Utopia

Author: Thomas More and Dominic Baker-Smith Series: Penguin Classics

Paperback

A major new translation by Dominic Baker-Smith of More's perenially popular Latin text

Offers a traveller's account of a newly-discovered island (Utopia) where the inhabitants enjoy a social order based on natural reason and justice, and human fulfillment is open to all.

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Summary

A major new translation by Dominic Baker-Smith of More's perenially popular Latin text

Offers a traveller's account of a newly-discovered island (Utopia) where the inhabitants enjoy a social order based on natural reason and justice, and human fulfillment is open to all.

Description

A major new translation by Dominic Baker-Smith of More's perenially popular Latin text'Even if you can't eradicate harmful ideas or remedy established evils, that's no reason to turn your back on the body politic'Utopia is Thomas More's work of philosophical fiction, imagining the island of the title, on which thousands live in peace and harmony. Through dialogue and correspondence between Raphael Hythloday and his friends and contemporaries, More explores the theories behind war, political disagreements, social quarrels and wealth distribution, and goes into the day to day lives of those citizens enjoying freedom from fear, oppression, violence and suffering. This vision of an ideal world is also a scathing satire of Europe in the sixteenth century which has been hugely influential since publication, shaping utopian fiction even to the present day.

About the Author

Thomas More (Author)Thomas More was born a Londoner in 1477 or 1478. He served as a page, then studied at Oxford, was called to the bar and subsequently had a highly successful career in the City. Sent on an embassy to Flanders in 1515, he began Utopia there and completed it back in London. From 1528 he actively resisted innovation in religious matters and clashed with Henry VIII over his break with the Church. In July 1535, after he refused to accept royal supremacy over the church, he was tried as a traitor at Westminster Hall and beheaded on Tower Hill. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.Dominic Baker-Smith (Translator)Dominic Baker-Smith OBE was a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Professor of English at University College, Cardiff, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Amsterdam. His books included More's 'Utopia' (2000) and he edited three volumes in the University of Toronto Press' Collected Works of Erasmus.