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The Prince  By  cover art

The Prince

By: Niccolò Machiavelli
Narrated by: David McCallion
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Publisher's summary

In an attempt to appeal to the Medici family during the Italian Renaissance, Machiavelli outlines the way to acquire and retain political power, and how great men should behave in a princely government. The book is divided into four parts - types of principalities and state, proper conduct of a prince as military leader, personal conduct of a prince, and the disparity of Italy's political situation. Many listeners will be able to see principals that Machiavelli advocates for are still used in many political systems today.

©2016 A.R.N. Publications (P)2016 A.R.N. Publications
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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A great way to enjoy Machiavelli

When studying the history of political and philosophical texts, The Prince is perhaps one of, if not the most, important in political realism. Where many of Niccolὸ Machiavelli’s contemporaries, like Plato, focus on what the ideal government should be, Machiavelli focuses on how people are able to obtain and hold power, making his observations more realistic than those of Plato.

Having read the print version in the past, I found this audio book version read by David McCallion is very easy to listen to. The proper British English adds to the narrative, fitting the Renaissance feel of the novel allowing the reader to fall into the story much more easily than just reading the text. Given the importance of this book in the history of political works, it is important to go through the text slowly, which McCallion achieves very well in his narration style, look no further this version will not disappoint you.

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19 people found this helpful

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A Very Interesting Read

Machiavelli can be a bit confusing to those that do not have an understanding of some of the historical content within the book, but the principals he talks about are ones that people can certainly relate to centuries later. I definitely recommend giving this a listen as it gives you some great political insight, and the narration was wonderful and well paced.

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9 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Terrible reader

The reader read as though he did not understand the contents. Grating. Dumb. Completely unlistenable!

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2 people found this helpful

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bad performance

the reader of this book is not very good. he drones on, and emphasizes randomly. he reads the book like he's just trying to get through it.

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1 person found this helpful

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Now I know

This allowed me to get a much better understanding of the principals Machiavelli was trying to relay. The reading was just a bit too melaton for me, but I get it!

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Poor audio quality

At first, I thought maybe my headphones had started to go bad and were the cause for me barely being able to discern what he was saying; however, after not only disconnecting them and still having trouble listening to it through my phone speaker, and also listening to another book with my headphones on, I am almost 100% it is an issue with the recording of this narration. Terrible.

I can't even get past the 2nd chapter to leave a rating on the story, so i just gave it a 1

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Informative

My Review - Great

I first heard of this book from learning that Tupac read it and used the author's name as a pseudonym name for himself (Makaveli); it was to represent his new way of thinking. After listening to it personally, I can see what he got from it. The Prince is a great short collection of instructional tellings and experiences of the author that describes the importance of understanding your political environment and getting the best results from it through your actions. I wasn't sure I would be able to relate or even understand due to the material's aged narrative voice, but in actuality, I found this book very intriguing and I can see myself listening to it again multiple times over actually. The author accounts for different times when he saw princes and royalty succeed or fail due to their cunning or incompetence. There's much to learn from books like this, and I hope to find more like it.

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Good for a niche crowd. Bad otherwise

Need understanding of political power and 1500s Europe history to understand the premise here

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Annoying to listen to but good story

I want to pay attention so badly, but the rhythm of the narrators speech is so annoying that it’s impossible to get through. I’ve tried multiple times.

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  • Overall
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not for me.

if I was a law student this would be perfect well done though thank you.

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