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“[Zamyatin’s] intuitive grasp of the irrational side of totalitarianism– human sacrifice, cruelty as an end in itself–makes [We] superior to Huxley’s [Brave New World].”
–George Orwell

An inspiration for George Orwell’s 1984 and a precursor to the work of Philip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem, We is a classic of dystopian science fiction ripe for rediscovery. Written in 1921 by the Russian revolutionary Yevgeny Zamyatin, this story of the thirtieth century is set in the One State, a society where all live for the collective good and individual freedom does not exist. The novel takes the form of the diary of state mathematician D-503, who, to his shock, experiences the most disruptive emotion imaginable: love for another human being.
At once satirical and sobering–and now available in a powerful new modern translation–We speaks to all who have suffered under repression of their personal and artistic freedom.

“One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.”
–Irving Howe ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Fantastic book
WOW! Fantastic book. Even more WOW! because I never expected to like it. I forced myself to read it because it is known that this book influenced George Orwell's 1984.
Mind blowing. Simply mind blowing.
It is difficult to believe that the author could write it in 1920!
"We" is about everything. Government. Power. Big Brother? Feelings. Love!
Although, it was written 90 years ago, you never feel that it is "old"

Paralyzingly dull, but then you
are probably just as dull, if not imebecilic, if you look inside this book and find anything resembling an interesting story, let alone literary talent.For God's sake, if you must read about tyranny read something worthwhile, like Orwell's 1984 or Animal Farm, or Czeslaw Milosz' The Captive Mind.But you won't; you'll read this crap and tell everybody how impressed you were.Go away.

The template for 100 years of Sci-Fi
Reading this in 2010, one will not find an original idea anywhere in the book.The main character, known only by a number, loves the unemotional, highly rigid, completely "objective" world in which he lives, in which conformity is praised and individuality is a nightmare to be shunned.Much to his dismay- and intrigue- he meets a female number who is willing to test the boundaries of society and commit acts, suggest ideas, think thoughts that no responsible person should consider.The main character is slowly drawn into this rebel's world and before the book concludes, must make decisions that could dramatically alter his life, and possibly all of society.
One cannot read this book without thinking of Orwell, Rand, Gilliam's "Brazil", Theroux's out of print "O-zone", and countless other science fiction classics.The beauty of this book, however, and the intimidating genius contained within its covers, is that this scathing critique of a totalitarian society disguised as a new type of fiction genre, preceded all the above.One would easily guess that Zamyatin was a Russian author if one did not know, and the originality and forward thinking manner in which he tackles his concerns about his homeland- concerns he could not openly confront in print- is inspiring, informative, and fortunately for us readers, highly entertaining.
Even reading this today, in an America where patriotism is once again being used as a bully pulpit, and the terms of what it means to be an American are being defined by an extreme group of people, "We" resonates and speaks to the danger of any government which attempts to curtail the freedoms of its people.
"We" is the template from which a majority of 20th century science fiction derived.

I liked this one very much
I read this because of an article I read about it.Orwell accused Huxley of reading it before writing Brave New World.Huxley denied ever reading it.There are themes in it that run through both 1984 and Brave New World, as well as some of Rand's work.The prose is well written and engrossing.The ending is predictable based on reading other distopic novels but still very much worth the read.You find yourself hoping that the "I" wins over the "we." It doesn't.It's a light easy read, which is a little surprising because it is a translation from Russian.

The orignal 1984
After reading WE it is impossible to ignore the similarities between it and 1984. This is because Orwell wrote 1984 on the frame work of WE; a man with an urge to write living within a oppressive society, the struggle between man and masters, being an individual instead of a machine, and the dark side of totalitarianism. Even though i feel that 1984 is much more gritty and rooted, I have a deep respect for Zamyatin because he stands as the original instead of the one who came after.
If you liked/loved 1984, WE is a must read. Although,the warning must be given,despite being only 200 pages it is a tough read. At times I lost complete track of what was going on by not completely grasping the logical explanations of illogical feelings. Also be warned of Zamyatin's style, it's cornerstone is leaving the reader hanging by just cutting off a thought mid-sentence leaving you with just three dots to figure out what happened.
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Customer Reviews (118)

The Kindle version is poorly done
"We" is an incredible novel, but I am really disappointed with the Kindle edition. There are two small things that are really annoying:

1. The chapter subtitles do not have "returns" where it should. For example, chapter 1 has a subtitle:
"Announcement
The Wisest of Lines
An Epic Poem"

But in the Kindle version, we have "Announcement The Wisest of Lines An Epic Poem" which is incredibly misleading.

