Customer Reviews

The Art of Wealth: Strategies for Success

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Anyone who buys this title expecting an abridged version of Kautylia's economic and political treatise is up for a great disappointment. Actually, I don't understand why Amazon lists Kautylia as the author of this book. Its editor, Thomas Cleary, has taken some wisdom nuggets from the _Arthashastra_ to present them in a completely decontextualized form alongside some brief commentary. Although Cleary has some interesting insights, he verges on the ridicule in his tendency to "comment" Kautalya by recourse to other (de-contextualized as well) quotations from Chinese thinkers. That is to say: one text explains another text which explains another text... It is a permanent deferral that betrays the incapacity to confront the contents of the original text.

The _Arthashastra_ is a deep and complex work. Certainly, I understand the need for an abridged version in English (the average Joe or Jane in the West might not, after all, be interested in peculiarities such as forensic procedure or court etiquette in the time of the Gupta dynasty). But Dr. Cleary does Kautylia a tremendous disservice when he presents the _Art of Wealth_ as something it is not: a collection of idealistic, spiritual (one is tempted to say Platonic) perceptions of material life. Certainly, Kautylia and other Indian thinkers understood "artha" as something that encompassed far more elements than the narrow minutiae of the modern Western concept of "wealth", but the Orientalist rendering by Dr. Cleary falsifies the fundamental pragmatism of the original.

The other reviewers have stated that The Art of Wealth is simplistic. Nowadays common sense isn't so common and I think that The Art of Wealth is perfect for those of us that aren't so enlightened that we couldn't use a gentle reminder of some of life's most profound truths. I love the book personally because it is applicable to day to day life and the problems associated with ethics and morality when dealing with others. Having a wise uncle or grandfather on a shelf can never hurt, and that is just what this book is, wisdom of the years distilled into book form.

This book is basically a bunch of old Sanskrit sayings (much like the things in Chinese fortune cookies) after each saying there is a small paragraph further clarifying the point. Basically I feel this book is worthless for anyone who has common sense.

Reed Floren