On Pain of Death: Mad Machiavelli

The Prince

Book Review by Margaret

Niccolo Machiavelli

Rating: 6/10

Date read: 24 May to 8 June

The Prince was written in 1513 by Niccoló Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat and political theorist. It is intended to be an instructional guide for those in power, namely, princes. It is perhaps well known for its controversial theory that sometimes a prince would have to commit immoral, even cruel acts, in order to have a successful rule.

I read this book out of pure curiosity, and while some of the subject matter was new and interesting to me, I can’t say much of it seemed very likely. I’m no political theorist, but I do have a fair bit of common sense, and much of what Machiavelli claimed here seemed to be a bit far-fetched. Indeed, I would actually go so far as to call some of the principles suggested by Machiavelli as morally outrageous. ‘Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than to be loved’. What would this mean for a society? Yes, Machiavelli intends these principles to be used by rulers, not ordinary people, but how can you expect your ruler to follow principles which do not apply to you? Thus, if everyone went around trying to be feared because ‘love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage', but ‘fear preserves you by a dread of punishment that never fails’, society would collapse! Everyone would hate each other and there would be bitterness and despair everywhere. And this is only one of the appalling ideas Machiavelli discusses in this book.

It must also be admitted that there is also a thread of truth in some of what Machiavelli says. ‘The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him’ certainly seems true, but I still don’t think I could believe Machiavelli was very intelligent, no matter what men were around him. Machiavelli's view of violence, deception, punishment, scheming and war as casual tools of gaining power seems, at the very least, like a red flag. My rating of this book may seem surprisingly high, given my opinion of it, but although I did not think the book was very helpful or very true, I still enjoyed it. It was fairly engaging and provided a lot of food for thought. I would recommend it, purely on the grounds of fresh subject matter to consider.

The Incredible Life of Machiavelli, Author of 'The Prince'

Comments

Whatever Souls Are Made Of

Wuthering Heights Book review by Margaret Emily Bronte Rating: 9/10 Date read: 20 June to 3 August Wuthering Heights, the only novel written by Emily Brontë (a friend of the blog), was published in 1847. It is a Gothic romance novel which centres around themes of the supernatural, nature & civilisation, love, passion, masculinity & femininity, revenge & redemption and social class (LitCharts). The story’s chief characters are Catherine Earnshaw and her adopted brother, Heathcliff, who originally live in Wuthering Heights, an old manor house on the dark and stormy Yorkshire Moors. The majority of the story is narrated by Nelly Dean, a lifelong employed servant of the Earnshaw, and later, Linton families. She explains to John Lockwood, a wealthy gentleman staying in Thrushcross Grange, a house later owned by Heathcliff, the complicated and strange histories of the Earnshaw and Linton families over the past fifty years. This consists of three generations of people, many birt

"Mind-forg'd manacles": Analysing the Plight of Blake's 'London'

"Mind-forg'd manacles"; Analysing the plight of Blake's London Written By Ollie I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse Blake's 'London' is morose and filled with suffering, the poem exposes the daily plight of London 's pained residents whilst exploring how their own 'mind- forg ' d manacles ' - their corrupt ed human minds - have given rise to this dystop ian city. shackled in sorrow The poem begins with the speaker wan

The Winding Path to Gilead

Gilead Book review by Margaret Marilynne Robinson Rating: 6.5/10 Date read: 12 June to 18 June Gilead is a 2004 fictional epistolary novel by Marilynne Robinson, whose main character, a Congregationalist pastor called John Ames, is writing letters to his son. John is in his late seventies and married to a woman more than thirty years his junior, with an unnamed son of about six years old. John knows that, due to his heart condition, he will not live for much longer, so he has decided to leave a monologic record of various experiences, thoughts, meditations, observations and impressions for his son to read when he is older, presumably after John’s death. However, John’s son plays a relatively minor role in the book itself; rather, Jack Boughton, the son of John’s best friend, plays the most active role in the story, serving as one of the primary focuses of John’s thoughts. I found this novel to be highly engaging on an ideological level, though the story itself was meandering and f

A Wife Now Living

Search This Blog