It is full of violent recommendations for how a prince should rule and was apparently aimed at one particular prince about to assume leadership. It was considered a bit outlandish when written in an age of warring princedoms and is really outlandish in our more democratic worldwide society, but I nonetheless found much that he said quite practical in application to getting along with people if not actually governing. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many emerging leaders who are giving the world trouble today have read Machiveli and adhere to his teachings.

This book is the ultimate reference on leadership. Seizing and holding power. Machiavelli discusses his views on Italy, military forces, Politics, enemies, Alexander the great, Popes, Rome and Sparta, Venetians, Florentines, Biblical references, Governments, Religion and Warfare.

He discusses many great rulers among Italy and individually discusses their victories and defeats...He points out who made the mistakes and who did what was correct to achieve greatness.

Contains Advice, philosophical points of view, different perspectives on what these Princes and Rulers could have done to gain power in their kingdoms, all from Machiavelli's point of view and its dead on brilliant. There's also lines in this book that have prevailed over 100's of years that you will recognize immediately. I highly recommend this to anyone.

This is a classic book that I would definitely recommend. I read it for my AP composition class back in high school. Although reading this book straight through would have been great, I annotated while reading. The annotations definitely helped me appreciate the critical points of Machiavelli's arguments.

What I like: the book is straightforward and clever at times. It was easy to identify with several of the book's characters.
What I dislike: sometimes it felt like I was waiting too long for the story to progress.

Final Thoughts: Solid book. I'd recommend it, especially if you're interested in political philosophy.

To understand current politics and politicians I was told to read this book. It arrived quickly & in good shape. It didn't take long to read but I'm going to go back over it again and treat it like a textbook I needed to "know" back in college. I recommend it for anyone who wants to better understand politics& politicians.

Afshin you really out did yourself with this book. I enjoyed the stories that you tell with the photos. The pictures are so crisp and vivid. The clarity in Prince's face and hands is outstanding! I love the photos of Prince playing his guitars. Great book! I cannot wait for the next edition. You were blessed to have worked with him. You can tell he was very comfortable with you by the different places and ways you photographed him. Thanks again for sharing!

Classic natural wisdom. Since I am not a muslim, I don't know how it fits in with that ethic, but for westerns it is useful for christians and non-christians alike. Depending on whether you think the self is real or not, this may appeal to you more than the eastern teachings on ethics and spirituality.

A great modern work following Marcus Aurelius is Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is the Way:

http://www.the store.com/Obstacle-Way-Timeless-Turning-Triumph-ebook/dp/B00G3L1B8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416864728&sr=1-1&keywords=the+obstacle+is+the+way

So far, best translation of book i could find. The glossy vibrant colored cover is so nice. My favour'te part of the book is the references. They are very detailed and gives historical information you need to follow it at certain pace without boring. Still i'd recommend to read a bit more of the european history between 13th and 15th centuries along with it. The book itself is timeless.
On a irrelevant note, machiavelli has a natural troll face in his painting. I can't believe he sat like that for hours for painting.

Read it after watching The Borgia's on Showtime. The Prince is apparently written about Cesare Borgia-- and was offered to Lorenzo de' Medici as a kind of job application. Comprising only 71 pages, don't let that fool you. It took me 3 concerted efforts to finish it and that was with help from online university profs who teach the book. Definitely worth your time if you enjoy thinking...

The Prince is about obtaining, holding and exercising power. One must keep historical context when reading. Machiavelli writes as giving advice to princes or would be princes. Much is useful in understanding current political ambitions.

Since Prince's passing, I've brought many magazines and several books, all of which I just glanced through the pictures. This book grabbed a hold of me and didn't let go, from beginning to end, the captions of the pictures brought me into that experience. The dreams mesmerized me. When I was done, I didn't want to be. Thank you Mr. Shahidi for this masterpiece, I've gained a more personal perspective of Mr. Nelson the man.???

A big let down from SmarterComics, as most of their other works are great. For whatever reason, the publisher chose to use a contrived story about two hacker friends as a backdrop to describe all of the themes from the Prince, while peppering the frames with text from the original. The result is a confusing mess. It's often not clear what themes are being conveyed in many of the scenes of this adaption, with the exception that all means to accomplish an end are fair game, including betrayal. Try the Round Table adaption -- it's a lot more faithful to the original.

Fun read. Short and sweet. Longest job resume I've very read. See why his name became a verb. Read his Discourse on Livy and you get a fuller, fairer picture of Machiavelli. Lots of translation and I just picked one.... it's a good one.

I have heard quotes from Machiavelli but I have not read his book. Now as I am reading it, I discovered what he is actually saying and understand when he wrote the book and what he is saying in his era.

We are somewhere in the early 1500s and this Machiavelli guy is putting together some advice for a prince. Quite bizarre setup because the prince here is someone who just “acquired” a new state and of course wants to keep it for long. The whole thing felt like the opposite of what Chomsky has being doing but Machiavelli exposed the human nature with no filters. Raw truth is always shocking.

