Book summary

近代ユートピアのあらすじ

著者： H・G・ウェルズ

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10 key ideas
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Two travellers step from an Alpine pass onto a twin Earth beyond Sirius, and a plump Voice tells what they find.

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近代ユートピアの概要

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読書時間: 約6 h 5 min4 h 50 min fast, 7 h 15 min slow
所要時間: 86,800語
ライブラリ内の難易度: 読み応えがあります long sentences, a rich vocabulary
初版刊行年: 1905by H・G・ウェルズ

Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). 古典を読むのにかかる時間 · 更新日 22 October 2026

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近代ユートピア in short

A Modern Utopia argues that a good society must be a planet wide state that keeps changing. Its people are the ones we know, but their laws, schools, money and manners have been redesigned. Travel is easy, work is light, and a minimum standard protects everyone while leaving room for ambition.

What 近代ユートピア is about

What if you could stand on an Alpine pass, blink, and find yourself on a twin of Earth, circling a star beyond Sirius? That is the opening move of A Modern Utopia, written by H. G. Wells in the early 1900s. Two men, a talkative narrator called the Voice and a gloomy botanist, find the same mountains and the same people, even their own doubles.

Wells mixes lecture and story, so the argument keeps breaking into scenes at inns and on night trains. You get a tour of a world state with one language, money tied to energy, a guaranteed minimum living and a voluntary order of rulers called the samurai.

対象読者. You will enjoy this book if you like thought experiments, ideas about how a fair society could be organised, and an author who argues with himself in public.

The 10 key ideas

Key idea 1 · free to read
A modern Utopia must keep moving
Wells begins by saying that older Utopias were frozen. Plato, More and their heirs pictured perfect states where happy generations repeated one another. Walls and rules held back every change.
He argues that Darwin has made that picture out of date. A modern Utopia must be kinetic, not static. It should be a flexible compromise in which a steady stream of new individuals can push life onward. We build ships of state, not citadels.
He sets the rules of his game. He lets himself change laws, habits, schools and customs, since people made them. But he will not change human nature or the natural world. He admits that Utopias look thin, with handsome buildings and faceless crowds, so he adds the Voice and the botanist to put faces back on the crowd.
A society worth wanting is one that can keep changing.
2
Only a whole planet can be a Utopia
Wells says the old trick of hiding a Utopia on an island no longer works.
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3
Freedom is a compromise, not an absence of law
Once in Utopia, the travellers ask whether they will be free to move about.
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4
People will travel, and privacy will be rationed
Wells holds that no modern Utopia is worth wanting unless people can come and go.
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5
Money and energy keep the state running
Wells defends money against the older Utopians who banned gold.
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6
Machines can end drudgery and still be beautiful
Wells notes that Plato never imagined machinery, and Utopias after him copied that blindness.
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7
Utopia must decide what to do about failure
Wells insists that a real Utopia cannot wish failure away.
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8
Motherhood becomes a paid service to the state
Wells argues that women can be free in law but still dependent in fact.
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9
A voluntary order of samurai does the ruling
Wells realises that all this order needs a will behind it.
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10
Race, doubt and the limits of the dream
In the chapter on race, Wells argues against the panic of his age.
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『近代ユートピア』についての質問

What is A Modern Utopia about?

It follows two men, the Voice and a botanist, who are moved to a twin of Earth beyond Sirius. They explore a world state with one language, shared land, a minimum wage and a voluntary ruling order called the samurai.

Who are the samurai in A Modern Utopia?

They are a voluntary order of men and women who follow a strict Rule of health, restraint and service. Only they can vote or hold most public offices, and members spend a week alone in wild places each year.

Who is the botanist?

He is the Voice's travelling companion, a lean, serious scientist. He cannot stop thinking about a woman he loved in Hampstead, and his private sorrow keeps interrupting the grand tour of Utopia.

Is A Modern Utopia a novel or an essay?

It is a blend of both. Wells wanted a texture between philosophical discussion and narrative, so chapters of argument alternate with scenes of travel, conversation and work in the Utopian world.

What is the main message of A Modern Utopia?

Wells argues that an ideal society should be worldwide, adaptable and built to protect individual uniqueness. He wants freedom secured by sensible limits, shared resources and rulers who serve willingly.

この版を引用します

Wells, H. G. A Modern Utopia. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-modern-utopia.

Wells, H. G. (2026). A modern utopia. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-modern-utopia (Original work published 1905)

Wells, H. G. A Modern Utopia. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-modern-utopia.

@book{wells2026modern,
  author = {Wells, H. G.},
  title = {A Modern Utopia},
  publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-modern-utopia},
  note = {First published 1905}
}