Zamyatin, Yevgeny (1970) ‘We’, first UK edition

Yevgeny Zamyatin (1970) ‘We’, UK first edition, first printing, published by Jonathan Cape in 1970.

Condition: good plus book in acceptable dust jacket. The book has no lean, no foxing, no stench, and no inscriptions whatsoever. However, the bottom of the front and reverse boards display a slightly darkened area indicating that the book may have come in contact with water which has dried up over the decades. The dust jacket is not clipped, but has tape repair to top and bottom edges. The reverse of the jacket displays evidence of moisture dried over the decades.

This is the most significant dystopian science fictions novel which most people have not heard of. The novel was written in Russian and completed by 1921, but published for the first time in the US by Dutton in 1924. The first publication in the Soviet Union had to wait until 1988. Zamyatin left the SU in 1931 with Stalin’s permission. ‘We’ describes the life in a totalitarian state and had colossal influence on the other two landmark dystopian novels of the 20th century: Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’; and George Orwell’s ‘1984’. However, intellectuals like Noam Chomsky regard Zamyatin’s ‘We’ as far superior compared to ‘Brave New World’ and ‘1984’.