Zamiatin's We

de Russell, Robert, Robert Russell

"Evgenii Zamiatin's seminal anti-utopian satire We (written 1920-1) is one of the most celebrated works of twentieth-century Russian literature. Set 1000 years in the future, it is a witty yet terrifying picture of a future society in which reason is all-conquering and mankind has been enslaved by a dictator called 'the Benefactor'. The novel bears a striking resemblance to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984. We remained unpublished in Russian during Zamiatin's lifetime (1884-1937), but it was well-known in literary circles and attracted some critical attention." "This study deals with We in the context of the Russian Civil War, showing how it was interpreted as a satire on Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Major trends in modern criticism, both Russian and Western, are surveyed, underlining the numerous intepretations which the text is capable of sustaining. A detailed new reading of the novel follows, with close textual analysis of each of the forty 'entries' of its narrator's diary."--BOOK JACKET.