"It is best to be both feared and loved, however, if one cannot be both, it is better to be feared than loved."--Machiavelli

For over four hundred years, The Prince has been the basic handbook of politics, statesmanship, and power. Written by a Florentine nobleman whose name has become a synonym for crafty plotting, it is a fascinating political and social document, as pertinent today as when it first appeared. After a lifetime of winning and losing at the game of politics, Machiavelli set down for all time its ageless rules and moves, in this highly readable formula for the man who seeks power. At a time before modern democracy, Machiavelli was less concerned with right and wrong than with currying favor with the ruling Medicis, and his work came to be thought of as a blueprint for dictators.

The Prince has long been required reading for those interested in politics and power, and it has long since become one of the world's most significant books.

With an Afterword by Regina Barreca

Regina Barecca, Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut, is the editor of the influ­ential journal LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory. Among her many books areThey Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted, a widely acclaimed study of wom­en's humor, andBabes in Boyland, It's Not That I'm Bit­ter..., and Untamed and Unabashed: Essays on Women and Humor in British Literature. She is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Women's Humor.