2. The text seems like an OCR some times. One of the main characters, I-330, is sometimes refered as 1-330 (yes, this typo appears many times, using the letter I and the number 1, which can cause confusion since all character names are letters+numbers).

The funny is that these errors do not exist in the same paper edition, which I also have. I know: they are all small issues, but it is unacceptable to pay this price for something with such problems.

Amazon really should take a little bit more care with its Kindle products (I know that the problem probably occurred by the publisher, while converting the original text).

I would rate 4 stars if there was no problems with the kindle edition. The text is a little bit less enjoyable than Huxley and Orwell, although we can really easily see how the other two were _heavily_ influenced by Zamyatin.

Excellent literature!
This is an amazing piece of literature and a great translation by Brown.Zamyatin is an amazing writer and well worth your time.

If you enjoy Ayn Rand or George Orwell, you'll really enjoy this book.

This could be two stars, or it could be four!
Quite an interesting tale.If you don't know already, this is the first official dystopian novel, written in the early 20th century.After reading it, I can't say I wholeheartedly recommend it, but then I can't really dismiss it either.It's definitely worth reading, but there are some glaring problems with the story/storytelling that drag the book down; but then there are impressive parts to the story/storytelling as well.

The futuristic civilization of "We" begins in the days preceding the launch of a spacecraft called the INTEGRAL.Any societies encountered by the INTEGRAL and its crew are to, in a few words, be bent to the will of the society that launched the spacecraft.The story is told from the perspective of the main character, the lead engineer/designer of the INTEGRAL.He is keeping a journal to share with encountered societies so that they can better understand and appreciate his own civilization and why it's so great.But then things start happening (he meets a mysterious woman), things that he might not want to put in his journal, but does anyway.

Now the translator of the book points out in the introduction that there is a whole "Buck Rogers" comics feel to the book, and he's right.Airships and rockets with people in helmets, a glass city with glass buildings, a sense of scientific order: all good stuff.

There's also the creepy Benefactor, a big humanoid with huge iron fists who is the "leader" of the futuristic society.(You don't, by the way, ever find out if the Benefactor is, in fact, human or why he has huge iron fists.)He's good to have, along with the Glass Bell (a torture device).And let's not forget the execution stadium with the human disintegrator (I can't remember what it's called, but it does have a name).Good dystopian accoutrements.

Sex tickets are also a part of the society, where you essentially get to sleep with whomever you want providing you make a reservation and get a ticket for the person you're interested in.That's fine, too.

The problems with "We" stem from the following:

1) The intermittent stream of consciousness storytelling style, which is fine except that you're not really sure what's going on or what happened at some points in the story.Leads to unnecessary confusion.
2) The Old House, which seems to be an artless museum of sorts--in the form of an old apartment building--where revolutionaries hide out and do whatever they want, but it seems that the security forces of the civilization would have to be inept to not know about it or have bulldozed it.
3) The glass buildings.You're never quite sure if they're made out of huge glass blocks or if they're just walled with glass.The author could have made this very clear, yet never did.
4) At points in the story, the main character notices "some guy" and the author sort of takes it for granted that you know who he's talking about, but the guy could've been sparsely described in a stream of consciousness section, leaving unsure as to who the guy is.This comes up a lot with the person that follows the main character, a described as having an "S" shape.
5) The society lacks detail.While "1984" and "Brave New World" are comparatively designed down to the last bolt, the society in "We"--which attempts to be as efficient and robotic as possible--doesn't come across as believable.I mean, it's supposed to be regimented and structured, yet the opaque Old House (mentioned above) exists in the glass-walled city of glass buildings.And where's the Benefactor come from?What's his story/origin?

If you've seen "Equilibrium," you might understand better.There's supposedly this oppressive, highly organized dystopian society that watches everyone, yet behind every rock, bush and wall there's a revolutionary member camped out, ready to take it all down."Here we are, brutish security force, but you'll never find us!"

Overall, a good story with some "communication" problems and a not-entirely-fleshed-out society.I did like the ending, which is, of course, dystopian (the ending, that is, not my liking of it).

Best that you read it and decide for yourself how good it is.I'd be interested in your comments.(In fact, I've never had so many questions about a book after I finished it as I had when I finished this one.)

Dystopia
Considered to be the original in the mold of the dystopia novel, it is easy to see how "We" influenced many other books.Still, there is something unique about this book, which sets it apart from the others.Some have even labeled the book to be a satire, as many of the themes are based on events in Zamyatin's life in early 20th Century Russia.Yet the novel is likely to leave the reader move disturbed than humored.

