The Mandrake

The Mandrake - Paperback

$22.88
$22.88
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The Mandrake
  • The Mandrake
The Mandrake - Paperback

The Mandrake - Paperback

by Walter Wykes , Niccolo Machiavelli
$22.88
$22.88

Book Overview

Written while Machiavelli was in exile for allegedly plotting against the Medici clan, "The Mandrake" or "Mandragola" details the corruption of Italian society in a series of increasingly comical scenes that culminate in the cuckolding of a powerful Florentine aristocrat. The author depicts human nature just as he has come to know it, and the sinister fruits of his studies have delighted audiences to this day, for we recognize our own failures in Machiavelli's creations--characters too quick to compromise personal ethics in order to accommodate a corrupt and demeaning world, too easily persuaded to lie, cheat, swindle, and deceive, or close their eyes to deception, in order to ensure some small improvement in their miserable lives, always espousing the mantra that "the end justifies the means." "The Mandrake" is a powerful comic treatise on immorality, a diagnosis of cultural disease, and perhaps the finest surviving example of the Italian Renaissance comedy of intrigue.
ISBN9780557677443
Author Walter Wykes , Niccolo Machiavelli
PublisherLulu.com
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedOctober 2010
LanguageENG- English
Pages80
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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About Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine statesman who was later forced out of public life. He then devoted himself to studying and writing political philosophy, history, fiction, and drama. George Bull is an author and journalist who has translated six volumes for the Penguin Classics: Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography, The Book of the Courtier by Castiglione, Vasari's Lives of the Artists (two volumes), The Prince by Machiavelli and Pietro Aretino's Selected Letters. He is also Consultant Editor to the Penguin Business Series. After reading history at Brasenose College, Oxford, George Bull worked for the Financial Times, McGraw-Hill World News, and for the Director magazine, of which he was Editor-in-Chief until 1984. His other books include Vatican Politics; Bid for Power (with Anthony Vice), a history of take-over bids; Renaissance Italy, a book for children; Venice: The Most Triumphant City; and Inside the Vatican. Anthony Grafton teaches European intellectual history at Princeton University.

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