Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli remains one of history's most inscrutable figures. In An Unlikely Prince, acclaimed scholar Niccolò Capponi–a direct descendant of Machiavelli–analyzes the political theorist in the context of his own times, revealing the many sides of the man behind the political genius and explaining his inability to capitalize on his own theories.

Exploring the Renaissance city of Florence where Machiavelli lived, Capponi reveals a complex figure–at once a brilliantly skillful diplomat and woefully inept liar; a sharp thinker and an impractical dreamer; a hard-nosed power broker and a risk-taking gambler; a calculating propagandist and an imprudent jokester. Capponi's portrait also shows how Machiavelli's behavior was, in fact, utterly un-Machiavellian, and how his vision of the world was limited by his provincial outlook. In the end, frustrated by his own political failures and always writing with Florence in mind and for a Florentine audience, Machiavelli was baffled by the international success of The Prince.

An Unlikely Prince not only offers a scholarly look at Machiavelli's life and work, but also frees this fabled figure from centuries of misinterpretation.

One must remember that Machiavelli had in him all the traits typical of the Florentines of his time (and even of today): love of contradiction, provocation, and bella figura, with a pronounced jocular streak as seasoning.... [Only] late in life did he learn how to behave 'politically,' after going through some very unpleasant experiences. Given all this, it is somewhat ironic that for the general public Niccolò's fame rests on The Prince, a work he wrote in a very precise moment of his life and for a very specific reason: to gain favour with the Medici rulers of Florence. Indeed, the book's negative reception would force him to try to find some pretty lame excuses for composing it in the first place.  –from An Unlikely Prince