We

by Yevgeny Zamyatin

226 pages

English language

Published March 17, 1993

ISBN:: 978-0-14-018585-0

(7 reviews)

We (Russian: Мы, romanized: My) is a dystopian novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, written 1920–1921. It was first published as an English translation by Gregory Zilboorg in 1924 by E. P. Dutton in New York, with the original Russian text first published in 1952. The novel describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It influenced the emergence of dystopia as a literary genre. George Orwell claimed that Aldous Huxley's 1931 Brave New World must be partly derived from We, but Huxley denied this.

8 editions

PublicHealthInnit reviewed We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Review of 'We' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I think I read the three great 20th century dystopia in reverse order - 1984, Brave New World, then We. As such, I found Brave New World very reminiscent of 1984 and We feels the same as Brave New World. I found it an interesting exploration of the risk of destruction of the individual by a totalitarian form of community - something which strikes me as the opposite extreme from the direction of society now, which is moving away from community towards more individualism, as epitomised by Thatcherism, Reaganism and Neoliberalism in general. It deals with this totalitarian communitarianism both in political and religious terms, referencing biblical tales at length, noting God's need for total conformity to rules from Adam and Eve, and how they in turn chose freedom of thought and action.

An interesting, short read, though I found the style a little cumbersome at times.