Richard Remington, a disgraced former statesman, reflects on his life from exile in Italy. H.G. Wells’s The New Machiavelli is a powerful exploration of the 'State-making dream'—the ambition to organize society into something finer and more secure. Through Remington’s eyes, readers witness the clash between constructive political ideals and the volatile instincts of the human heart, set against the backdrop of a changing British Empire and the quest for a new, modern leadership.