More's classic text Utopia is an account of an imaginary society that in many respects was an improvement over his own (and perhaps our) society. Yet his account of Utopia is not a direct description: it is framed by story about meeting a traveler in Brussels named Raphael Hythloday who recounts his acquantance with the Utopians. Further, that framed story is preceeded by a letter to Peter Giles, a friend of More who was allegedly at that meeting. In the letter he writes, "For as I shall take good heed that there be in my book nothing false" (5)
What is going on with this framing story and this letter? Why not just give an account directly instead of inventing a traveler? Why appeals to the truth if this work is clearly an imaginative piece of fiction (and there are a lot of false things in the text)?
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