D-503 lives an exemplary life in One State.He is the designer of the Integral, a spaceship designed to spread One State's brand of government to other planets in much the same way communism was once feared to spread.Yet D-503 spends a good deal of time with his main love interest O-90 and the State poet R-13 referring to their relationship as a triangle. This is because intimate relations are can be shared freely among numbers as long as the partnership is registered and regulated by One State.

The temptress I-330 brings this complacency to an end. She is in league with the rebellious Mephi and skews D-503's concept of One State.D-503 feels emotions he should not feel, and is even diagnosed as developing a soul.His infatuation parallels with breaks in the orderly life of One State that bring Benefactor to recommend a procedure that is certain to end the rebellious nature in all numbers.

Though the novel ends with a sense of resolution, the read is left to determine what may happen beyond these 225 pages.I liked the fact that the conclusion of the story may not be a final ending.

Being written initially in Russian, I can not help but wonder how this novel would read in Russian.Often, I found the wording to be somewhat clumsy.However, this did not take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

A Bleak, Claustrophobic Vision of the Future
Banned in the Soviet Union until the late 80s, this dystopic vision served as a blueprint for Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.The book takes place in the future, where mankind lives in the "perfect" society of OneState.No one has names, everyone is a "Number".All of the buildings, including furniture are made of transparent glass, the better for the Guardians to keep an eye on everyone.Everything is regulated, from the work day, to meals (food is made from petroleum) to sexual relations (which require a pink ticket).Every Number has a shaven head and wears a uniform with a badge that contains a clock.Any dissent is punishable by death, meted out by the Benefactor, the ruler of OneState.

The story is told by D-503, a mathematician and engineer, who is building the Integral, a spacecraft designed for the sole purpose of taking OneState's message and control to whatever alien lifeforms might exist.D-503 is happy and content to live and serve in OneState, at least until he meets I-330, a mysterious woman who's part of an underground movement seeking to overthrow OneState's oppressive government.As the story progresses, D-503 finds himself questioning himself and his beliefs as he becomes more deeply involved with I-330.

The book is written as a series of D-503's journal entries and the writing style Zamyatin employs serves to reinforce that construct.In this halting, almost primitive style, the reader is presented with D-503's moral dilemmas, his fear, his burgeoning love, and spark of individuality against the backdrop of enforced conformity.There's a feeling of claustrophobia that permeates this novel, which far outweighs any of the hokier science-fiction elements of the story.Not as sharp as 1984 or Brave New World, but well worth a read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

INCREASE YOUR READING PLEASURE


INCREASE YOUR READING PLEASURE

This illumination from Yevgeny Zamyatin will help you discover and read good literature that brims your heart and soul with pleasure. It shoots its rays into the dark recesses of the human heart, into the dark energy of cosmic space and into the very heart of primordial energy itself.
The introduction by Alex Shane lets you know right at the outset that you will be cozying up to a mind that has conquered Mount Everest and from that vantage is reporting on shadows and shifting brilliancies, sunrise, sunset, the flaming arc passing over our lives and the dark crevices of our souls.
The editor's preface notes that Yevgeny Zamyatin . . . "is a consummate craftsman, he was enormously concerned with the problems of craft. But he also is a thoroughly `engaged' writer, equally involved with the problem of the artist in society--a problem, as he saw it, both political and philosophic. He had an extraordinary sense of time, of the constant flow and flux of history. And it was perhaps his refusal to accept the absolute--as well as the romantic humanist values he refused to abandon--that brought him into sharpest conflict with the absolutist."
The book proper begins with three Autobiographies: the first written in 1922, the second 1924 and the third in 1929. The first two are pale pencil sketches of less then two pages each.In the first autobiography Yevgeny writes
"And so you insist on my autobiography. But you will have to content yourself with a purely external view, with perhaps a fleeting glance into darkened windows: I rarely invite anyone to come inside. And from the outside you will not see much.
The third autobiography, a large detailed painting containing many narrative brushstrokes makes one eager to continue reading to better understand the way Yevgeny saw the world, especially Russia and the arresting affect it had on its artists. Yevgeny saw that some artists became propagandists; others became dull craftsmen not wanting to rock the boat. And then there were a few, who like Yevgeny, wrote imaginative, independent, boisterous pieces that went of like a bomb shooting shrapnel into the bureaucracy; their writings led to the gulags or exile.
The book has five sections. The first section contains the three autobiographies previously mentioned and the remaining four sections contain the essays.
The second section, The State of Russian Literature, contains fifteen essays, each highly instructive and as beautifully written as a novel by Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky.Illustrative is the essay, On Synthetism which developed new ways to view literature. In this essay Yevgeny boldly starts out:

"+, --, -- -- These are the three schools in art, and there are no others. Affirmation, negation, and synthesis--the negation of negation. The syllogism is closed, the circle is completed."

