Then and Now

Fülszöveg

Then and Mow, Somerset Maugham's successful venture into historical fiction, was first pubUshed in 1946. It is a chronicle of three important months in the life of Machiavelli, during the time when he was Florence's envoy to Cíesar Borgia, the bandit prince, whom he later held up as a model to all rulers and would-be rulers of mankind in The Prince. The illuminating contest between two of the craftiest of sixteenth-century politicians is complemented by an entertaining Boccaccian interlude in which Machiavelli attempts the seduction of the young wife of an impotent Roman merchant.
Somerset Maugham portrays the Italian Renaissance, with its political complications and disregard of life and morals, with the same polished style and wise detachment which he brings to his stories of the contemporary scene.
" the unobtrusive skill with which he has kept the leading traits of Machia-velli's character steadily before us is remarkable, and this whether he is describing his political or... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Then and Mow, Somerset Maugham's successful venture into historical fiction, was first pubUshed in 1946. It is a chronicle of three important months in the life of Machiavelli, during the time when he was Florence's envoy to Cíesar Borgia, the bandit prince, whom he later held up as a model to all rulers and would-be rulers of mankind in The Prince. The illuminating contest between two of the craftiest of sixteenth-century politicians is complemented by an entertaining Boccaccian interlude in which Machiavelli attempts the seduction of the young wife of an impotent Roman merchant.
Somerset Maugham portrays the Italian Renaissance, with its political complications and disregard of life and morals, with the same polished style and wise detachment which he brings to his stories of the contemporary scene.
" the unobtrusive skill with which he has kept the leading traits of Machia-velli's character steadily before us is remarkable, and this whether he is describing his political or his amorous intrigues. What excited my admiration perhaps even more was the subtle instinct which has prompted Mr Maugham to exhibit this historic advocate of wits as himself often outwitted by his intellectual inferiors . . . both in politics and love.
"I put Then and Mow high among historical novels, quite apart from its excellence as a narrative." DESMOND MacCARTHY, Sunday Times Vissza