As it was the times that made More write his book, so it was the times that gave him the form of it.

In those days, as you know, men’s minds were stirred by the discovery of new lands and chiefly by the discovery of America.  And although it was Columbus who first discovered America, he did not give his name to the new country.  It was, instead, named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.  Amerigo wrote a book about his voyages, and it was from this book that More got some of his ideas for the Utopia.

More makes believe that one day in Antwerp he saw a man “well stricken in age, with a black sun-burned face, a long beard, and a cloak cast homely about his shoulders, whom by his favour and apparel forthwith I judged to be a mariner.”

This man was called Raphael Hythlodaye and had been with Amerigo Vespucci in the three last of his voyages, “saving that in the last voyage he came not home again with him.”  For on that voyage Hythlodaye asked to be left behind.  And after Amerigo had gone home he, with five friends, set forth upon a further voyage of discovery.  In their travels they saw many marvelous and fearful things, and at length came to the wonderful land of Nowhere.  “But what he told us that he saw, in every country where he came, it were very long to declare.”

More asked many questions of this great traveler.  “But as for monsters, because they be no news, of them we were nothing inquisitive. . . ..  But to find citizens ruled by good and wholesome laws, that is an exceeding rare and hard thing!”

The whole story of the Utopia is told in the form of talks between Hythlodaye, More, and his friend Peter Giles.  And More mixes what is real and what is imaginary so quaintly that it is not wonderful that many of the people of his own day thought that Utopia was a real place.  Peter Giles, for instance, was a real man and a friend of More, while Hythlodaye was imaginary, his name being made of Greek words meaning Cunning Babbler. nearly all the names of the towns, river, and people of whom Hythlodaye tells were also made from Greek words and have some meaning.  For instance, Achoriens means people-who-have-no-place-on-earth, Amaurote a-phantom-city, and so on.

More takes a great deal of trouble to keep up the mystery of this strange land.  It was not wonderful that he should, for under the pretense of a story he said hard things about the laws and ill-government of England, things which it was treason to whisper.  In those days treason was a terrible word covering a great deal, and death and torture were like to be the fate of any one who spoke his mind too freely.