H. G. Wells

THE NEW MACHIAVELLI

by

CONTENTS

BOOK THE FIRST

THE MAKING OF A MAN

I. CONCERNING A BOOK THAT WAS NEVER WRITTEN

II. BROMSTEAD AND MY FATHER

III. SCHOLASTIC

IV. ADOLESCENCE

BOOK THE SECOND

MARGARET

I. MARGARET IN STAFFORDSHIRE

II. MARGARET IN LONDON

III. MARGARET IN VENICE

IV. THE HOUSE IN WESTMINSTER

BOOK THE THIRD

THE HEART OF POLITICS

I. THE RIDDLE FOR THE STATESMAN

II. SEEKING ASSOCIATES

III. SECESSION

IV. THE BESETTING OF SEX

BOOK THE FOURTH

ISABEL

I. LOVE AND SUCCESS

II. THE IMPOSSIBLE POSITION

III. THE BREAKING POINT

BOOK THE FIRST

THE MAKING OF A MAN

CHAPTER THE FIRST

CONCERNING A BOOK THAT WAS NEVER WRITTEN

1

Since I came to this place I have been very restless, wasting my

energies in the futile beginning of ill-conceived books. One does

not settle down very readily at two and forty to a new way of

living, and I have foundmyself with the teeming interests of the

life I have abandoned still buzzing like a swarm of homeless bees in

my head. Mymind has been full ofconfused protests and

justifications. In any case I should have found difficulties enough

in expressing the complex thing I have to tell, but it has added

greatly to my trouble that I have a great analogue, that a certain

Niccolo Machiavelli chanced to fall out of politics at very much the

age I have reached, and wrote a book to engage the restlessness of

hismind, very much as I have wanted to do. He wrote about the

relation of the great constructivespirit in politics to individual

character and weaknesses, and so far his achievement lies like a

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