Customer Reviews

Art of War

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The work is a completely new translation by Christopher Lynch. His goal was to produce as accurate and faithful translation as the two languages would allow. That job was handled particularly well. There are extensive notes on the translation process and word choice. If you are looking for a very faithful tranlation, this book is for you.

However, it's not for me. I am an avid military history reader and I was looking forward to this book. But, the dense run on sentences that characterize the Italian original makes for tough going.

Lynch begins the book with an extensive introduction that sets the work in context both in Italian politics and in Machiavelli's life. I thought that was quite good.

He (Lynch) ends the volume with an interpretive essay that I thought was a bit choppy and is more focused on Machiavelli (no surprise, that's his field). I was hoping for more on the art of war part. This is a facinating book in that it was written by a civilian with very little practical experience in the field. More of a compare/contrast look at how his ideas stacked up against the more conventional masters would have been nice.

If your looking for California love remixes, wrong section.

But this book is great, and a long read. Polished this one off following Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" and I must say - I didn't think it was as interesting nor did it seem to keep my attention as well. Really good for someone interested in political philosophy that can be related to modern day events in some form or another.

This translation of Machiavelli's Art of War is a job well done. If you are interested in studying Machiavelli's work then you should certainly pick up this book.

The tranzlation forr this volume iz abzolutely horreble! I'm returning this book promptly. Full of typos, and mizzplaced and mismatched letters, it's nearly impossible to read. Avoid this garbage, and get a better translation than this schlocky work!
I just cannot believe Amazon would sell this crap to anyone.