Product Review

Five-hundred-year anniversary edition of More€s Utopia, with writing from major science fiction writers

Five hundred years since its first publication, Thomas More€s Utopia remains astonishingly radical and provocative. More imagines an island nation where thousands live in peace and harmony, men and women are both educated, and property is communal. In a text hovering between fantasy, satire, blueprint and game, More explores the theories and realities behind war, political conflicts, social tensions and redistribution, and imagines the day-to-day lives of a citizenry living free from fear, oppression, violence and suffering.

But there has always been a shadow at the heart of Utopia. If this is a depiction of the perfect state, why, as well as wonder, does it provoke a growing unease?

In this quincentenary edition, published in conjunction with Somerset House, More€s text is introduced by multi-award-winning author China Mi©ville and accompanied by four essays from Ursula K. Le Guin, today€s most distinguished utopian writer and thinker..