Utopia
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.
Saint Thomas More, 1478-1535, English statesman and author of Utopia,
celebrated as a martyr in the Roman Catholic Church. He received a Latin education in the
household of Cardinal Morton and at Oxford. Through his contact with the new learning and
his friendships with Colet, Lyly, and Erasmus, More became an ardent humanist. As a
successful London lawyer, he attracted the attention of Henry VIII, served him on
diplomatic missions, entered the king's service in 1518, and was knighted in 1521. More
held important government offices and, despite his disapproval of Henry's divorce from
Katharine of Aragón, he was made lord chancellor at the fall of Wolsey (1529). He
resigned in 1532 because of ill health and probably because of increasing disagreement
with Henry's policies. Because of his refusal to subscribe to the Act of Supremacy, which
impugned the pope's authority and made Henry the head of the English Church, he was
imprisoned (1534) in the Tower and finally beheaded on a charge of treason.
A man of noble character and deep, resolute religious conviction, More had great
personal charm, unfailing good humor, piercing wit, and a fearlessness that enabled him to
jest even on the scaffold. His Utopia (published in Latin, 1516; tr. 1551) is a picture of
an ideal state founded entirely on reason. Among his other works in Latin and English are
a translation of The Life of John Picus, Earl of Mirandula (1510); a History of Richard
III, upon which Shakespeare based his play; a number of polemical tracts against the
Lutherans (1528-33); devotional works including A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation
(1534) and a Treatise on the Passion (1534); poems; meditations; and prayers. More was
beatified (1886) by a decree of Pope Leo XIII, canonized (1935) by Pius XI, and proclaimed
(2000) the patron saint of politicians by John Paul II.
140 pages, Paperback