The Prince (Summarized Edition)
Enriched edition. Virtù, Fortuna, and raison d'état: a Renaissance manual of Realpolitik and state founding from the Italian WarsBy Niccolò Machiavelli
Length1h 58m
About this audiobook
The Prince distills Machiavelli's hard-eyed observations of power into a terse handbook on founding, securing, and governing principalities. Eschewing scholastic abstractions, it blends classical exempla with reports from the Italian Wars, advancing a vocabulary of virtù, Fortuna, necessity, and raison d'état. Its prose is lapidary, aphoristic, and theatrical, alternating maxims with case studies—above all the career of Cesare Borgia. Situated against the humanist "mirror-for-princes" tradition, the treatise subverts moral didacticism by isolating political efficacy as an autonomous standard, while never entirely abandoning civic republican commitments voiced elsewhere in his oeuvre. Born in republican Florence and forged as a diplomat amid embassies to France, the Papal States, and the Empire, Niccolò Machiavelli witnessed the fractious calculus of Italian statecraft at first hand. After the Medici restoration in 1512, his dismissal, imprisonment, and exile to Sant'Andrea forced a turn from action to analysis. Written in 1513 and dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, The Prince answers the problem of political founding under crisis and reflects a bid to reenter service, while drawing on Roman historians, chancery practice, and the hard pedagogy of failure. Recommended to readers of political theory and leadership, it rewards rigorous, unsentimental reflection on power.
Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Author Biography · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.
Audiobook details
GenrePolitics and Government
Length1 hr 58 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJan 10, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
5Author Biography
2Introduction
6Machiavelli: The Prince
3Synopsis
7Analysis
4Historical Context
8Reflection
Der FürstNiccolò Machiavelli3h 57m4.0 (429K)$9 · $0.00
Philosophie der RenaissanceNiccolò Machiavelli, Michel de Montaigne, Erasmus von Rotterdam, Thomas Morus, Francis Bacon, Tommaso Campanella, Martin Luther, Ludwig Kuhlenbeck66h 17m$1.50 · $0.00
Das Buch der hundert altitalienischen NovellenNiccolò Machiavelli, Pietro Fortini, Carlo Graf Gozzi, Eustachio Manfredi, Baldassare Castiglione, Francesco Molza, Liberale Motense, Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Luigi da Porto49h 28m$1 · $0.00
Essenzielle Klassiker der politischen PhilosophieNiccolò Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Friedrich der Große, Platon, Aristoteles, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tommaso Campanella, Thomas Morus, Samuel von Pufendorf, Abbé Castel de Saint-Pierre, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, Franz Mehring, Johann Most, John Henry Mackay, Rosa Luxemburg, Erich Mühsam393h 52m$1 · $0.00
Die Discorsi (Deutsche Ausgabe) (Kommentiert)Niccolò Machiavelli17h 53m$1 · $0.00
Der Fürst (Il Principe) (Kommentiert)Niccolò Machiavelli7h 3m4.0 (76.6K)$1 · $0.00
Mensch und Staat (Kommentiert)Niccolò Machiavelli3h 18m4.3 (121)$1 · $0.00
Gesammelte Werke: Der Fürst + Die Discorsi + Mensch und Staat + Geschichte von Florenz (Kommentiert)Niccolò Machiavelli39h 44m4.4 (11)$2 · $0.00
Geschichte von Florenz (Kommentiert)Niccolò Machiavelli19h 51m3.8 (508)$1 · $0.00
Discourses on Livy (Annotated)Niccolò Machiavelli16h 35m4.1 (10.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Prince + The Art of War (2 Unabridged Machiavellian Masterpieces)Niccolò Machiavelli7h 51m$1 · $0.00
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SELF-MASTERY: 30 Best Books to Guide You To Your GoalsNiccolò Machiavelli, James Allen, William Walker Atkinson, Orison Swett Marden, Benjamin Franklin, Thorstein Veblen, Kahlil Gibran, P. T. Barnum, Marcus Aurelius, Wallace D. Wattles, Lao Tzu, Russell Conwell, Henry Harrison Brown, Émile Coué104h 27m$1 · $0.00
La mandragola - La Clizia - BelfagorNiccolò Machiavelli2h 24m4.1 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
History of Florence and of the Affairs of ItalyNiccolò Machiavelli18h 49m4.0 (738)$2 · $0.00
Geschichte von FlorenzNiccolò Machiavelli17h 38m4.0 (869)$2 · $0.00
The Secret of ProsperityNiccolò Machiavelli, James Allen, William Walker Atkinson, Orison Swett Marden, Benjamin Franklin, Thorstein Veblen, Kahlil Gibran, P. T. Barnum, Marcus Aurelius, Wallace D. Wattles, Lao Tzu, Russell Conwell, Henry Harrison Brown, Émile Coué104h 12m4.5 (39)$1 · $0.00
Discourses on LivyNiccolò Machiavelli16h 44m4.2 (12.5K)$2 · $0.00
RuhtinasNiccolò Machiavelli5h 22m4.0 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m4.5 (5.9K)$40 · $0.00
To Rescue the American SpiritBret Baier10h 12m4.5 (2.7K)$8 · $0.00
StonewalledSharyl Attkisson15h 19m4.5 (4.3K)$33 · $0.00
The World According to Orwell: 1984 & Animal FarmGeorge Orwell15h 42m4.6 (1.1K)$1 · $0.00
Basic EconomicsThomas Sowell18h 32m4.5 (29.3K)$28 · $0.00
To Rescue the RepublicBret Baier, Catherine Whitney11h 42m4.5 (8.6K)$29 · $0.00
Modern WarriorsPete Hegseth7h 10m4.5 (4.7K)$24 · $0.00
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (Annotated)Marcus Mosiah Garvey4h 42m4.5 (1.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
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One Bright MoonAndrew Kwong12h 21m4.5 (813)$29 · $0.00
CredibleDeborah Tuerkheimer8h 5m4.6 (551)$26 · $0.00
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