This precise statement was written by a successful engineer who supervised building ships for Russia and various technical institutes.
Yevgeny shifts gears and continues on in a beautifully poetical style:

"The plus: Adam--nothing but clay; the world. The moist emerald clay of grass; peach warm, the naked body of Eve against the emerald; cherry red, Eve's lips and breast tips, apples, wine. Vivid, simple firm coarse flesh . . . Realism, Naturalism.
"But now Adam is satiated with Eve. He is no longer drawn to the scarlet flowers of her body, he immerses himself for the first time in her eyes . . . he finds the misty glimmering of another world.And the emerald grass pales; the red, firm lips are forgotten; the embracing bodies untwine. This is the minus.
"Years, minutes pass--and Adam quivers again. He has touched Eve's knees and lips. Again the blood rushes up to his cheeks; his nostrils quiver, drinking the green wine of the grass. Away with the minuses! But today's . . .Adam is already poisoned by the knowledge of the other, once glimpsed Eve, and together with sweetness his kisses leave on the lips of this Eve a bitter touch of irony. Under the glowing flesh Adam, who has gone through negation, who has grown wiser, knows the skeleton. But this makes his kisses still more ecstatic, his love still headier, the colors more vivid, the eye still keener, grasping the most fleeting of lines and forms. Thus synthesis."

The third section, The Writers Craft:four essays that illuminates the field of Arts and Crafts. In the essay, The Psychology of Creative Work, Yevgeny shows the reader how to leap upward after showing him the ground from which to leap.
The fourth section, Eight Writers and One Painter, contains eight fascinating essays beautifully written, each concerning a different artist; Alexander Blok, Fyodor Sologub, Chekhov, Kustodiev, Andrey Bely, Maxim Gorky, H. G. Wells, O'Henry, and Anotole France. These illuminations have the potential to bring one much pleasure by spreading light into the breadth and depth of literature and affording us the opportunity to see more clearly the men who helped create this marvelous place.
Section five contains two letters. One is Yevgeny's letter of Resignation from the Writers Union written in 1929 after it failed to support him in his efforts to have his novel WE published in Russia after it had already been published in various languages around the world. The other letter is one Yevgeny wrote to Stalin requesting that he be permitted to leave Russia with his family to live in France. It is a five page letter which starts out:

"Dear Yosif Vissarionovich,
The author of the present letter, condemned to the highest penalty, appeals to you with a request to change this penalty to another.
My name is probably known to you. To me as a writer, being deprived of the opportunity to write is nothing less than a death sentence. Yet the situation that has come about is such that I cannot continue my work because no creative activity is possible in an atmosphere of systematic persecution that increases in intensity from year to year."

This is indeed a courageous example of "Speaking truth to power." One can only imagine the results if on the day this letter was presented to Stalin he was having a bad day. Yevgeny was allowed to live in exile in Paris, France where he died in 1937.
Thirteen portraits, pencil sketches by Yury Annenkov, are scattered throughout the book. They are so beautifully done they arrest your eyes and take your breath away. I assiduously lingered over each one, my eyeballs absorbing them, studying them, loving them; it was difficult to leave them. These sketches alone are worth the price of admission.
This book is recommended for anyone wanting to increase their appreciation of literature and bring exceptional beauty and pleasure into their lives.

Neil Bezaire, Carlsbad, CA,February 2009
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Customer Reviews (1)

Insipid parody.
The author tries to give us a picture of life in England before World War I through the tribulations in a nobleman's marriage. The main themes are religious fanaticism, conformism, hypocrisy and the Salvation Army. The pinnacle of indecency is a nobleman who becomes a boxer.

This book has not the same quality as 'We'. It lacks biting humour and is far too slow.

For a cruel and devastating picture of the same period I recommend 'Winter notes on Summer Impressions' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. ... Read more

Product Description
"Yevgeny Zamyatin was born in Russia in 1884. A friend of Gorky, Zamyatin was an enthusiastic supporter of the Revolution - at first. 'WE,' written in 1921 and 1922, was circulated clandestinely, and even though it was denied publication, 'WE' became one of the most influential and talked-about novels of this century. Zamyatin was exiled under Stalin and died in Paris in 1937. His masterpiece remains unpublished in his native Russia." ... Read more

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Word count: 2978. ... Read more