Per Niccolò Machiavelli, we are invited to distribute his works after his death. This order's books are all well bound softcover full wrapped editions. Good gifts for the symbolic gesture but the full e-version of the same title in previous review is the edition necessary for scheming laughs and academic research.

This is a very interesting historical read. I'm not certain how to answer the questions the store posed as this is not a book with a plot, but I did my best. Anyone interested in politics or economics ought to give this a read, although you have to keep in mind the time period in which it was written was a brutal time and can be a bit of a shock to the modern reader.

This book contains the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen of Prince. Such a talented photographer who put this all together for the love of Prince and his Purple Family. Amazing book. Thank you Afshin Shahidi for giving this book to the world and for sharing such intimate personal photos and details on our Prince. A must have. Best book ever.

I have this translation by Daniel Donno in the Kindle edition. In chapter VII, at least, Donno's translation seems pointlessly inconsistent. In Machiavelli's mention of Francesco Sforza, Donno translates "acquistato" as "gained." However, when Machiavelli says, "Cesare Borgia...acquistò lo stato," Donno says, "Cesare Borgia...acquired power." Machiavelli used "stato," not "potenza." So in this little space, we already have two different translations of "acquistare" and a surprising translation of "stato" as "power." Then, just few lines later, Donno translates "stati" (plural of "stato") as "territories" instead of "states." This is a word-salad. This is an inexpensive edition, with an old, respectable translation, and an attractive cover, by some standards; however, translations like this do not seem to allow Machiavelli to speak for himself. Read, if you will, Reading Machiavelli: A Guide to Translations and Interpretations, and to Sources for Livy, Xenophon, and Aristotle, and then buy what seems best for you.

This is one of those books that are often referenced and led to the term "Machiavellian". If you're tired of wondering exactly what that means like I was, just buy it. It's a surprisingly easy and short read and was supposed to be a kind of "how to" book for ruthlessly ruling a principality. I found it very entertaining myself. If you're a writer and need inspiration on what makes evil tyrants tick, then this could be exceptionally useful.

For a book that was written nearly 500 years ago, The Prince still relates to modern conditions and situations, indirectly of course. Although The Prince is adivce on being a prince, it can be interpreted as how to be a powerful, effective and successful leader, administrator, politician, supervisor, or influential person over a group of people/ organization.

The strategies and tactics that Machivelli suggests are indispensable for any of the above mentioned types. I think that nearly everyone can benefit from the knowledge and messages that Machivelli conveys in The Prince.

I think that this book may be too much to absorb for most peopole the first read through. You really need to know your history to understand the many historical allusions that Machiavelli uses to demonstrate his opinions. Luckily for people like me, the author does a great job by assisting people who aren't very familiar with these topics by having a number of footnotes that explain certain events. After The Prince, there is also some excerpts from The Discourses, another piece of work by Machivelli.

I fully reccomend this book and am certain it will be engaging and useful to nearly anyone who reads it.

Timeless classic discussing the behavior and actions of an ideal leader, written during a very tumultuous time in Italy's history.
Machiavelli not only provides his own insight into what he sees as an effective "prince" in order to persuade his reader but also forces the reader to think about effectiveness of the leaders and political systems within their own time.

The book itself without doubt is great. However the hardcover is not advertised right. The font and type face is extremely small and very difficult to read. I wish thy had advertised the font size and posted pictures of the inside so that people could decide. Also the translator is not the person other reviewers have talked about. Wish they shared the information as well

An amazing and detailed chronicle of a marvelous part of human history. Machiavelli shows us that humen problems haven't changed. Our desires and restrictions remained the same and our passion for power is the same as it was 1000 years ago. A must read.

The Medici made their biggest mistake after taking over Florence when they fired Niccolo Machivelli, the equivalent of a modern Prime Minister or Chief of Staff. He really knew his politics, and had a realistic plan for a Prince to seize power and become Prince of a United Italy. That was Machiavelli's dream, an end to the internicene warfare of the medieval Italian States, and the beginning of an era of a new Roman Empire.

This book is essentially what amounts to a very long job application by Machiavelli, hoping that the Medici princes would rehire him and he could return to doing what he loved to do and did best, politics.

The book is often criticized as the work of the Devil because of Machiavelli's insistence that the prince will have to be ruthless, not always keep his word, and manipulate people. He insists that a successful prince must be FEARED by his population---though not to the point where he is hated. He said, execute a man and he won't be able to hurt you again, but never simply confiscate his property or take his women away from him. The book is still relevant today.

This book is filled with the most intimate pictures of Prince I've ever seen. Thank you Afshin for creating this masterpiece!
*This is the first time I've preordered anything. I was very excited to receive this coffee table book. It arrived on time, the very day it was released.

Machiavelli starts with providing lessons on the types of principalities and the principles of governing and military strategies. He then relates the story of a lord who thrived with wit and an astute knowledge of military tactics. While some of the principles may appear outdated, the unconventional structure of the book offers practical methods to become an effective prince or leader.