We

by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Jevgenij Zamiatin, Eugene Zamiatin, et al.

Book Overview

The exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet Russia, featuring a foreword by the National Book Award-winning New Yorker journalist Masha Gessen

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor',...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140185852
• ISBN13: 9780140185850
• Release Date: August 1993
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Our future?

I read it at russian high school. That day we didnot believe that we will live like people in that book-)))

One of the first, and one of the most interesting versions of a dystopia

The concept of a dystopia in literature has been done over and over again to an extent that we know the basic framework. 1984 has burned the image of it in our heads, and it's hard to escape it even decades divorced from Orwell's work. However, for those who want some dystopia that has a bit of variety, there are some options. And while you can list options like Huxley or Brunner, I'd put Zamyatin's We at the top of that list. Beyond the simple fact of "its the book that inspired Orwell in the first place". We works by taking the same basic formula and twisting it. Rather than an outsider looking upon the dystopia, it's a person who doesn't realize the extent of the dystopia he's in. An insider looking outward, seeing the world that he is so used to for what it is rather than what he's known. The idea itself is interesting, and the way that Zamyatin relays the information on this world and everything in it is impressive. He writes not from the character's perspective very well, melding D-053's mathematically formulaic views into every detail to an extent that's impressive. The prose he cooks up to explain something as simple as a person smiling is one I've never seen done before, and one that makes too much sense to not be worthy of praise. I will admit the book's prose can become a tad of a detriment and you will have to trace back and re-read sections to fully grasp what Zamyatin is doing, but We is well worth a read.

Wonderful book and physical quality!

The translation from Russian is superb, and the overall quality of the book is excellent.

We

The label "forgotten classic" is overused, but it definitely applies to We, a dystopian novel written in 1921 by Yevgeny Zamyatin, a Russian author who would soon disappear into exile and obscurity as a result of his work. We is a precursor to Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-four, but in my opinion it is the most powerful and most perfect of the three. The story is told by D-503, a male mathematician in a society organized on the principles of mathematics. The setting is centuries in our future, long after a war has reduced the human population to a few millions and led to the formation of One State, a single enclosed city-state. The guiding principle of One State is that freedom is unhappiness. To ensure uniformity, all buildings, including private dwellings, are made of glass so there is no privacy. The people (called "ciphers") all rise at the same moment, eat together, and take exercise by marching in formation. The true nightmare of We is not its grim picture of society, but the fact that so many of the ciphers, D-503 included, find it a delightful way to live. There are exceptions, however, including the seductive and mysterious I-330 with whom D-503 falls in love. Such attachments are, of course, forbidden, and D-503 is in anguish over his inability to control his feelings. The style in which We is written is unique and adds substantially to its appeal. D-503, as noted, is a mathematician, and his memoirs rely heavily on the language and metaphors of mathematics. At times, however, it is an outpouring of emotion from someone utterly unused even to the concept of emotions, much less the experience. We, as one might expect, is a satire against the totalitarian excesses of the new Soviet regime. Both a Communist and a Russian patriot, Zamyatin was astute enough even as early as 1921 to see that the revolution was leading in a direction away from the desires of many of its proponents. But the novel is also a powerful, even shocking statement about out concepts of happiness and freedom.

"Everyone" and "I", a single "We" ...

Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) wrote "We" in 1920, in an URSS that was just beginning to show its true nature. He was able to observe at first hand the consequences of the expansion of the State and the Party, and the corresponding erosion of the value of the individual. The author called "We" his "most jesting and most serious work", and I think the reader will be able to appreciate both aspects of this peculiar book. This novel takes place in the future, where the One State is ruled by the great Benefactor, and separated from the rest of the world by a Great Wall, that doesn't allow the outside world to "contaminate" it. The citizens of the One State aren't persons but merely numbers. They have almost no privacy, due to the fact that most things are made of a material similar to glass but much more resistant. In any case that isn't a problem, because as everybody does the same things at the same time, nobody has much to hide. The One State begins to build a spaceship, the "Integral", that will be used to conquer other worlds and show them to be happy, in the way the citizens of the One State are happy. But how exactly are they happy?. Well, they have a rational happiness that can be mathematically proved. To mantain that happiness, they must always follow some rules. For example, there is no place for spontaneity in the One State. Imagination is considered a disease, and all art and poetry must be at the service of the State. The function of poetry is clear: "Today, poetry is no longer the idle, impudent whistling of a nightingale; poetry is civic service, poetry is useful". As if that weren't enough, almost all activities are organized according to the Table of Hours: "Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour and the same moment, we -millions of us- get up as one. At the same hour, in million-headed unison, we start work; and in million-headed unison we end it. And, fused into a single million-handed body, at the same second, designated by the Table, we lift our spoons to our mouths." That main character in "We" is D-503, an important mathematician who is also a faithful follower of the great Benefactor, and a key participant in the building of the "Integral". He starts to write a journal, to allow other less fortunate societies to learn from the way things are done in the One State. This novel is that journal... D-503 believes, at the beginning of this book, that the state of things in the One State is wonderful, and considers himself fortunate for being able to live in such enlightened times, where "¨everyone¨ and ¨I¨ are a single ¨We¨". But the unexpected happens when he starts to "fall in love" (an alien concept) with a number that has strange ideas, I-330. She makes D-503 start to question everything he had until then given for granted, and due to her he starts to develop a dangerous illness: a soul. As a consequence of that, D-503 cannot feel anymore as part of the whole, of "We", he cannot be merely a part of

Best of Dystopian Trilogy

Zamyatin's WE, like Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984, is a classic science-fiction novel that unmasks the chilling realities of the erosion of individuality. What makes Zamyatin's account more compelling, however, is that he wrote the novel from within the fledgeling Socialist state of 1920's Russia (it wasn't even published there until 1988). Therefore, Zamyatin can lay claim to a firsthand understanding of the fallacies of the Soviet collective unlike the eccentric British intellectuals Orwell and Huxley. Although Zamyatin's language, at times, is a bit peculiar by nature, this Twentieth Century Classics translation is perhaps the easiest to understand, as the translator shied away from word use that would not register smoothly in the mind of a contemporary English reader. If you have read Brave New World or 1984, you will certainly want to compliment them by reading this excellent masterpiece in 20th century European literature!

"Only the unsubduable can be loved"

This novel (the edition I read was a translation from the Russian by Mirra Ginsberg in 1972) is an excellent satire by Yevgeny Zamiatin (or, Zamyatin). Reading it, I find it remarkable that Zamiatin was not sent to Siberia or executed in one of the many purges occurring in the Soviet Union at that time. Apparently, the book was never published in the Soviet Union. It appeared first in English in 1924 (and obviously had a major influence in the development of Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four") and then in Czech in 1927. The Soviet authorities began to put pressure on the author through the Writers' Union and, probably due to the help of Maxim Gorky, Zamiatin was allowed to leave for Paris in 1931 (he died in Paris in 1937). The story is an extrapolation of a totalitarian world. The population of Earth that have survived a 200-years war find themselves members of a single state (the One State) where imagination is considered a disease. In this society the individual does not count, only the multitude. The central character is D-503 (all the inhabitants are numbers in this State), a mathematician who is building a space ship to bring their "perfect" world and culture to others. The whole novel consists of D-503's journal. However, D-503 soon meets I-330, a woman who shows him that there are numbers in the One State that feel that the State is in error and are striving for a new revolution. He begins to have strong feelings for her. He thinks he is ill but he can't help himself. And, he must keep his feelings hidden from the Guardians, the One State's "protectors." What a terrific "read." I highly recommend it (as well as "1984" and "Brave New World"). As can be seen in the comments by the other reviewers, "We" is a great book to discuss: with respect to politics, history, science fiction, or literature.