WE (Dystopian Classic)
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian classic, 'WE,' delves into a futuristic society where individuality is suppressed in the name of unity and conformity. Written in a stark and precise literary style, the novel explores themes of surveillance, control, and the dehumanizing effects of a totalitarian regime. Zamyatin's use of mathematical and scientific language adds to the overall atmosphere of rationality and order in this thought-provoking work, which predates other famous dystopian novels such as George Orwell's '1984' and Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World.' The novel's bold critique of Soviet society and its portrayal of a dehumanized future serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of a society devoid of individual freedom and creativity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in the Soviet 1920s, Zamyatin's dystopic novel left an indelible watermark on 20th-century culture, from Orwell's 1984 to Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil. Randall's exciting new translation strips away the Cold War connotations and makes us conscious of Zamyatin's other influences, from Dostoyevski to German expressionism. D-503 is a loyal "cipher" of the totalitarian One State, literally walled in by glass; he is a mathematician happily building the world's first rocket, but his life is changed by meeting I-330, a woman with "sharp teeth" who keeps emerging out of a sudden vampirish dusk to smile wickedly on the poor narrator and drive him wild with desire. (When she first forces him to drink alcohol, the mind leaps to Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel.) In becoming a slave to love, D-503 becomes, briefly, a free man. In Randall's hands, Zamyatin's modernist idiom crackles ("I only remember his fingers: they flew out of his sleeve, like bundles of beams"), though the novel sometimes seems prophetic of the onset of Stalinism, particularly in the bleak ending. Modern Library's reintroduction of Zamyatin's novel is a literary event sure to bring this neglected classic to the attention of a new readership. (On sale July 11)
