'Children are raised in factories, taught by machines. Zamyatin imagines a regime where buildings, streets, even space ships, are made of glass: a panopticon where 'conversations are recorded by sensitive mechanical membranes placed on the streets… criminals are reduced to chemically pure water in ceremonies of civic religion and justice' ( New Criterion). Preslar: ' We is a brilliantly structured, multi-layered prophetic novel that… tells of a future society, regimented, rational… providing apparent happiness and security to its citizens while depriving them of knowledge and freedom' ( Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, 33).

stirred in the psychology and existential revolt of Dostoevsky, as well as his own brand of 20th-century expressionistic style' (Collins, Zamyatin, 357-60).

The novel's idea of a state, one that relieves 'man of the 'burden of freedom', the responsibility of choice… finds no direct parallel in Utopian writing up to Zamyatin…. We has further been credited with charting a new direction for its genre. In addition, it is seen as the inspiration for Ayn Rand's Anthem, Vonnegut's Player Piano and many more. 'Zamyatin's book,' Orwell writes, 'is on the whole more relevant to our own situation… it is in effect a study of the Machine, the genie that man has thoughtlessly let out of its bottle and cannot put back again.' Most critics believe 'that We, with its theme of human love in a depersonalized, totalitarian society of the future, was a prototype,' as well, for Orwell's 1984 ( New York Times). In a 1946 review, Orwell suggests that Huxley's Brave New World 'must be partly derived from it,' but contends We 'has a political point' that Huxley's lacks. 'More than anyone else, it was Orwell who made Zamyatin's novel We known in the West' ( New Statesman). Octavo, original gray paper boards, original dust jacket.įirst English edition of Zamyatin's 'multi-layered prophetic novel,' widely seen as the inspiration for Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, Rand's Anthem, Vonnegut's Player Piano, and many more, a splendid copy in the original dust jacket. 'IT WAS ORWELL WHO MADE ZAMYATIN'S NOVEL WE KNOWN IN THE WEST': FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF THE SOVIET NOVELIST'S 1920 NOVEL, WE, BANNED IN THE SOVIET UNION AND UNPUBLISHED IN RUSSIAN FOR DECADES

Yevgeny zamyatin books