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Roper William - Utopia

Here you can read online Roper William - Utopia full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. City: New York, year: 2005, publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics, genre: Politics. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

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Utopia, by Sir Thomas More, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
  • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
  • Biographies of the authors
  • Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
  • Footnotes and endnotes
  • Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
  • Comments by other famous authors
  • Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
  • Bibliographies for further reading
  • Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.

    One of the most influential books in the Western philosophical and literary tradition, Sir Thomas Mores Utopia appeared in 1516. The formidable Henry VIII had recently assumed the throne in England, and conflicting ideas about religion were fueling the Reformation throughout Europe. A scathing satire, Utopia was hugely successful and vaulted More to the forefront of the growing humanist movement.The story of Utopia is told by a mysterious sailor named Raphael Hythloday, who travels to the New World with the Italian explorer Vespucci and remains at a fort built at the farthest point reached. From there, he discovers a strange island kingdom named Utopia, a pagan and communist city-state in which language, social customs, dress, architecture, and education are identical throughout the countrys fifty-four cities. The Utopians have eliminated wealth, the nobility, and currency. Labor and goods are distributed equally and property is held in common. And there are no monasteries, alehouses, or academies to tempt a person to withdraw from society.Given Mores satiric leanings and eventual execution, is Utopia simply an attack on Europes wickedness? Or is it a philosophical tract extolling the ideal way to live? Ultimately, Utopia navigates a course between the desire to create perfection and the pragmatic understanding that perfection, given the fallibility of mankind, is impossible.

    Wayne A. Rebhorn is Celanese Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written extensively on Renaissance literature in English, Italian, French, Spanish, and Latin, on authors from Boccaccio through More and Shakespeare down to Milton.

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Table of Contents From the Pages of Utopia and The Life of Sir Thomas More - photo 1

Table of Contents

From the Pages of
Utopia
and The Life of Sir Thomas More
The way to heaven out of all places is of like length and distance.
(from Utopia, page 18)
One man to live in pleasure and wealth, whiles all other weep and smart for it, that is the part not of a king, but of a jailor.
(from Utopia, page 49)
If you had been with me in Utopia and had presently seen their fashions and laws, as I did, which lived there five years and more, ... then doubtless you would grant that you never saw people well ordered, but only there. (from Utopia, page 56)
Now you see how little liberty they have to loiter; how they can have no cloak or pretense to idleness. There be neither wine taverns, nor alehouses, nor any occasion of vice or wickedness, no lurking corners, no places of wicked councils, or unlawful assemblies. But they be in the present sight and under the eyes of every man, so that of necessity they must either apply their accustomed labors, or else recreate themselves with honest and laudable pastimes.
(from Utopia, page 83)
To gold and silver nature hath given no use that we may not well lack, if that the folly of men had not set it in higher estimation for the rareness sake. But of the contrary part, nature, as a most tender and loving mother, hath placed the best and most necessary things open abroad, as the air, the water, and the earth itself, and hath removed and hid farthest from us vain and unprofitable things.
(from Utopia, page 86)
The wits, therefore, of the Utopians, inured and exercised in learning, be marvelous quick in the invention of feats helping anything to the advantage and wealth of life. (from Utopia, page 105)
They have but few laws, for to people so instruct and institute very few do suffice. (from Utopia, page 112)
When I consider and weigh in my mind all these commonwealths which nowadays anywhere do flourish, so God help me, I can perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of the commonwealth. They invent and devise all means and crafts, first how to keep safely, without fear of losing, that which they have unjustly gathered together, and next how to hire and abuse the work and labor of the poor for as little money as may be. (from Utopia, page 143)
My king and conqueror, Utopus by name,
A prince of much renown and immortal fame,
Hath made me an isle that erst no island was,
Full fraught with worldly wealth, with pleasure and solace.
(from an untitled poem by More, page 151)
Forasmuch as Sir Thomas More, Knight, sometime Lord Chancellor of England, a man of singular virtue and of a clear unspotted conscience, as witnesseth Erasmus, more pure and white than the whitest snow, and of such an angelical wit, as England, he saith, never had the like before, nor never shall again, universally, as well in the laws of our realm, a study in effect able to occupy the whole life of a man, as in all other sciences right well studied, was in his days accounted a man worthy famous memory.
(from William Ropers Life of Sir Thomas More, page 163)
And so was he by Master Lieutenant brought out of the Tower and from thence led towards the place of execution, where, going up the scaffold, which was so weak that it was ready to fall, he said merrily to Master Lieutenant: I pray you, Master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself.
(from William Ropers Life of Sir Thomas More, page 214)
He turned to the executioner and with a cheerful countenance spake thus unto him: Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short. Take heed therefore thou strike not awry, for saving of thine honesty.
(from William Ropers Life of Sir Thomas More, page 214)

