From the Bookshelf of Classics for Beginners…

Yevgeny Zamyatin

Start date: May 1, 2017

Finish date: May 31, 2017

Discussion: Current Group Read

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The Prince
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April 2019: The Crucible
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What Members Thought

Jun 16, 2014 Cecily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: colonialism-exploration-empires, identity, solitary-protagonist, dystopian-apocalyptic, scifi-future-speculative-fict, maths, russia, favourites, postmodern-meta, mental-health-victorian-madness

Breathtakingly brilliant, like the crystal glass buildings of the One State - in Natasha Randall's 2007 translation (older ones may differ a lot).
Seamlessly switching between beauty and horror:
“In the morning, the sun is rosy, transparent, warm gold. And the air itself is a little rosy, all steeped in the sun’s gentle blood.”
Laden with oxymorons: simultaneously Utopia and dystopia.
Polychromatic, synaesthetic, hypnotic, and often blurring reality and dreams.
Profound and prophetic, from a century ...more

183 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2018 Mindy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This is being added to my favorites list. This book is so beautiful, how to even describe? It is all the humanist bits I ever wanted from 1984 and the writing is so evocative and poetic. So many gorgeous passages that left me breathless and emotionally restless. I’m so sad this book is over.

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Sep 16, 2012 Anna Tatelman rated it it was amazing

A fantastic dystopian novel. The language is both poetically mesmerizing and rich, the plot and symbols are very well thought out, and the characters are fantastic. I'm not sure if it should be described as a "sci-fi" novel, as the actual "science" isn't incredibly well-developed (an operation to remove the imagination, for instance - how is that possible?), but as symbols, they work beautifully. Besides, the point of the novel isn't the science, but the richer meanings of individuality, greatne ...more

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