Utopia (Penguin Classics)

Pegged as the more poetic version of Plato's Republic, this book fails to ever come into its own by escaping the stereotypes of its author's time period. More, despite being a revolutionary in his vision of what a society could be (and in recognizing the effects economic discrimination has on crime at a time where God was still blamed for misbehavior), still backs significant prejudices. His...more

Pegged as the more poetic version of Plato's Republic, this book fails to ever come into its own by escaping the stereotypes of its author's time period. More, despite being a revolutionary in his vision of what a society could be (and in recognizing the effects economic discrimination has on crime at a time where God was still blamed for misbehavior), still backs significant prejudices. His Utopia may be a land free of racism and religious persecution, but so too is it a land of open sexism and age-ism where women and children are the chattle of their husbands and fathers. Because More was such a revolutionary, I cannot excuse his flagrant chauvanism by citing the contemporary thought. Still, living in war times as we are, I found the section on how the Utopians conduct themselves as warriors to be very interesting... That chapter, at least, didn't have me burning like the urine of a herpes victim...    hide

I think that some people on here have misunderstood Utopia. Hythloday's community wasn't meant to be an outline for an actual Utopian society--it was merely meant to serve as a comparison piece for More's own England, a comparison piece which he could subtly use to make suggestions about changes in government without directly stating his thoughts to the monarchy (which he worked for). Hythloday's...more

I think that some people on here have misunderstood Utopia. Hythloday's community wasn't meant to be an outline for an actual Utopian society--it was merely meant to serve as a comparison piece for More's own England, a comparison piece which he could subtly use to make suggestions about changes in government without directly stating his thoughts to the monarchy (which he worked for). Hythloday's Utopia was hardly meant to be an actual Utopia--More even highlights some of the problems with it in his own words while "discussing" the community with his character. Utopia was written as a means of furthering a political agenda, not as some piece of escapist fiction; it was meant to curb the actions of a pre-existent government and better it, not produce some sort of idealistic society. Anybody who knows anything about the word Utopia should recognize the irony of More's naming of the book (and subsequently Hythloday's city)--it literally translates to "no place". When reading this book, people need to recognize that it was written during a time when society was harsh to all but the aristocracy, and that its point wasn't to somehow portray the ideal "city on the hill" but to instead better the community from which it came. More couldn't outright say "these policies are unjust and unfair" to Henry--he would've been executed had he done so. Instead, he wrote this novel as an indirect means of guiding the King's actions. Utopia may not have been a perfect city, but it was certainly better than the society in which the book was written.    hide

I understand some of the critiques of the issues of the book but at the same time 'Utopia' was written 500 years ago, in an age of very different cultural norms, where stating ideas about things like the rights of women and children, was not only highly unsual, it was extremely dangerous. In regards to religious freedom, More himself, though made into a saint after his death, had his own very...more

I understand some of the critiques of the issues of the book but at the same time 'Utopia' was written 500 years ago, in an age of very different cultural norms, where stating ideas about things like the rights of women and children, was not only highly unsual, it was extremely dangerous. In regards to religious freedom, More himself, though made into a saint after his death, had his own very deep misgivings about protestants and considered them heretics, as was the cultural norm of the time. He was of course executed for not only defending the Catholic church, defying Henry VIII's wishes to allow him a divorce, but also for these prejudices, which made him an enemy of Henry VIII's Church of England.   hide

Definitely intriguing as an example of Renaissance thought and as a precursor to later utopian novels such as Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward." What I appreciated most was that, unlike Bellamy, More didn't actually endorse everything he was writing and, unlike Plato's yes-men, expressed doubt about many aspects of this "perfect" society. Believing wholeheartedly that Utopia world can be...more

Definitely intriguing as an example of Renaissance thought and as a precursor to later utopian novels such as Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward." What I appreciated most was that, unlike Bellamy, More didn't actually endorse everything he was writing and, unlike Plato's yes-men, expressed doubt about many aspects of this "perfect" society. Believing wholeheartedly that Utopia world can be achieved if only everyone followed your ideas is a quick way to Dystopia. Bellamy's vision of a socialized America in the year 2000 may have been exciting and liberating in the nineteenth century, but most modern readers like myself just find the notion of an "industrial army" disturbing.   hide