The New Machiavelli

The New Machiavelli Summary

The New Machiavelli by H.G. Wells is a novel published in 1911 that explores the intertwining of political ambition and personal relationships. The story follows Richard "Dick" Remington, a passionate politician whose career is derailed by a scandalous love affair, reflecting Wells's own experiences and critiques of Edwardian society.

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The New Machiavelli Excerpt

Short Summary: Richard "Dick" Remington, a fervent political reformer, rises in British politics with aspirations to reshape society. His journey is complicated by a passionate affair with Isabel Rivers, leading to personal and professional turmoil. The novel delves into themes of power, morality, and the conflicts between public duty and private desires.

"One does not settle down very readily at two and forty to a new way of living, and I have found myself with the teeming interests and activities of my former life suddenly cut off, restless and unsettled to a degree that would have seemed impossible to me a year ago. I walk about the narrow steep paths of this little town, I go into the English churches, I read the books of the cheap little lending library, and I find it all flat and unprofitable. I am, I know, only at the beginning of a new phase of life, the phase of reflection upon all that I have done and been, and it is clear to me that I must pass presently from this mood of unrest and expectation into some settled occupation. But before I do that, I am impelled to write down a sort of apology for myself, an apology for a life that has, I know, been a failure. I want to tell the story of my life as I see it now, to set out the inner history of my career, and to tell at length how it was that I came to wreck my public life with a great scandal, and to abandon my work, my ambitions, and my friends, and take up this life of an exile here in Italy, teaching English to Italian boys and girls. I see now quite clearly that my failure was due to certain inherent defects in my own character, defects that might have been corrected had I been better trained in my youth, or had I been more open to the influences of those about me. But I was headstrong and egotistical, I was impatient of advice or control, and I have had my punishment. I have learnt my lesson, but the learning has been bitter. I have learnt that a man cannot live his life alone, that he must live it in and for the community, and that he must subordinate his own impulses and desires to the common good. I have learnt that the world is a complex and difficult place, and that no man can hope to understand it completely, or to control it entirely. I have learnt, too, that success and happiness are not to be found in the gratification of ambition or the attainment of power, but in the simple, everyday duties and affections that make up the life of the average man. These are the lessons that I have learnt, and I set them down here, partly in the hope that they may be of use to others, and partly as a justification of myself, as an explanation of how I came to make shipwreck of my life."