BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSUtopia is a work of political philosophy structured as a reported conversation. Thomas More, writing himself as a character, meets Peter Giles in Antwerp, where Giles introduces him to Raphael Hythloday, a well-traveled Portuguese philosopher who sailed with Amerigo Vespucci and then spent five years living among the people of an island commonwealth called Utopia. In Book I, the three men debate whether a philosopher should ever enter the service of a prince, and Hythloday argues that courts are too corrupt to benefit from honest counsel, using England's treatment of thieves and the enclosure of farmland as examples of how badly European governments are managed. Book II is Hythloday's full account of Utopian society, a place where property is held in common, labor is shared, and no one goes without.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Utopia
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Utopia. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a jester propose sending all beggars to monasteries as lay brothers and nuns?
✓ Answer
Utopia by Thomas More
After Raphael and the Cardinal address theft and vagabondage, a fool at the table suggests packing male beggars off to the Benedictines and turning the women into nuns. The friar present is then mocked by the same fool as another kind of vagabond.
- First half
In what book is the imagined country shaped like a crescent with horns enclosing a great bay?
✓ Answer
Utopia by Thomas More
Book II opens by describing the island as roughly two hundred miles across, shaped like a crescent moon. The sea enters between the horns and forms a vast sheltered harbor for the whole nation.
- First half
In what book is it punishable by death to debate state affairs outside the proper council?
✓ Answer
Utopia by Thomas More
To prevent secret conspiracies, the model commonwealth forbids private gatherings about public matters under penalty of death. All political debate must happen in the recognized council or the general assembly of the people.
- Second half
In what book do bystanders ridicule a foreign ambassador's gold chains as too slight to bind even one slave?
✓ Answer
Utopia by Thomas More
When the Anemolian ambassadors strut into Amaurot wearing massy gold chains, the islanders mock the chains as too flimsy to hold a single slave and so loose that any captive could easily slip out of them.
- Second half
In what book does a monkey on board ship tear pages out of Theophrastus "On Plants"?
✓ Answer
Utopia by Thomas More
Raphael laments that during his fourth voyage a monkey got at his copy of Theophrastus and shredded leaves out of it, leaving the gift he brought to the islanders imperfect.
- Near the end
In what book is a fierce mercenary people called the Zapolets hired who live five hundred miles to the east?
✓ Answer
Utopia by Thomas More
The Zapolets live in woods and rocks five hundred miles east and live for war. The islanders gladly hire them because they expose foreigners to danger rather than their own people.
