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Utopia (1516)

by Thomas More

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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11,779117542 (3.51)2 / 198
Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:

Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1516 in Latin. His Utopia is a fictional island, whose society, religion and politics he explores. Critics do not believe that the island depicted More's idea of the perfect society, but rather that he hoped to throw the politics of his own time into a new light by contrasting them with his imagined island society. The work references Plato's Republic.

.… (more)
  1. 80
    The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (2below)
    2below: Each one is fascinating in its own right but I think reading both (or reading them concurrently, as I did) provides an interesting perspective on two seemingly opposed extremes.
  2. 61
    The City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella (paradoxosalpha, Sensei-CRS, Chevalier.dSion)
    paradoxosalpha: Early Modern scenarios for social reform, both set in a fictionalized New World beyond the Atlantic.
  3. 40
    In Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus (caflores)
  4. 30
    Erewhon by Samuel Butler (KayCliff)
  5. 30
    Christianopolis by Johann Valentin Andreae (Sensei-CRS, Chevalier.dSion)
  6. 30
    Island by Aldous Huxley (kxlly)
  7. 20
    New Atlantis by Francis Bacon (Chevalier.dSion, Sensei-CRS)
  8. 10
    A description of the famous kingdome of Macaria by Samuel Hartlib (Sensei-CRS)
  9. 00
    Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (timoroso)
    timoroso: I see More as a precursor to Swift. Both deal with similar ideas, but Swift’s style is more entertaining.
  10. 12
    Candide by Voltaire (kxlly)
  11. 12
    Zwischen Utopie und Wirklichkeit: Konstruierte Sprachen für die globalisierte Welt by Jennifer Bretz (gangleri)
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» See also 198 mentions

English (86)  Spanish (8)  Catalan (4)  Dutch (4)  French (3)  Portuguese (Portugal) (3)  Italian (2)  Hungarian (2)  German (1)  Finnish (1)  All languages (114)
Showing 1-5 of 86 (next | show all)
Story: 2 / 10
Characters: 3
Setting: 6.5
Prose: 8

As with Well's "A Modern Utopia", the book is not so much a story as a pleasant way to introduce an ideal society. Not entirely what I was looking for. Might I suggest Huxley's "Island" as a more relevant alternative? ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
Prompted by Becky at Becky's Books, I read Thomas More's Utopia because it seemed relevant to a novel I am currently reading. (More about that soon).

'Utopian' is part of our everyday vocabulary now but when Thomas More wrote his book describing an alternative political system of an imaginary island state, it was a risky venture. In 1515 Henry VIII was on the throne, and in that year Wolsey, Archbishop of York was appointed cardinal by Leo X. Henry VIII then appointed him Lord Chancellor, and, as it says in the Introduction of the Project Gutenberg edition I read:
...from that year until 1523 the King and the Cardinal Wolsey ruled England with absolute authority, and called no parliament.

Henry, as we all know, had succession troubles and he didn't need any frisky political opponents making things more complicated. Until his execution in 1535 — Thomas More managed to survive and thrive during his time as a lawyer, judge, and statesman, with deft political nous, which included suppressing Utopia during his life time.

(It was More's opposition to the Protestant Reformation that brought him undone. He refused to swear an oath to please the King, and as you know if you read or saw Robert Bolt's 1954 A Man for All Seasons, Henry's reaction was swift and merciless.)

Utopia was published in Europe, but not in England until 1551 under the reign of Edward VI, in a translation from the Latin by Ralph Robinson. It was generally acknowledged to be less 'literary' than the subsequent translation in 1684 by Gilbert Burnet, who had his own troubles with disagreeable monarchs.
Burnet was drawn to the translation of “Utopia” by the same sense of unreason in high places that caused More to write the book.

Well, even if you simply peruse the summary at Wikipedia, you can see how Utopia still applies in our time. Utopia begins with More doing real-life diplomatic things in Antwerp, but moves to his encounter with the traveller Raphael Hythlodaeus, exploring in some depth the knotty problem of how best to counsel a prince when he is not amenable to wise advice, new ideas or anything that contradicts his world view.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/01/03/utopia-1515-by-sir-thomas-more-translated-by... ( )
  anzlitlovers | Jan 3, 2024 |
There are some good concepts here, but the writing is very stilted and unpleasant, and many of the "solutions" presented just pass the buck of doing unpleasant tasks to other people, rather than creating a society that is equitable and pleasant for everyone. Mostly it left a bad taste in my mouth, thinking that there are people who might actually find the society described here utopic. ( )
  stardustwisdom | Dec 31, 2023 |
This is a welcome translation of an important book in the history of ideas. It is not an exaggeration to say that our idea of utopia is founded in great part on the presentation of the world in this notable book. It is one of the small number of volumes that had an exponential effect on the way we consider the world around us. ( )
  jwhenderson | Mar 13, 2023 |
DNF: 20%