Sir Thomas More When philosopher Desiderius Erasmus was asked to describe his - photo 2

Sir Thomas More
When philosopher Desiderius Erasmus was asked to describe his close friend Thomas More, he obliged with intimate details regarding Mores quick wit and humor, his piety, his good looks and winning way with women, his loyal friendship, and his love of corned beef and eggs. While such details could apply to many men, the subject in question was also the most famous philosopher in England, author of the masterpiece Utopia, and the right-hand man of King Henry VIII. But it was the cruel fate that followed hard on this glorious career that made More a political martyr and canonized saint in the Catholic Church.
More was born in London in 1478. His father, Sir John More, was a respected judge with connections to Cardinal John Morton, the lord chancellor of England and second most powerful figure in the country. In the early 1490s More worked as a page in the Cardinals house, and the boys keen mind motivated Morton to sponsor More at Oxford University, where he studied classical languages, French, mathematics, and history. His professors were favorably impressed by their brilliant, charismatic student; indeed, scholar Thomas Linacre provided More with introductions to the renowned intellects of Europe.
Following in his fathers footsteps, More went on to study law. A concomitant spiritual quest led him to consider the priesthood; he moved into a monastery, donned a painful hair shirt, and lived like a devout monk while pursuing his legal studies. More finally opted to forgo the priesthood and in 1502 began the legal career that would earn him a place in King Henry VIIIs court. A successful tenure in Parliament defending London merchants followed, as did an appointment as under-sheriff of London. In 1515 the Kings lord chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, selected More for an ambassadorial mission to Flanders; while there he began writing Utopia.
The publication of Utopia in 1516 spread Mores fame throughout Europe. At home, he was elected speaker of the House of Commons (1523) and appointed high steward of both Oxford (1524) and Cambridge Universities (1525); in 1529 King Henry VIII appointed him lord chancellor of England. By this time Martin Luther and other reformers had begun to strongly criticize the Catholic Church and call for reform. More strongly defended the King and Catholicism with such texts as A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529).
Mores devout faith ultimately proved to be his downfall. In 1533 the Pope excommunicated Henry VIII for his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and the following year More refused to endorse the legitimacy of Henrys subsequent heirs. For this supposed treason, the Kings former favorite was sent to the Tower of London to await trial. More was found guilty and sentenced to death. On July 6,1535, he was executed and his head placed on a spear on London Bridge. For the steadfastness of his faith, he was beatified in 1886 and canonized in 1935.
The World of Sir Thomas More and Utopia
Thomas More is born on February 7 in London to Sir John More, an influential lawyer and judge, and Agnes Graunger.
c.1482 -1490Sir John sends his son to one of Englands best schools, Saint Anthonys in Threadneedle Street.
c.1490-1492Thomas works as a page in the household of Englands second most powerful figure, Cardinal John Morton, archbishop of Canterbury and lord chancellor of England. The Cardinal is so taken with the young mans sharp mind and engaging personality that he sends him to Oxford University .
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