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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) 1st Edition

by Thomas More (Author), Francis Bacon (Author), Henry Neville (Author),

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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 a wider Renaissance context, this edition--which includes letters, maps, and 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 Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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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.

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 15, 2009
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199537992
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199537990
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.72 x 0.59 x 5.14 inches
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1420L

Best Sellers Rank: #118,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #197 in Political Philosophy (Books)
- #423 in History & Theory of Politics
- #2,414 in Classic Literature & Fiction

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Thomas More
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D. Simpson
Nice addition
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2023
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Handsome addition of three interesting Utopian treatises.

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CJ Swindell
Utopia?
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2014
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If anyone ever explained a utopia, St. Thomas More did just that. It appears that the idea of an ideal world is in every generation of man. The only thing that was not the illusory perfect society was the Garden of Eden. Why? Because a human creature did not create it. And whether you believe the garden existed,or not, is beside the point. In every society of men in the world since that time, the perfect has existed but it seems to only be an attempt to regain Eden.

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Fry Boy
Interesting tales, particulary the lesser-known "Isle of Pines"
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2009
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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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16 people found this helpful

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Marion
Thomas Moore
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2013
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i got this book for my husband because he loves the movie ever after and i thought he would love to read her favorite book

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Twin Mom
This edition NOT recommended for certain teaching purposes
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2010
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This edition of More's Utopia (and Bacon, and Neville), is a valuable volume in one respect: it makes available historic early translations/editions of these three texts. However, this aspect makes it less than desirable for one major intended audience of Oxford Classics: students in college courses. In particular, the 1557 edition of More's Utopia, while a fascinating read from a historical perspective (e.g. the use of "weal-public" alongside synonyms like commonweal, commonwealth, and republic), is simply too difficult and antiquated for most college students to understand and appreciate what is going on in this important text. I'm a college instructor and I ordered this volume because it seemed to offer a good value for all three works. But my students found it MUCH too hard to understand (and I have to admit, the Utopia text was even slow going for me), so I had to post an online version in more contemporary English for them to read, and the week's discussion was hijacked by this problem of the text. Bottom line, if you are looking for a course text that will engage your students, keep shopping, because this edition will only frustrate them (and you, when you have to find another text of Utopia for them to read).

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zhiyanwang
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2015
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It is very good. It's a new one and I like it. The delivery is relatively fast.

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brooksmusic
Love the extras
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2012
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I love the extras in this book- the letters and such. That's why I chose this particular book. Better edition than most.

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Anran Tang
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2014
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Just finished reading it. Interesting book, quick delivery.

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Baisen
Profound Ideas, Thorough expositions
Reviewed in Canada on May 24, 2024
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The basic social structure for all human societies throughout all ages IS clearly indicated herein.

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The Shopper
Love it
Reviewed in Germany on June 22, 2024
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Great

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J C E Hitchcock
Two Utopias and a Dystopia
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2012
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Thomas More was by no means the first person to write about an imagined ideal society (that was probably Plato in "The Republic"), but his "Utopia" was so influential that the title has passed into the English language (and a number of other languages) to designate such a society. The book is an account of a (fictional) meeting between More and a traveller named Raphael Hythloday, and is divided into two parts, the first being a discussion of some of the social problems of contemporary Europe, especially England and the second Hythloday's account of his travels in Utopia (supposedly somewhere in the New World), concentrating on the social and political institutions of that country.

There is much about Utopia which we would today consider progressive. Utopian society is democratic, with elected rulers and officials; it is also what we would call socialist, with no private property and all possessions communally owned. (The word "socialist" did not exist in More's day, but he clearly anticipated the concept). The inhabitants live simple lives and disdain luxury. Utopia is a welfare state with free education and healthcare. Euthanasia and divorce are permitted. Gambling is discouraged, as is hunting (on animal welfare grounds). All religions are tolerated; there is no single state religion. Some features of Utopian life would, from a twenty-first century perspective, seem less attractive, such as the penal system which permits slavery as a punishment for various offences including adultery. It should be borne in mind, however, that the system More describes here is less harsh than the one which prevailed in sixteenth-century England, where the death penalty could be imposed for relatively trivial offences against property.

More tells us that Utopia was named after a King Utopus, but he in fact derived the name from the Greek for "no place". In English (if not in Greek), however, the name would have the same pronunciation as "Eutopia", meaning "good place". This is doubtless the reason why a "utopia" has come to mean both an ideal society and a non-existent one. When the word "utopian" is used in political discourse it is normally to describe not one's own policies but those of one's opponents, the implication being not that those policies are idealistic or optimistic but that they are impractical or unobtainable. More himself was fully aware of this double meaning, and made a pun on it. Some have seen his book as a blueprint for achieving the ideal society, while others have seen it a satire on unreasonable idealism. Although More has been seen as a predecessor of Marxism, Marx himself used the phrase "utopian socialism" to denigrate those socialist theories, such as those of Proudhon or Fourier, which he regarded as unrealistic.

