The New Atlantis
by:
Francis Bacon (author)
Bacon's literary executor, Dr. Rowley, published The New Atlantis" in 1627, the year after the author's death. It seems to have been written about 1623, during that period of literary activity which followed Bacon's political fall. None of Bacon's writings gives in short apace so vivid a picture...
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Bacon's literary executor, Dr. Rowley, published The New Atlantis" in 1627, the year after the author's death. It seems to have been written about 1623, during that period of literary activity which followed Bacon's political fall. None of Bacon's writings gives in short apace so vivid a picture of his tastes and aspirations as this fragment of the plan of an ideal commonwealth. The generosity and enlightenment, the dignity and splendor, the piety and public spirit, of the inhabitants of Bensalem represent the ideal qualities which Bacon the statesman desired rather than hoped to see characteristic of his own country; and in Solomon's House we have Bacon the scientist indulging without restriction his prophetic vision of the future of human knowledge."Sir Francis Bacon was one of the major political figures of his time, served in the court of Elizabeth I and ultimately became Lord Chancellor under James. A scholar, wit, lawyer and statesman, he wrote widely on politics, philosophy and science - declaring early in his career that 'I have taken all knowledge as my province'.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9781599867618 (1599867613)
Publish date: August 1st 2007
Publisher: Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.
Pages no: 52
Edition language: English
Category:
Adventure,
Classics,
Science Fiction,
Literature,
European Literature,
British Literature,
Religion,
Politics,
Philosophy,
Theology,
Dystopia,
Utopia
I know what you're thinking--"Who is this Philistine that gives a work as important as The New Atlantis only two stars?" But I swear, it's a justifiably low rating! And here's why:Firstly, unfulfilled expectations. In The New Atlantis, Bacon chose to weave his ideas into a piece of fiction, instead ...
I cannot say that I liked it, for Francis Bacon's utopian vision of society is not only ridiculous but also kind of offensive. The New Atlantians, who themselves are (obviously) learned, chaste and sophisticated, consider the Chinese 'foolish', the Africans to be the 'little foul ugly Spirits of For...