"In this tightly composed narrative of Machiavelli’s life and works, Benner argues that The Prince is a work of secret subversion, using irony and beguilement to advance a staunchly republican message.… A gripping portrait of a brilliant political thinker, who understood the dangers of authoritarianism and looked for ways to curb them even though independent speech had become impossible."
"Benner’s eminently readable book serves as an introduction to Machiavelli and offers plenty of fresh insight even for those sure they know him and his work. Like Machiavelli’s own writings, Benner’s is a meditation on the virtues and flaws of various forms of government and ambitious men who will rule at will unless checked by institutions."
"In our world of new princes and divided societies, with confrontations in constant danger of escalating to conflict, Be Like the Fox reads like a cautionary call from the past. Anyone seeking to understand power, force, and government today would do well to read this book."
"Lively, compulsively readable, unshowily erudite."
Guardian - Terry Eagleton Terry Eagleton
"Excellent.… [Benner is] a fantastic reader of Machiavelli’s very varied literary output. She’s as well-versed in this author’s writing style and writing mind as readers could ask of any biographer."
"A ripping read.… fascinating, charming, enjoyably unorthodox."
"Lively, compulsively readable, unshowily erudite."
Guardian - Terry Eagleton
"Is there anything more to say about Machiavelli’s Prince after more than five hundred years? Well, yes. Erica Benner beautifully embeds Machiavelli’s most famous book within the Florentine politics of his time. More than any other book known to me, this one genuinely illuminates the humanity of Machiavelli."
"Engaging, entertaining, splendidly colourful. . . . Brings to life a Machiavelli who's a man of considerable political principle. Benner does a wonderful job of bringing to life Florentine society – the world of the piazzas, the courts, the battlefields. . . . A creative, very readable book with more than a little contemporary resonance."
Literary Review (UK) - Catherine Fletcher
"Erudite and engaging. . . .Be Like the Fox is not detached, archival history but a remarkable work of imaginative engagement backed by scholarly learning. Benner brings Machiavelli alive by weaving his words and those of his contemporaries into the narrative as a playwright might. . . . Be Like the Fox can be read with pleasure by anyone interested in the craft of politics and the life of ideas."
New York Times Book Review - Edmund Fawcett
"Fascinating, remarkable. . . . Erica Benner illuminates not only the life of Machiavelli but the complex and cruel political world in which he operated."
"Unconventional. . . Benner argues that in [his] turbulent, violent world, Machiavelli’s most consistent advice favoured principle, restraint and respect for the rule of law, even in The Prince. . . . Compelling."
Financial Times - Julian Baggini
"No other writer about Machiavelli approaches the liveliness of Erica Benner. In Be Like the Fox she boldly confronts the most daunting obstacle to interpreting him: that being himself so foxy he rarely means quite what he writes. Drawing on his life and all his varied writings and inter-weaving these with the turbulent life of Florence in his day, she retrieves a Machiavelli who is not the promoter of crookedness but its critic, a friend of democracy and honest government whose heart is with the underdog."
"Erica Benner succeeds brilliantly in overturning centuries-old received views of a seminal but misunderstood writer and thinker. Her enthralling and moving evocation of Machiavelli’s turbulent career, set in the milieu in which he lived, also reveals how much he is our contemporary."
"In Erica Benner’s Be Like the Fox , Machiavelli—in his own words the ‘historian, the comic writer, the tragic author’—comes alive as the master of irony deployed in the service of justice, civic morality and the rule of law. This delightful and convincing account should be the final nail in the coffin of the derogatory term ‘Machiavellian.’"
"A ripping read. . . . fascinating, charming, enjoyably unorthodox."
The Telegraph (UK) - Tim Smith-Laing
"Erica Benner’s compelling book testifies to the eternal return of Machiavelli’s puzzle: whether he was the voice of Satan, or the author who wanted to put morality on firmer human foundations by unveiling the empty moral platitudes that politicians used to shroud their foxy and ruthless behavior. Like a riveting novel, Benner’s book guides us through Machiavelli’s times and shows the variety of masks he put on, suggesting that the man behind them was less likely to compromise than his words might lead us to believe."
2017-02-20