The implication of More's double meaning may well be that the perfect society ("Eutopia") is unobtainable and therefore can exist nowhere on Earth ("Utopia"). Hythloday's surname means "peddler of nonsense" and various other names in the text hint at the unreality of the society being described. The capital of Utopia, for example, is called Amaurote ("shadowy") and the main river the Anyder ("without water"). Certainly, some of the customs and institutions of the Utopians seem to be at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church, of which More was a devout member and which now regards him as a saint and martyr, such as their permitting divorce and euthanasia, then as now anathema to orthodox Catholic thinking. More's own active role in the persecution of Protestants, whom he considered heretics, does not sit well with his apparent advocacy of religious toleration. These discrepancies might also suggest that More did not necessarily see his imaginary country as representing an ideal society in all respects. It is noteworthy that in the first part of the book it is Hythloday who defends the socialism of the Utopians and More who advances the classic conservative argument that common ownership of goods will do away with the profit motive and therefore deprive men of the incentive to work harder.

The two parts of "Utopia", however, need to be read together. Hythloday's criticisms of early sixteenth century Europe have a very modern ring to them. He bewails the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the resulting poverty of the many. He criticises the readiness of European rulers to resort to war. He also criticises the rigours of the judicial system, pointing out that many people are forced into crime by poverty and unemployment, so it is unfair to judge them harshly. Despite the antique language- the translation printed here is Ralph Robinson's from 1551- these arguments could be those of a modern Labour politician, perhaps Tony Blair in his "tough on the causes of crime" mode. There is nothing to suggest that Hythloday's criticisms of Tudor society are not also More's. Utopia itself may be an unreal fantasy, but there is nothing unreal about social problems. There may be no blueprint for a perfect world, but that does not mean that nothing need be done about the real one.

Bacon's "New Atlantis" also deals with the supposed discovery of a hitherto unknown island-country, Bensalem, said to be located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. Unlike the pagan Utopia, Bensalem is a Christian nation, having been miraculously converted not long after the death of Christ. Bacon's description of the island and its customs is much briefer than More's description of Utopia, but he does praise the Bensalemites for their high moral character, honesty, piety and chastity.

Bacon was not only a writer, but also a politician, philosopher and scientist, who believed strongly in the importance of encouraging scientific research and discovery. This is perhaps the most important theme of "New Atlantis", much of which is taken up with his account of "Salomon's House", a scientific college in Bensalem funded and sponsored by the state. Bacon's account of this fictitious institution is said to have inspired the founding of the real-life Royal Society more than thirty years after his death.

Written in 1668, Henry Neville's "The Isle of Pines" is set in the Indian Ocean and has no connection with the real Isle of Pines off the coast of Cuba. It is a tale of castaways on a desert island which in some respects anticipates "Robinson Crusoe". A British sailor named George Pine and four young women land on the island as the only survivors of a shipwreck. The island has a mild climate and produces food abundantly. Pine fathers numerous children by all four women and by the end of his long life is the ancestor of a new nation of people, divided into four tribes according to which of the women was their ancestor.

Although this collection is entitled "Three Early Modern Utopias", "The Isle of Pines" is not really a utopian work at all. Whereas More and Bacon described the discovery of advanced. highly civilised societies from which the travellers can learn, Neville's story is essentially that of a reversion from civilisation to barbarism. (In this respect it also anticipates Golding's "Lord of the Flies" by nearly three hundred years). The story is written the viewpoint of Van Sloetten, a Dutch explorer who arrives in the island a few generations later. He finds that the natural abundance of the island enables the islanders to live a life of idleness, and as a result they have abandoned technology and the trappings of civilisation, reverting to a primitive mode of existence. Their lifestyle is not, however, a peaceful one; when Van Sloetten arrives the island is on the verge of civil war. The story reflects European views of "primitive" peoples during the early colonial period. Although the eighteenth century, under the influence of Rousseau, was to romanticise the idea of the "noble savage", Neville's view seems closer to Hobbes's that man's life in his natural state is "nasty, short and brutish". (Most of the trouble on the island is caused by a tribe called the Phills, descendents of a black slave girl. This detail might trouble us today as a racist implication, but I doubt if Neville's contemporaries were worried).

I bought this volume primarily for More's text, but chose this particular edition to compare it with the other two works included, both of which are much shorter and also much less well-known. (I must admit that I had never previously heard of "The Isle of Pines" or its author). I am glad that I did, because comparisons between the three are illuminating. If More's imagined society is a political utopia, and Bacon's a religious and scientific one, Neville's seems more like what today we would call a dystopia. On a concluding note, I was also impressed by the thought-provoking introduction by Susan Bruce and her helpful textual notes.

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Very good
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Reviewed in India on June 30, 2025
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Sweet

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Buona edizione
Reviewed in Italy on June 5, 2019
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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) 1st Edition

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5.0 out of 5 stars Profound Ideas, Thorough expositions

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Profound Ideas, Thorough expositions

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