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bluejayreads's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
This isn’t anything that a modern reader would consider a novel. There is no plot, no structure, and no characters unless you count the frame story from part one. This is, in essence, a description of what Thomas More thinks a perfect society should be, framed as a monologue from a traveler named Rafael telling Thomas about such a society. (Yes, the author put himself as himself into the novel – although I don’t think that was as unusual in 1516 as it is now.)
The word “utopia” has come from this book to mean a perfect society, but the Utopia in this book is not any place I’d want to live. To my modern sensibilities, it sounds more like a Puritan hellscape than anything. (Or proto-Puritan, I suppose, since the Puritan movement didn’t officially form until the 1560s.)
A few highlights:
- All people are perfectly equal, except that old men are served by everyone, women serve men, and children serve adults.
- Everyone wears the exact same clothing, which is shapeless and the color of undyed wool. Jewelry and decoration of any kind are considered childish.
- Families with too many children have some of them taken away and given to families that have too few.
- All religions are tolerated as long as they’re an acceptable form of Christianity, and not believing in the right things is punishable by slavery. (The Utopians were not Christian before Rafael showed up to their island, but of course they gladly converted when he told them about Jesus.)
- Twice a month, women and children have to kneel before their husband/father and confess everything they’ve done wrong.
- Potential spouses are presented to each other naked before agreeing to marry because “you wouldn’t buy a horse without examining it fully to check for defects, so why would you marry a wife when all you’ve seen is her face and hands?”
- Work is done efficiently so everyone has plenty of leisure time to spend in self-improvement. The only allowed leisure activities are reading and playing games like chess that improve your mind.
That said, there are some ideas from this society that I do like. One of the foundational ideas is what modern theory would call post-scarcity: if everyone stopped worrying about accumulating wealth and we got rid of all the societal roles (like nobility) that don’t produce anything useful, there would be more than enough. Nobody would have to bother with anything like money or hoarding wealth or goods, because why bother taking 18 bolts of cloth and stuffing them into your home when you can just take the one that you need now and get another one when you need it? I also like the idea of rotating who had to work on the farms outside the city and who lived in the city and giving everyone a chance to try any trade they wanted before deciding on one to make sure nobody got stuck with work they hated.
This book is definitely the product of its time. There was a conversation full of political commentary before the monologue started, and I definitely didn’t grasp the full nuance of it (likely due to never having lived in a monarchy). I’m sure many of the aspects of Utopia were meant to bring attention to specific social issues in 1516 – possibly relating to war since there was a heavy emphasis on “the Utopians hate war but if they have to here’s how they do it” – but I don’t know enough about the historical context to grasp what Thomas was trying to say. It was definitely an interesting book, but I think knowing the social and historical context it was written in would make it feel like something more than “here’s how Puritans think the world should be.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, Slavery, War, and Classism
Minor: Death, Physical abuse, Racism, and Colonisation
Adultismlexarobinson's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
More's writing is very engaging: this work is incredibly ahead-of-its-time with its depictions of pseudo-socialism: however, the progressiveness of the work is undermined by the slightly-too-obvious mocking tone placed on the narrator. In terms of worldbuilding, More is standout: I dreaded reading this, but the second I started it, Utopia drew me in, and was a delight the whole way through.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse and Colonisation