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Автор Питер Акройд

Praise for

The Life of Thomas More

by Peter Ackroyd

“Frank and masterful. … [Ackroyd has a] gift for describing what it all looked and felt like. ”

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The Baltimore Sun

“An exceptionally fascinating, colorful and moving biography. ”

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The Christian Science Monitor

“Mr. Ackroyd skillfully captures the life of a consummate lawyer, humanist, martyr and Renaissance man. …”

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The National Law Journal

“Beautifully written, comprehensively researched. ”

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Houston Chronicle

“Exquisite. … [Ackroyd has] a sense of history and a wonderful command of the English language. … Highly recommendable. ”

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Library Journal

“A limpidly written and superbly wrought portrait. ”

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Kirkus Reviews

PETER ACKROYD

The Life of Thomas More

Peter Ackroyd is a prizewinning writer. His biographies include T. S. Eliot, recipient of the Whitbread Biography of the Year Award and joint winner of the Royal Society of Literature’s William Heinemann Award; and Blake. His novels include Chatterton, Hawksmoor, and most recently, The Trial of Elizabeth Cree and Milton in America. He lives in London.

ETER

CKROYD

FICTION

The Great Fire of London

The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde

Hawksmoor

Chatterton

First Light

English Music

The House of Doctor Dee

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem

Milton in America

The Plato Papers

NONFICTION

Dressing Up: Transvestism and Drag: The History of an Obsession

London: The Biography

Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination

BIOGRAPHY

Ezra Pound and His World

T. S. Eliot

Dickens

Blake

The Life of Thomas More

POETRY

Ouch!

The Diversions of Purley and Other Poems

CRITICISM

Notes for a New Culture

The Collection: Journalism, Reviews, Essays, Short Stories, Lectures

edited by Thomas Wright

FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, DECEMBER 1999

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc. , New York. Originally published in hardcover in the United Kingdom by Chatto & Windus, London in 1998. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in 1998.

Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Nan A. Talese/Doubleday edition as follows:

Ackroyd, Peter, 1949–

The life of Thomas More / Peter Ackroyd.

— 1st ed. in the U. S. A.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. More, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478–1535. 2. Great Britain—

History—Henry VIII, 1509–1547—Biography. 3. Great Britain—

Politics and government—1509–1547. 4. Christian martyrs—England—

Biography. 5. Statesmen—Great Britain—Biography. 6. Humanists—

England—Biography. I. Title.

DA334. M8A64 1998

942. 05′2′092—dc21

[B] 98-24333

eISBN: 978-0-307-82301-4

Author photograph by Roderick Field

v3. 1

FOR THOMAS WRIGHT

Contents

Cover

About the Author

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Dedication

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I THIS DARK WORLD

II PRETTY PLAYS OF CHILDHOOD

III ST ANTHONY’S PIGS

IV COUGH NOT, NOR SPIT