Couldn't get into it, and I don't think I can blame the narrator. It's an awkward lack of rhythm for being fiction told in an almost nonfiction format, so it's distant without the benefit of a barrage of direct knowledge. Normally I force myself to finish, but for some reason I didn't argue when the idea to quit came up. ( )
  leah_markum | Oct 28, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 86 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (446 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
More, Thomasprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Black, Walter J.Editorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Collins, J. ChurtonEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Crady, KirkContributorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
del Pozo, Joan ManuelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Deller, JeremyDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Donnelly, John PatrickTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Endres, H.M.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fiore, TommasoEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Itkonen-Kaila, MarjaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jäckel, EberhardAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kan, A.H.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Le Guin, Ursula K.Afterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lumby, J. RawsonEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Marshall, Peter K.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mieville, ChinaForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Muggeridge, FraserDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Prechtl, Michael MathiasIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rebhorn, Wayne A.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ritter, GerhardTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Robinson, RalphTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rodríguez Santidrián, PedroEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Scott, John AnthonyIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sheehan, John F. X.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Turner, PaulIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Turner, PaulTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
van Cleve, Hendrick, IIICover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wells, H. G.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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There was recently a rather serious difference of opinion between that great expert in the art of government, His Invincible Majesty, King Henry the Eighth of England, and His Serene Highness, Prince Charles of Castile.
Quotations
The moment we showed them [the Utopians] some books that Aldus had printed, and talked a bit about printing and paper-making -- we couldn't explain them properly, as none of us knew much about either process -- they immediately made a shrewd guess how the things were done. Up till then they'd only produced skin, bark, or papyrus manuscripts, but now they instantly started to manufacture paper, and print from type. At first they weren't too successful, but after repeated experiments they soon mastered both techniques so thoroughly that, if it weren't for the shortage of original texts, they could have had all the Greek books they wanted.
Well, that's the most accurate account I can give you of the Utopian Republic. To my mind, it's not only the best country in the world, but the only place that has any right to call itself a republic. Elsewhere, people are always talking about the public interest, but all they really care about is private property. In Utopia, where there's no private property, people take their duty to the public seriously. And both attitudes are perfectly reasonable. In other 'republics' practically everyone knows that, if he doesn't look out for himself, he'll starve to death, however prosperous his country may be. He's therefore compelled to give his own interests priority over those of the public; that is, all the other people. But in Utopia, where everything is under public ownership, no one has any fear of going short, as long as the public storehouses are full. Everyone gets a fair share, so there are never any
poor men or beggars. Nobody owns anything, but everyone is rich – for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety? Instead of being worried about his food supply,
upset by the plaintive demands of his wife, afraid of poverty for his son, and baffled by the problem of finding a dowry for his daughter, the Utopian can feel absolutely sure that he, his wife, his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, his great-great-grandchildren, and as long a line of descendants as the proudest peer could wish to look forward to, will always have enough to eat and enough to make them happy. There's also the further point that those who are too old to work are just as well provided for as those who are still working.
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Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:

Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1516 in Latin. His Utopia is a fictional island, whose society, religion and politics he explores. Critics do not believe that the island depicted More's idea of the perfect society, but rather that he hoped to throw the politics of his own time into a new light by contrasting them with his imagined island society. The work references Plato's Republic.

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Book description
Cover description: Sir Thomas More's entertaining description of Utopia, an island supporting a perfectly organized and happy people, was a best-seller when it first appeared in Latin in 1516. This work of a Catholic martyr has later been seen as the source of Anabaptism, Mormonism, and even Communism. Utopia revolutionized Plato's classical blueprint of the perfect republic, mainly by its realism. Locating his island in the (then) New World, More endowed it with a language and poetry, and detailed the length of the working day and even the divorce laws. Such precision gives a disturbing and exciting impact to Utopia, which still remains a book of the future.
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Yale University Press

2 editions of this book were published by Yale University Press.

Editions: 0300002386, 0300084285

Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141043695, 0141442328

Tantor Media

An edition of this book was published by Tantor Media.

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