A Bluffer's Handbook to Machiavelli's The Prince

By Mark Colenutt

Considered the ‘Koran of the courtiers’, The Prince inspired Mussolini, and served Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell and Carlos V. It is therefore a book that has impressed Monarchs, Emperors, Dictators and a Lord Protector. It has also been denounced as the work of the Devil and Old Nick’s book has been read by Catholics and Protestants alike, with both religious factions believing it the work of the other.
Written to impress the ruling Medici, it has become the most famous job application letter in history. Machiavelli’s revolutionary work broke with the past by daring to say what scholars had only previously thought.

This brief guide then outlines the legacy and meaning of Machiavelli’s politically dangerous book. It will allow you to bluff your way in most armchair debates and save you valuable time by not having to read the whole text. Machiavelli’s work gave us the allegory of ‘the fox and the lion’ as well as the maxims ‘the end justifies the means’ and ‘it is better to be feared than loved’ thus provoking a debate that rages to this day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Colenutt
• Release date: Oct 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370850488

Mark Colenutt

Born 1970 in Plymouth, Devon and eventually washed up on Spanish shores. I took root in Madrid after four years in London at teaching college. Soon after that, I ventured further south settling in Seville in the old gypsy district of Triana. Eleven years later and it was time to move north again and to the town of Girona, an hour and a half from Barcelona and nestled in a politer landscape. A teacher by training, an MA in history, two published titles to date, a further 3 books in the editing phase and a novel in the making. My interests primarily revolve around history and Spain, while my pipeline-novel will be a complete break but something I have coveted forever. I am presently engaged in a historical title concerning the British Raj and then I will return to completing the editing of my cultural title on Europe's most colourful city: Seville. That is all till now, hopefully there will be more to come, readership willing.

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