16 h 27 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a man wants to remake his country but cannot bring order to his own desires?
From a villa in Italy, Richard Remington looks back on a political career that has broken apart. In H. G. Wells’s The New Machiavelli, his story begins in Bromstead, where houses and roads consume the countryside. Study gives his restlessness a purpose: he wants reason and planning to shape a better Britain.
In Parliament, Remington confronts the distance between grand ideals and daily decisions. Oscar and Altiora Bailey promise reform through trained experts, while his wife, Margaret, supports his work and holds to duty. Then Isabel Rivers enters his life. Her lively mind and spirit sharpen a conflict between public ambition, marriage, and private desire.
What you’ll discover
- A changing childhood landscape Walk through Bromstead, where new streets replace fields and change becomes impossible to ignore.
- Power behind the plans Meet reformers whose faith in facts and expertise raises questions about who should govern.
- The work of politics Follow campaigns, speeches, and committees into the gap between political purpose and party life.
- Duty against desire Encounter Margaret and Isabel, whose places in Remington’s life expose his divided loyalties.
- A mind under scrutiny Listen as Remington examines ambition, marriage, and government with pride, regret, and stubborn honesty.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy big ideas set inside a personal story, with Edwardian London, rival political parties, sharp portraits of real types, and a frank look at marriage and desire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy builds a world on the floor
- School and Cambridge shape a young reformer
- A walking tour with a friend and a woman
- Margaret and the cost of a careful marriage
- Parliament teaches him what politics really is
- Love and fine thinking: a new aim for the state
- The Endowment of Motherhood
- Isabel brings a fresh voice to politics
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Richard RemingtonThe narrator, a Cambridge scholar turned politician, who dreams of a well-ordered state and cannot order his own heart.
- Margaret SeddonHis wife, a rich, gentle, devoted woman whose faith in the Liberals clashes with his changing ideas.
- Isabel RiversA clever, bold young woman who becomes his closest partner in thought and work, and wants him fully.
- BrittenDick's school friend and later sub-editor, rough and honest, who mocks sham and tells Dick hard truths.
- Oscar BaileyAltiora's husband, a short, tireless collector of facts, who lives for administration and reports.
- Arnold ShoesmithA shy, wealthy schoolmate who pays for the Blue Weekly and grows fond of Isabel.
- WillersleyDick's walking companion in the Alps, a dedicated social servant who warns him about the cost of desire.
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- Large print hardcover
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El nuevo Maquiavelo in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
El nuevo Maquiavelo
by H. G. Wells · 1911
Dick builds cities on the nursery floor and dreams of bringing order to England.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What if the man who wanted to build a perfect state could not manage his own heart? In The New Machiavelli, H.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy builds a world on the floor
Richard Remington grows up in Bromstead, a Kent town that is being swallowed by London. As a child he plays on a nursery floor with oak bricks and lead soldiers. He lays out cities, harbours and an Imperial Road, and he hates the day when a maid scrubs it all away.
His father, a science teacher who drills pupils for government exams, is kind but hopeless with practical things. The man hacks at his failed garden, then tells his son to make a plan and to beware of property. Dick takes in two lessons from him: the world is a muddle, and science and order might cure it.
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What is The New Machiavelli about?
It follows Richard Remington, who rises from a London suburb to Parliament with a plan to build a better state. His private desires then threaten his public life, and he tells the story from exile.
Why is it called The New Machiavelli?
Remington compares himself to Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote The Prince after leaving politics. Both men dream of a well-made state, and both have flawed private lives. Remington adds that modern statecraft must also reckon with women and sex.
Is The New Machiavelli based on real people?
The story mixes fictional figures such as Richard Remington with named public figures such as Chamberlain and Gladstone.
The author
H. G. Wells
1866–1946 · English science fiction novelist
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer born in Bromley, Kent. He wrote novels, short stories and nonfiction. His novels included The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). He died in London.
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