Utopia

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.