The New Machiavelli (Penguin Classics)

Well's vivid and unfailingly candid account of the damage wrought by a scandalous society affair and the overwhelming power of passion

A successful author and Liberal MP with a loving and benevolent wife, Richard Remington appears to be a man to envy. But underneath his superficial contentment, he is far from happy with either his marriage or the politics of his party. The New Machiavelli describes the disarray into which his life is thrown, when he meets the young and beautiful Isabel Rivers and becomes tormented by desire. At first, he struggles to resist and remain focused upon his familiar political, personal and social life. But as he soon learns, it is harder than he could have imagined to turn his back on love.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

H.G. Wells was a professional writer and journalist, who published more than a hundred books, including novels, histories, essays and programmes for world regeneration. Wells's prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. His controversial views on sexual equality and the shape of a truly developed nation remain directly relevant to our world today. He was, in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'.

Michael Foot is a former Leader of the Labour Party. He has written many books, including works on H.G. Wells, Aneurin Bevan and Jonathan Swift.

Simon J. James is Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Durham. He has written on, and edited works by, George Gissing, H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens.

John Partington is the author of many books and essays on H.G. Wells' political thought and science fiction, including Building Cosmopolis. He is the editor of The Wellsian, the annual journal of the H.G. Wells Society.