description: In this intellectual biography de Grazi presents a new Machiavelli in a way that gives an almost uncanny sense of the great Florentine thinker's presence.After telling the story of Machiavelli's childhood and the period of personal crisis that followed his imprisonment and torture, the book turns to The Prince . Thenceforth the facts of biography--Machiavelli's home, journeys, fears and joys, works, friends, and loves--never cease to weave in and out of the narrative as his ideas gather power and come together to form a unified vision of humankind and the world. De Grazia quotes exclusively from Machiavelli's own words rather than quoting others who commented upon him. In this way he paints a colorful portrait of the man entirely in the context of his time.In The Prince , Machiavelli had famously examined the dilemma of the ruler who must find a resolution between political necessity and ethical behavior. By thus inventing what would later come to known as 'realpolitik' Machiavelli entered the language of political discourse, and got himself rather a bad name. De Grazia's Pulitzer Prize-winning book goes some way to rehabilitating him, suggesting that his immoral means were put to good political ends."… achieves an unprecedented sense of intimacy with his subject, and turns the demonic 'Machiavel' into the very human 'Niccolò,' whose ideas are seen to arise so naturally from the world of his experiences and feelings.…a model of how intellectual biography should be done ."-- Joseph Frank" I was unprepared for the splendor and excellence of Machiavelli in Hell. It is engrossing, stimulating and a marvel…I have rarely read a work of scholarship so elegantly done ."-- A. Bartlett Giamatti
language: Spanish; Castilian
title: Maquiavelo En El Infierno
titlecomplete: Maquiavelo En El Infierno (Spanish Edition)
characters: Niccolò Machiavelli
genres: Biography, Religion, Italy, Politics, Political Science, Philosophy, European History, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, History
ratings_count: 240
awards: awardedAt: 631180800000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Biography or Autobiography
publisher: Norma