Ollie Randall, writing and cartoons
Niccolò Machiavelli Back to Book Summaries Machiavelli was a Florentine politician in an era of political instability throughout Italy. In 1512 he found himself on the losing side, and he was tortured and exiled from Florence. Disillusioned and cynical, Machiavelli thought that existing theories about the ethics of leadership were too idealistic: they did not…
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a bit of a slog for the final thirty chapters. The Three Kingdoms, locked in a stalemate, have replaced the dynamic rises and falls of earlier power bases. The age of romance and heroic deeds is passing, and most of the interesting heroes and villains are dead (sorry, Jiang…
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical epic, but there are also strong elements of tragedy. As I have tried to demonstrate in my Three Kingdoms chapter summary, most leaders’ failures in the novel can be traced directly to clear flaws: arrogance, excessive cruelty, recklessness, naivete. This is not prescriptive – luck has…
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is full to the brim with battles, stratagems and memorable moments – no summary can do it real justice. Condensing a twenty-page chapter into a short paragraph involves leaving out most of the good bits, so do read the original – but on the flip side, this chapter-by-chapter summary is…
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of China’s greatest and most influential works of literature. It is an epic tale of war and heroes, loyalty, betrayal and cunning plans; of beleagured morality versus cruel political reality; and of what men are capable of doing in the pursuit of power. See Also: Sun Tzu…