The Prince cover art

The Prince

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Prince

By: Niccolò Machiavelli, W. K. Marriott - translator
Narrated by: Denis Daly
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

This treatise on politics was the fruit of Machiavelli's many years of experience as a diplomat and historian and circulated in 1513 but not published until 1532. It was dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici, a member of the ruling dynasty of Florence.

In Machiavelli's view the ideal ruler is an effective executive rather than a moral paragon. If one desires power, one must take all the appropriate steps to acquire and maintain it. As models of successful princes, Machiavelli offers the examples of Pope Alexander VI; his son, Cesare Borgia; and Ferdinand of Aragon - men who were able, energetic, persuasive and intimidating and always prepared to act unethically if it suited their purposes.

The essential immorality of Machiavelli's central premise - that in politics the end justifies the means - led to the book being banned by Pope Paul IV in 1559.The translator has appended two other works by Machiavelli that describe the modus operandi of an effective ruler: a description of the methods adopted by Cesare Borgia at Sinigaglia in 1502 in removing his enemies and a biography of Castruccio Castracani (1284-1328), the ruler of Lucca.

Public Domain (P)2017 Voices of Today
Classics Pope

Listeners also enjoyed...

Meditations cover art
Art of War cover art
Republic cover art
On Living and Dying Well cover art
The Iliad cover art
The Wealth of Nations cover art
The Brothers Karamazov cover art
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh cover art
Meditations cover art
Letters from a Stoic cover art
Fooled by Randomness cover art
Shakespeare: The Complete Works cover art
Cakes and Ale cover art
Don Quixote cover art
The Art of War cover art
Crime and Punishment cover art
No reviews yet