Utopia

Five hundred years ago a lawyer and diplomat gave the world a word for a society that does not exist, and readers have been arguing about it ever since. Utopia is Thomas More's account of an island whose people hold goods in common, work short days, elect their magistrates and worship a Supreme Being under many names. It is also a sharp complaint about sixteenth-century England, where thieves were hanged for petty theft and landowners fenced in the fields the poor depended on.

The book is built as a conversation. More meets a travelled stranger, Raphael Hythloday, who has seen the island for himself and is willing to describe it. Book One lets Hythloday attack the injustices of Europe and debate whether a wise man should advise a king. Book Two is his report on Utopia itself: its towns, trades, travel rules, marriages, wars and religions. The two halves are meant to be read together, and the book never quite tells you how much of the island to admire.

This edition is for first-time readers, students and book clubs. It contains the complete text in Gilbert Burnet's translation, a new introduction, a guide to key ideas, a summary of the argument, notes on major themes, a glossary of older and unfamiliar words, and discussion questions for reading groups.