Utopia

1515, Norton edition 1975
Sir Thomas More, Latin translated by Robert M. Adams
Utopia
Original price not shown, bought used for $3.50
Surprisingly good condition
C+


The two main things you have to know about Utopia are is it's not Utopian in the usual sense, since it's not a place most people would want to live, and it's more of a criticism of early Renaissance culture and politics than it is any kind of a blueprint for a society.  Why does every city in Utopia have to have roughly the same number of households and why does every household have to have roughly the same number of adults?  Why is discussing politics considered treasonous?  Why, outside of a 1980s TV-movie starring John Ritter and Penny Marshall, would the two "injured parties" in adultery want to marry each other?  Gulliver's Travels is a better satire (funnier and more cutting), while Looking Backward is a more pleasant alternative society.  But as the book that invented the genre (at least for "modern" readers, ignoring the ancient Greeks and all), this isn't a bad start.