Recommendations from our site
“It’s hard not be intrigued by Niccolò Machiavelli, a man whose name is synonymous with evil genius in many European languages. His most famous work, The Prince, has been recommended a number of times on Five Books. Erica Benner’s Be Like the Fox, which came out in paperback this year, blew me away for a number of reasons. One, Niccolò comes across as such an enthusiastic, principled, humorous character; it’s hard not to find him immensely likeable as you live through the ups and downs of his life with him. Secondly, this period when Italy was the battleground of Europe, the Pope out of control and the Medicis up to this, that and the other, is just fascinating, and one I’ve long wanted to know more about. Lastly, the style Erica Benner uses to tell this story is immensely appealing. I’m a huge fan of primary sources, i.e., if you want to know about Machiavelli, just read Machiavelli. The problem is, if you don’t know enough of the history, you’re constantly looking up footnotes or doing searches on Wikipedia (“Who was Cesare Borgia?”) which is disruptive. What Erica Benner does is incorporate direct quotes of Machiavelli’s into her account. So I am reading both the original, and an interpretation at the same time. I really couldn’t put this book down.” Read more...
Editors’ Picks: Favourite Nonfiction of 2018
Sophie Roell, Journalist
Be Like the Fox by Erica Benner is a brilliant book about the life of the Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli. Although it’s written as a novel, it reads more like nonfiction than fiction. If you’re interested in Machiavelli and his thought, and the tempestuous country and times he lived in, you’ll find it unputdownable. It was one of our 2018 editors’ picks.
A bit of a different choice, here. It’s a work of biography which may appeal to those who enjoyed Wolf Hall for the fresh perspective it gave them on a controversial historical figure.
Thomas Cromwell lived in Florence at the time of Niccolò Machiavelli, the Italian diplomat and philosopher, and was well acquainted with his work. (In Wolf Hall, we see him reading The Prince in “a Latin edition, shoddily printed in Naples, which seems to have passed through many hands.”)
But Machiavelli has been somewhat unfairly maligned when his work is seen as a whole and in context. Like Cromwell, he was an ambitious man with a strong sense of realpolitik. Erica Benner’s eminently readable biography Be Like the Fox offers excellent insight into his life and work. Five Books’ editor Sophie Roell selected it as one of the best nonfiction books of 2018: “Niccolò comes across as such an enthusiastic, principled, humorous character; it’s hard not to find him immensely likeable as you live through the ups and downs of his life with him,” she added, noting that she particularly admired how Benner interwove direct quotes from Machiavelli himself into the interpretative text.
From our article Books like Wolf Hall
