Which statements rightly define or describe utopia and dystopia?

A) Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) is an essay in four books

B) Sir Thomas more was the first to apply Utopia to literary genre when he named his imaginary republic utopia

C) Thomas More’s utopia was originally written in English

D) Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four and Aldous Huxley’s brave new world are dystopian/antiutopian texts.

E) More’s Utopia was translated into French, German and Spanish by Ralph Robinson.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below.

The correct answer is B and D Only.

Let us analyze each statement to understand why B and D are the only correct statements:

Statement A is incorrect: Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) is a work of fiction and political philosophy written in two books (Book I and Book II), not four books.

Statement B is correct: Sir Thomas More coined the word "Utopia" (derived from the Greek words for "no-place" or "good-place") and was indeed the first to apply this term to describe his imaginary, idealized island republic. This work established the characteristics of the "utopian" literary genre.

Statement C is incorrect: More’s Utopia was originally written and published in Latin in 1516, which was the common language of scholarship in Renaissance Europe, rather than English.

Statement D is correct: George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World are classic, defining examples of dystopian (or anti-utopian) literature, depicting oppressive, state-controlled, and highly undesirable societies.

Statement E is incorrect: Ralph Robinson is famous for translating More's Utopia from its original Latin into English in 1551, not into French, German, or Spanish.

Therefore, only statements B and D rightly describe or define utopia and dystopia.