[center]Eugene Zamiatin - WE.pdf (3.15 MB)
http://www.balderexlibris.com/index.php ... -Eugene-WE[/center]
[justify]Translated and with a foreword by Gregory Zilboorg
Introduction by Peter Rudy
Preface by Marc Slonim
The year 1924 is one of special significance in modern Russian literature, for in that year E. P. Dutton issued the first English translation (indeed, the first version anywhere in the world) of Eugene Zamiatin's bitter and brilliantly prophetic satire, WE. Recognized as the inspiration for George Orwell's famous 1984 and never published in Russia because of official censorship, WE is generally regarded as a classic Utopian novel and an historic landmark in Soviet literature.
WE tells the story of the minutely organized United State, where all citizens are not individuals but only he-Numbers and she-Numbers existing in identical glass apartments with every action regulated by the "Table of Hours." It is a community dedicated to the proposition that freedom and happiness are incompatible; that most men believe their freedom to be more than a fair exchange for a high level of materialistic happiness.
The republication of Zamiatin's WE in this inexpensive reprint is a literary event of first importance. The original translation has been especially revised by Dr. Zilboorg for this new edition.
"Philosophical as Plato's The Republic, interesting as the best Utopias of H. G. Wells, cold as the muzzle of a loaded revolver, and sarcastic as Gulliver's Travels, WE is a powerful challenge to all Socialist Utopias."?Pitirim A. Sorokin[/justify]