ABSTRACT
No literary personality of the early sixteenth century stands out more impressively than Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). He wrote his best-known book, Utopia, in Latin, but it was translated into English in 1551. Interpretation of the book has led to controversy. It cannot be treated as a straightforward representation of an imaginary perfect state. For More’s imaginary state is sustained by slave labour, there is no private property, there is tedious uniformity of dress, attachment to home and to family is decried, euthanasia is recommended, divorce is by mutual consent, gold and silver are used to make chamber pots. Like More’s, his polemical works are of theological and historical rather than of literary significance, but his insistence on scriptural authority made him anxious to have a translation of the Bible.
