Utopia

A short work of fiction in Latin, written by the English lawyer and humanist Thomas More and published at Leuven in 1516. Its name is a Greek pun: 'no place', and nearly 'good place'. Book I is a conversation in Antwerp between More, his friend Peter Giles and the traveller Raphael Hythloday. Hythloday attacks the England of his day, where enclosure turns fields into sheep pasture, sheep in effect devour men, and the poor are driven to theft and then hanged. The friends debate whether a wise man should serve as counsellor to kings. Book II is Hythloday's description of the island of Utopia, where there is no private property, everyone works about six hours a day, meals are shared, gold is used for chamber pots and the chains of slaves, and most religions are tolerated. How far More endorsed any of this is left open, and readers still disagree about where the satire ends.

It gave a name to a whole genre and remains the classic starting point for asking whether property, work and laws could be ordered more justly than they are.