Utopia: A Quick Read edition
By Quick Read & Saint Thomas More
- Release Date: 2024-02-16
- Genre: Political Science
Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read.
This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter.
- Reading time of the complete text: about 4 hours
- Reading time of the summarized text: 9 minutes
"Utopia" is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More, written in Latin and published in 1516. The book is divided into two parts: "Book one: Dialogue of Council," and "Book two: Discourse on Utopia." The first book tells of the traveller Raphael Hythlodaeus, to whom More is introduced in Antwerp, and it also explores the subject of how best to counsel a prince, a popular topic at the time. The second book has Hythloday tell his interlocutors about Utopia, where he has lived for five years, with the aim of convincing them about its superior state of affairs. Utopia is a society without private property, where goods are stored in warehouses and people request what they need. All able-bodied citizens must work, and there is no unemployment. Scholars in the society can become the ruling officials or priests, people picked during their primary education for their ability to learn. Slavery is a feature of Utopian life, and it is reported that every household has two slaves. The work seems to have been popular, if misunderstood, since the introduction of More's Epigrams of 1518 mentions a man who did not regard More as a good writer.