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Chapters: Yevgeny Zamyatin, Boris Smyslovsky, Jerzy Bulanow, Peter Bogaevsky, Morris Zimmerman, Konstantin Chkheidze, Marina Gershenovich, Vladimir Woytinsky, Nikolai Dahl, Sergey Teslya. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 33. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (Russian: , Russian pronunciation: ) (February 20, 1884 March 10, 1937) was a Russian author, most famous for his 1921 novel We, a story of dystopian future which influenced George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Ayn Rand's Anthem, Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and, indirectly, Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano. Zamyatin was born in Lebedyan, 300 km south of Moscow. His father was a Russian Orthodox priest and schoolmaster, and his mother a musician. He may have had synesthesia as he gave letters and sounds qualities. For example, he saw the letter "L" as having pale, cold and light blue qualities. He studied naval engineering in Saint Petersburg from 1902 until 1908, during which time he joined the Bolsheviks. He was arrested during the Russian Revolution of 1905 and exiled, but returned to Saint Petersburg where he lived illegally before moving to Finland in 1906 to finish his studies. After returning to Russia, he began to write fiction as a hobby. He was arrested and exiled a second time in 1911, but amnestied in 1913. His Uyezdnoye (A Provincial Tale) in 1913, which satirized life in a small Russian town, brought him a degree of fame. The next year he was tried for maligning the military in his story Na Kulichkakh (At the world's end). He continued to contribute articles to various socialist newspapers. After graduating as a naval engineer, he worked professionally at home and abroad. In 1916 he was sent to England to supervise the construction of icebreakers at the shipyards in Walker and Wallsen...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=34381 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Yevgeny Zamyatin, David Bronstein, Mikhail Frunze, Stephen Timoshenko, Igor Kurchatov, Pyotr Kapitsa, Leonid Govorov, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Igor Gorynin, Elepter Andronikashvili, Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov, Lev Shubnikov, Valéry Inkijinoff, Oskar Anderson, Ilya Klebanov, Daniil Granin, Mikhail Koshkin, Alexander Chernyshov. Excerpt:Aleksandr Alekseyevich Chernyshov (Russian : e ; 21 August 1882 28 April 1940) was an Russian electrical engineer. He graduated from Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute in 1907, and had worked there until the end of his life. His research consisted of radio engineering and high-voltage techniques. He won the Lenin Prize in 1930. References (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at Anatoly Alexandrov Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov (Russian : ) (born February 13, 1903 in Tarascha - died February 3, 1994 in Moscow ) was a Russian physicist, director of the Kurchatov Institute , academician (from 1953) and the President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1975 1986). Anatoly Alexandrov was born on February 13, 1903 into the family of a judge of peace in the town of Tarascha , Kiev Governorate , Russian Empire (now located in modern-day Ukraine). Alexandrov became prominent during World War II , when he devised a method of demagnetizing ships to protect them from mines , according to the Russian nuclear physicist Yevgeni Velikov . Velikov also said that Alexandrov was instrumental in developing the Soviet nuclear-powered fleet, both surface vessels and submarines .. Alexandrov led the Soviet effort to develop Chernobyl -type nuclear reactors . He advocated the use of graphite-moderated reactors like the one that exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986. Western scientists say su... ... Read more

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Chapters: Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University Alumni, Yevgeny Zamyatin, David Bronstein, Mikhail Frunze, Stephen Timoshenko, Igor Kurchatov, Pyotr Kapitsa, Leonid Govorov, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Igor Gorynin, Elepter Andronikashvili, Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, Distributed Intelligent Systems Department of Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University, Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov, Lev Shubnikov, Valéry Inkijinoff, Oskar Anderson, Ilya Klebanov, Daniil Granin, Mikhail Koshkin, Alexander Chernyshov. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 85. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: David Ionovich Bronstein ( ; February 19, 1924 December 5, 2006) was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics. He was also a renowned chess writer. David Bronstein was born in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, to a Jewish mother and father. Growing up, he learned chess at age six from his grandfather. As a youth in Kiev, he was trained by the renowned International Master Alexander Konstantinopolsky. He finished second in the Kiev Championship when he was only 15, and achieved the Soviet Master title at age 16 for his second-place result in the 1940 Ukrainian Chess Championship, behind Isaac Boleslavsky, with whom he became close friends both on and off the chessboard. (He would later go on to marry Boleslavsky's daughter, Tatiana, in 1984.) After completing high school, his plans to study Mathematics at Kiev University were interrupted by the spread of World War II throughout eastern Europe in the early 1940s. Shortly after the war's conclusion, he began attending Leningrad Polytechnical Institute where he studied for approximately one year. Judged unfit for military service, Bronstein spent the war...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=233649 ... Read more