We
Document Type
Book
Subject
Literature Studies
Publication Date
1952
Course Date
Spring 2023
Course Number
HU 145
Course Title
Themes in the Humanities
Abstract
A seminal work of dystopian fiction that foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet Russia, 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', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, "We" is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction.
Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) was a naval engineer by profession and writer by vocation, who made himself an enemy of the Tsarist government by being a Bolshevik, and an enemy of the Soviet government by insisting that human beings have absolute creative freedom. He wrote short stories, plays and essays, but his masterpiece is "We", written in 1920-21 and soon thereafter translated into most of the languages of the world. It first appeared in Russia only in 1988.
This edition is translated from the Russian with a foreword by Greagory Zilboorg, an introduction by Peter Rudy, and a preface by Marc Slonim.
Copyright
This title is in the public domain in the United States of America. It may still be under copyright protection in other countries, and it is the responsibility of the user to follow the applicable copyright laws in their country.
Recommended Citation
Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We. Trans. by Gregory Zilboorg. E. P. Dutton, 1952. Retrieved from https://commons.erau.edu/db-hu-142-fall2021/6.