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Product Description
Book Description
The suppressed work that both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World are based on, and the first modern dystopian novel
Product Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE OXFORD WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE 2008
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WILL SELF
The citizens of the One State live in a condition of 'mathematically infallible happiness'. D-503 decides to keep a diary of his days working for the collective good in this clean, blue city state where nature, privacy and individual liberty have been eradicated. But over the course of his journal D-503 suddenly finds himself caught up in unthinkable and illegal activities - love and rebellion.
Banned on its publication in Russia in1921, We is the first modern dystopian novel and a satire on state control that has once again become chillingly relevant.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I began reading We with some trepidation. From what I had heard of the book, I was expecting a rather clumsy, dusty work with limited characterisation and a plot which simply supported some of the author's more politically charged ideas.
I was pleasantly surprised. The plot is genuinely exciting and drives the short novel on to its conclusion. The confusion of the narrative character's ideology is wonderfully rendered. The quality of the prose - certainly this novel's finest feature - is a delight to read. Zamyatin mimics the icy, transparent and glassy landscape of his imaginary city with precise and frosty language.
This is certainly the edition to look out for. As she explains in her introduction, Randall (the translator of this new edition) firmly feels the importance of creating a prose structure as similar to Zamyatin's as she can make it. Will Self's lively introduction is also very well placed.
I was pleasantly surprised. The plot is genuinely exciting and drives the short novel on to its conclusion. The confusion of the narrative character's ideology is wonderfully rendered. The quality of the prose - certainly this novel's finest feature - is a delight to read. Zamyatin mimics the icy, transparent and glassy landscape of his imaginary city with precise and frosty language.
This is certainly the edition to look out for. As she explains in her introduction, Randall (the translator of this new edition) firmly feels the importance of creating a prose structure as similar to Zamyatin's as she can make it. Will Self's lively introduction is also very well placed.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone whose a fan of Orwell's 1984 should definitely read this; though you may get a sense of deja vu when doing so. Many of the plot details of both are very similar, Both are Totalitarian societies, both have a independent minded sexually active female rebel who awakens the protagonists inner dissidence, however of the Two We is much more fantastical, instead of Ingsoc the ruling ideology is well just mathematics or Taylorism if you want to be more generous. Instead of telescreens they just build things out of glass so everyone can see inside etc. However it is also remarkable that We even exists as it was the first book to be banned by the Soviet Union, and only survived in a rather poor translation in the Russian diaspora until Yevgeny Zamyatin was allowed to leave the Soviet Union, and this version was made and finally corrected the damage.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Some reviews of the Penguin version of "We" comment on the poor quality of the translation and the difficult writing style. With this 2007 translation by Natasha Randall I noticed no such problems. As she notes, the language of the original is very tightly designed: "his words syncopate - they rush and they brake". It seems likely that this translation has done justice to the challenge of communicating those same effects in English. I'm no great aesthete of the written word but some of the expressions stand-out and at times the prose is immensely enjoyable, witty and painfully effective.
The story is relatively uncomplicated, and the themes familiar from many plots that have followed. It is composed of the notes of a citizen (a cipher) in a future totalitarian "One State", who speaks back to us as the primitive people he is expecting his civilization to shortly encounter in space and assimilate into the unique mathematically perfected happiness that they nowadays take for granted. It is a world without questions, doubt, longing but as we see, through the records D-503 manages to make in his free hour, it is a world that shatters when unknowns, desire, jealously and heretical imagination creep in.
The plot will hold no surprises but is nonetheless gripping. At times, it has a light minimalistic touch of a diary that your leaves your imagination doing the work, at other times it turns into a minute-by-minute narrative. But this book is all about the conversation it aims to have with you. Would you opt for a happy, fair, collective, uncomplicated life? Is such a thing really possible, if it requires escape from and denial of individualistic, organic, unpredictable motivations such as love, imagination and the desire to be a parent? Overall, thought-provoking and highly readable stuff! Just the formula for a classic.
The story is relatively uncomplicated, and the themes familiar from many plots that have followed. It is composed of the notes of a citizen (a cipher) in a future totalitarian "One State", who speaks back to us as the primitive people he is expecting his civilization to shortly encounter in space and assimilate into the unique mathematically perfected happiness that they nowadays take for granted. It is a world without questions, doubt, longing but as we see, through the records D-503 manages to make in his free hour, it is a world that shatters when unknowns, desire, jealously and heretical imagination creep in.
The plot will hold no surprises but is nonetheless gripping. At times, it has a light minimalistic touch of a diary that your leaves your imagination doing the work, at other times it turns into a minute-by-minute narrative. But this book is all about the conversation it aims to have with you. Would you opt for a happy, fair, collective, uncomplicated life? Is such a thing really possible, if it requires escape from and denial of individualistic, organic, unpredictable motivations such as love, imagination and the desire to be a parent? Overall, thought-provoking and highly readable stuff! Just the formula for a classic.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Awesome and befuddleing
We is a the deranged diary of a man trying to choose between his devotion to a lover, a sharp-toothed revolutionary identified as I-330, and the indoctrination of 'The One State',... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Richard Beddard
taken me six months to read
I can see how this book is widely regarded as an influence on the likes of 1984 etc but it's taken me blooming ages to read. Read more
Published 10 months ago by baconbitz
Yevgeny Zamyatin - We
This is better than 1984.
Anyone who is a fan of dystopias will love this, a tight, focused novel set in a brilliantly sketched future. Read more
Anyone who is a fan of dystopias will love this, a tight, focused novel set in a brilliantly sketched future. Read more
Published 21 months ago by RachelWalker
Amazing find
I came across the book by accident (Twitter) and what a find. Yes, parallels with 1984 which it preceeded. Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2010 by amoratado
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