Portland Public Library

Utopia, a revised translation, backgrounds, criticism, Thomas More ; edited and with a revised translation by George M. Logan

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Utopia

bibliography

562778629

Thomas More ; edited and with a revised translation by George M. Logan

A Norton critical edition

a revised translation, backgrounds, criticism

Inspiring, provocative, prophetic, and enigmatic, Utopia is the literary masterpiece of a visionary statesman and one of the most influential books of the modern world. Based on Thomas More's penetrating analysis of the folly and tragedy of the politics of his time and all times, the book is a seedbed of alternative political institutions and a perennially challenging exploration of the possibilities and limitations of political actionThis Norton Critical Edition is built upon the translation that Robert M. Adams created for it in 1975. For the Third Edition, George M. Logan has carefully revised the translation, improving its accuracy while preserving the grace and verve that have made it the most highly regarded modern rendering of More's Renaissance Latin work"Backgrounds" includes a wide-ranging selection of the major secular and religious texts--from Plato to Amerigo Vespucci--that informed More's thinking, as well as a selection of the responses to his book by members of his own humanist circle and an overview by G.R. Elton of the condition of England at the time when More wrote"Criticism" now offers a more comprehensive survey of modern scholarship, adding excerpts from seminal books by Frederic Seebohm, Karl Kautsky, and Russell Ames, as well as selections from stimulating and influential recent readings by Dominic Baker-Smith and Eric Nelson. In the final section, "Utopia's Modern Progeny," the opening chapter of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is now complemented by excerpts from another great work in the complex tradition of utopian and dystopian fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. Throughout the Third Edition, the editorial apparatus has been thoroughly revised and updated, and now includes an index. --Book Jacket

The text of Utopia -- Backgrounds -- [The guardians] / Plato -- [The golden age and after] / Ovid -- [The community] / The acts of the Apostles -- [Saturn's age] / Lucian of Samosata -- [Naboth's vineyard] / St. Ambrose -- [Monastic rules] / St. Benedict -- Chapter 33 -- Chapter 34 -- from The land of Cockayne / Anonymous -- from The four voyages / Amerigo Vespucci -- The first voyage -- The fourth voyage -- [The problems of the realm] / G.R. Elton -- The humanist circle : letters -- Peter Giles to Jérôme de Busleyden -- Jérôme de Busleyden to Thomas More -- Guillaume Budé to Thomas Lupset -- Erasmus of Rotterdam to Johann Froben -- Thomas More to Peter Giles -- from Erasmus to Ulrich von Hutten -- Criticism -- Overview: the critical traditions -- [A satire on crying abuses] / Frederic Seebohm -- from The roots of more's socialism / Karl Kautsky -- The meaning of Utopia / R.W. Chambers -- from Utopia and the problems of 1516 -- [More the social critic] / Russell Ames -- The roots of Utopia and all evil / J.H. Hexter -- [A jolly invention] / C.S. Lewis -- from Humanism and communism: the background / Edward L. Surtz -- from Varieties of literary Utopias / Northrop Frye -- from Denying the contrary: more's use of Litotes in the Utopia / Elizabeth McCutcheon -- [An intricate, intimate compromise] / Alistair Fox -- from Words and deeds / Dominic Baker-Smith -- from Greek nonsense in More's Utopia / Eric Nelson -- Utopia's modern progeny -- from Brave new world / Aldous Huxley -- from The left hand of darkness / Ursula K. Le Guin