Classics for Beginners discussion

The group selected this book to read for May. This treatise was first circulated in 1513 and has been controversial every since.

Do you agree with Machiavelli's assessment?

Finished last month, finally getting a chance to C&P comments on it.

Finished reading The Prince last month (took me a week). If it wasn’t for a group read and short, I probably would have given up on it after a few chapters. Nearly did anyway. Dull, dry reading—at least in my opinion. Only redeeming quality is that I was able to apply it to this year's Ultimate Reading Challenge.

While there are some aspects of it that may be applicable to today (such as people judging one by the people with whom one chooses to surround oneself), I think you get more out of it if you understand some of the historic political references. Modern politics are mind-numbing enough!

Wondering if anyone who voted for this one actually read it (it was not my choice), and how many regretted that decision?

I looked at The Prince and it reminded me of Mary Wollstonecraft's book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. I nominated that book and everyone hated it, including me! Nobody finished it, including me.