The 48 Laws of Power.

GREENE, Robert.

Item Number: 135484

New York: Viking, 1998.

First edition of the New York Times bestseller which has sold over 1.2 million copies in the United States. Octavo, original half cloth. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Joost Elffers.

Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible" (Kirkus Reviews).