eBook Then And Now (Vintage classics) download

I read this in my youth and found it necessary to revisit it. It is a classic for those who love history and the incredible talent of one of my favorite
authors, Somerset Maugham. Do not miss this experience.

Some excellent, some slow and too long.

"Then and Now" can be read as an historical novel, set in the Italy of the Borgias. Niccolo Machiavelli, a mature diplomat, accompanied by a friend's 18 year old nephew, the handsome Piero, sets off to treat with the dangerous Caesare Borgia. His task is to keep the Duke from pouncing on Florence by artful discussions while delaying any committments. Machiavelli finds a mind no less devious and adroit than his own. Borgia is a pragmatist, focused entirely on his own ends, wholly unencumbered by conventional morality or everyday duplicity, cunning & ruthless enough to make the Florentine sweat. Concurrently, however, Machiavelli, that experienced fox, a pleasure-seeker on his own, plots to get his lubricious way with the very young wife of his "friend" and host, intending to amuse himself while giving the man, who is sterile, a longed-for son. Machiavelli's ploy involves quite a cast, including a priest, young Piero, the wife (Aurelia) and two older women.

What happens becomes a story within a story, accompanied by the lute. While serious as all get-out in discussing Borgia, the model for Machiavelli's "The Prince," the novel's tone is ironic, humorous, a winter's tale of an older man (33 years) and a younger man.

As such, it is a rousing Falstaffian read for those delighting in historical novels. Readers further may revel in the fine writing which is Maugham's for almost any topic.

But there may be more to this novel than the book itself. Maugham wrote it in 1946. It was his peniultimate novel of many, almost the last of his abundance of plays, short stories, travel books, and novels. There are echoes of Prospero in what Maugham has to say to us in this novel, written toward his own end, about youth and age, whether life is more comedy than tragedy, and the ways of the world, then and now. As his choice of "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose"---the quote beginning "Then and Now" suggests---the ways of the Renaissance world and ours stay the same.

And there's a further possible nuance. According to his grandson, Machiavelli wrote a play involving living people of Florence that got him into a world of trouble, but which if it ever existed, has since disappeared. The book is, in essence, this play within a play as Maugham imagines it, as the novel closes.

"Then and Now" does not---my sorrow---have an introduction discussing this, which perhaps seems more speculative than a book review should be. However, a chronological bibliography of Maugham's work and a good article on Machiavelli have these pieces, and having them may add to the interest of "Then and Now."

They do to me, but even without them, "Then and Now" is a fine, entertaining read, expanding what we may think of as "Maugham's style."

Thus five stars, recommended indeed, and a great value at used book prices.

Now and then I try out an author I haven't read in the past. And this was my first foray into W. Somerset Maugham.

I have to say this thin, well-written novel was a pleasant surprise, even if I am only giving it 3 stars. The story centers on Machiavelli, noted infamous historical figure, and a diplomatic journey to enter into a discourse with Caesar Borgia.

His companion for his journey is young Piero, a (seemingly) innocent admirer of Machiavelli along to learn and observe. Machiavelli is lulled into a sense of comraderie with his young companion, who flatters him along the way.

But Machiavelli bargains for more than he gains when he falls in love with a married woman on his mission, and enlists Piero's aid in realizing his overwhelming passion for this girl.

My only criticisms for the book are that with two such different plot-lines, it's difficult to determine why Maugham took such an apparent departure from his normal genre to write it. The development of Caesar Borgia is lacking, also, even if what is written is historically accurate...to have such a powerful character in your novel, it seems a waste not to develop them further.

This historical novel seems a digression from Maugham's normal run of work. As such, it effectively recreates a trip taken my Niccolo Machievelli, representing his native city of Florence, and a young aide, to negotiate with Cesare Borgia. Machievelli and Borgia's characers are realistically portrayed, along with the constant intrigue, deception and treachery as practiced among the powerful, and others, in the Italy of the city states. A sub-plot involving Machievelli's hoped-for seduction of his host's attractive young wife is also believable: he sees the affair as an extension of politics, and the reader is given a view of the views suffered by women of that bygone era. In sum, this book is definitely readable, and recommendable.