Thomas More's 'Utopia'. Title page of a 1518 edition of 'Utopia' (1516) by English lawyer, social philosopher and author Thomas More (1478-1535). This work, written in Latin, tells the story of a fictional island and is thought to depict More's view of an unobtainable ideal society. The word 'utopia' is now used to describe such themes. This artwork by Ambrosius Holbein shows the narrator Raphael Hythlodaeus at lower left. Two editions of 'Utopia' were produced in Basel, Switzerland, in 1518. The work had been started while More was an envoy in Flanders. It was first published in England (translated into English) sixteen years after More's death.