Affairs of

Thomas More By Richard Marius Knopf: 562 pp.; $22.95

THERE IS a tide in the affairs of books. At certain times, the popularity of a particular genre seems to be at its crest. Recent bestseller lists indicate that the 80s is the decade of the biography and the historical romance. They depict complete lives, some with real direction and purpose, perhaps things modern man may lack. The dreams, hopes, ambitions and achievements of the great men of a former are can offer inspiration and hope.

Men of great stature, however, are few and far between. History especially affords us with few examples of such men. One, though, certainly seems to be Sir Thomas More. More is a figure familiar to most. The author of a great book, a lawyer, a man of wit, charm and learning. More was also a martyr, the man who gave up his life rather than forfeit his principles. He has been made familiar to us through several biographies and, perhaps most permanently by the play and film. A Man for All Seasons.

Richard Marius (the Director of the Expository Writing Program at Harvard) paints a different picture of More than we're used to. The More in keeping with Hans Holbien's 1527 drawing of the man. Holbien's sketch shows a prosperous Tudor gentleman in a fur-trimmed robe, surrounded by his family and signs of his wealthy. Above More's head hangs a clock dangling ominously. Marius fleshes out the ambiguities and tensions in More's Character at which Holbien hints.

Marius's More is a darker, complex man than that of pope in legend, a man haunted, filled with rage and not "altogether admirable." This new More is an actor, writing his lines as he goes along. Arrogant in public, he's a victim of debilitating doubt in private. This More is a workahotled. A failed monk, he chooses marriages and a secular career in London. He is a merciless scourge of heretics and, at the same time, is preoccupied with death and tears for his own soul.