Utopia

Thomas More 1516 CE

A traveler describes a faraway island where people share everything and no one owns private property. On this island, gold is so little valued that it is used to make chamber pots and prisoners' chains.

138 pages 2h 41m reading time

The book that named and founded the utopian tradition.
Imagines an island society with shared property, work for all and religious tolerance, set against the greed and cruelty of More's Europe.
Leaves More's own view deliberately unclear, inviting debate about whether an ideal society is possible.
It gave the language the word "utopia," a Greek pun on "no place" and "good place" that is now everyday English.
It launched a tradition of imagined societies, from Bacon's New Atlantis and Swift's Gulliver's Travels to modern dystopias.

Begun on a diplomatic trip

More started the book in 1515 while in Flanders (today's Belgium) on a trade mission for King Henry VIII.
Written in Latin

More wrote it in Latin for readers across Europe, and it was not put into English until after his death.
Printed with friends' help

Erasmus and other friends helped publish it in Leuven, adding letters, poems and a map of the island.
Fooled some early readers

The book came with a made-up alphabet and real-sounding details, and some readers reportedly thought it real.