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Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines (Oxford World's Classics)
 
 
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Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), Henry Neville (Author), Susan Bruce (Editor) "Thou shalt understand, gentle reader, that thought this work of Utopia in English come now the second time forth in print, yet was it never..." (more)
Key Phrases: early modern utopias, utopian literature, ancillary materials, Master More, Salomon's House, Peter Giles (more...)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

With the publication of Utopia (1516), Thomas More provided a scathing analysis of the shortcomings of his own society, a realistic suggestion for an alternative mode of social organization, and a satire on unrealistic idealism. Enormously influential, it remains a challenging as well as a playful text. This edition reprints Ralph Robinson's 1556 translation from More's original Latin together with letters and illustrations that accompanied early editions of Utopia.

This edition also includes two other, hitherto less accessible, utopian narratives. New Atlantis (1627) offers a fictional illustration of Francis Bacon's visionary ideal of the role that science should play in the modern society. Henry Neville's The Isle of Pines (1668), a precursor of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, engages with some of the sexual, racial, and colonialist anxieties of the end of the early modern period. Bringing together these three New World texts, and situating them in wider Renaissance context, this edition-- including letters, maps, alphabets that accompanied early editions--illustrates the diversity of the early modern utopian imagination, as well as the different purposes to which it could be put.



About the Author

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) was an English lawyer, author, and statesman who in his lifetime gained a reputation as a leading humanist scholar, and occupied many public offices, including Lord Chancellor (1529 1532), in which he had a number of people burned at the stake for heresy. More coined the word "utopia", a name he gave to an ideal, imaginary island nation whose political system he described in the eponymous book published in 1516.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; illustrated edition edition (January 13, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0192838857
  • ISBN-13: 978-0192838858
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #791,160 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #10 in  Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Movements > Utopian
    #24 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > More, Thomas

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Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Thomas More
Thomas More

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First Sentence:
Thou shalt understand, gentle reader, that thought this work of Utopia in English come now the second time forth in print, yet was it never my mind nor intent that it should ever have been imprinted at all, as who for no such purpose took upon me at the first the translation thereof; but did it only at the request of a friend, for his own private use, upon hope that he would have kept it secret to himself alone. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
early modern utopias, utopian literature, ancillary materials
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Master More, Salomon's House, Peter Giles, Thomas More, Master Raphael, Raphael Hythloday, East Indies, Feast of the Family, Natural History, South Sea
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting tales, particulary the lesser-known "Isle of Pines", August 25, 2009
By Fry Boy (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
As usual, Oxford does a good job with translations, introductions and notes.

More's "Utopia" is the longest and best of the three works presented in this book, at least as far as fleshing out the details of how a utopian civilization would really look, particularly when situated among other civilizations. But, since most people are familiar with it to some degree, I'll discuss the other two writings in more detail.

Bacon's "New Atlantis" is the least satisfying of the three utopian civilizations. First, it isn't complete, barely beginning before it ends. Second, it seems to be more about scientific specialization (i.e. how the New Atlantic culture has made great strides in various fields of science [e.g. agriculture, astronomy]) than about utopian society per se. It is interesting how Bacon relates these islanders, far from Europe, to the famed ancient Atlantean society.

Neville's "Isle of Pines" is an interesting tale of shipwreck and discovery. A ship sinks near the coast of a faraway island, killing everyone except a man with the last name "Pine" and a few women, one of whom is black. What follows is a fascinating story of old/new-world racism and debauchery. Basically, the Pine fellow starts bedding ALL the women (two of whom, if I recall, are sisters) because, you know, they're not getting rescued any time soon and they've got to keep civilization going. Eventually, they all dispense with the wearing of clothes. Then ALL the women get pregnant and turn into baby factories and everyone breeds like rabbits until there are hundreds of people within one or two generations. The interesting tack that Neville takes is that Pine only sleeps with the black woman at night, she "craftily" sneaking into his bed. In addition, her progeny happen to be the bad apples of the island, which is discussed from the perspective of some visiting sailors many years after the shipwreck. Fascinating view into the European mind from several centuries back.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Good collection, July 31, 2009
By M "CultOfStrawberry" (Gnawing away at your reality) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
I have enjoyed Oxford World Classics for a long time because of the notes, biographies, and other content that is added to the book to supplement the stories themselves. This is a decent collection of three stories, with all the necessary notes and such. If you're curious about Utopia, buy this book and you'll get two other visions of Utopia as well, making for a good overall reading experience (once you get past the old language, which is rather clunky at times, but that is how it was written) and you'll learn a few things too.
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7 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Prose which still affects our thinking, September 18, 2000
By A Customer
Literature before James Joyce, before Jane Austen, before Daniel Defoe: No Ulysses, no Emma, no Robinson Crusoe - for modern readers it is hard to imagine a stock of English literature without the existence of these and other important writers and their `novels'. What kind of literature could one refer to in a pre-novelistic age? As a matter of fact, there were authors, such as Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon, who wrote prose which, indeed, still affects our thinking. However, neither More nor Bacon used English, but chose Latin as their original means of expression. For what reasons? And none of these authors was in fact a free-lance writer - they were all occupied in public and political spheres. What made them actually write fictional works? How does their fiction relate to their cultural environment - or, what was regarded as `fiction'? These texts cover a century of political, religious, scientific and literary debates and gave rise to a new understanding of knowledge, and introduced influential literary devices.
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