Utopia (English Classics S.) (Penguin Great Ideas) (Yale Nota Bene)

by Saint Thomas More

In Utopia Thomas More painted a fantastical picture of a distant island where society is perfected and people live in harmony, yet its title means 'no place', and More's hugely influential work was ultimately an attack on his own corrupt, dangerous times, and on the failings of humanity.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

• ISBN10: 0141043695
• ISBN13: 9780141043692
• Publish Date: 27 August 2009 (first published December 1908)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 160
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Wit, satire, irony— such a powerful force. Of course it’s contradictory; of course the utopia also qualifies as dystopia. It dares to think differently, and speaks truth to power in the days when, if More did it directly instead of sideways through satire, such a thing would land him in the Tower. (He landed there anyway.)

A brilliant read for the history and hypocrisy contained in that time and place, and also our own.

(I might be in the minority, but book 1 > book 2.)