Chapter 1 freeNo account needed.
Opens “Record One” in the player · no sign-up needed
We is a dystopian novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin that was written in 1920–1921. It was first published as an English translation by Gregory Zilboorg in 1924 by E. P. Dutton in New York.
Inside the book
- Free nowno account · 1 chapter
- 1Record One3 min
- Premium39 chapters · every book, 7 days free
- 2Record Two10 min
- 3Record Three8 min
- 4Record Four7 min
- 5Record Five5 min
- 6Record Six12 min
- 7Record Seven10 min
- 8Record Eight9 min
- 9Record Nine7 min
- 10Record Ten14 min
- 11Record Eleven9 min
- 12Record Twelve7 min
- 13Record Thirteen10 min
- 14Record Fourteen5 min
- 15Record Fifteen8 min
- 16Record Sixteen11 min
- 17Record Seventeen12 min
- 18Record Eighteen11 min
- 19Record Nineteen10 min
- 20Record Twenty6 min
- 21Record Twenty-One10 min
- 22Record Twenty-Two7 min
- 23Record Twenty-Three8 min
- 24Record Twenty-Four7 min
- 25Record Twenty-Five12 min
- 26Record Twenty-Six7 min
- 27Record Twenty-Seven11 min
- 28Record Twenty-Eight14 min
- 29Record Twenty-Nine5 min
- 30Record Thirty7 min
- 31Record Thirty-One13 min
- 32Record Thirty-Two11 min
- 33Record Thirty-Three2 min
- 34Record Thirty-Four15 min
- 35Record Thirty-Five11 min
- 36Record Thirty-Six7 min
- 37Record Thirty-Seven7 min
- 38Record Thirty-Eight4 min
- 39Record Thirty-Nine9 min
- 40Record Forty3 min
The opening
Record One
An Announcement The Wisest of Lines A Poem
This is merely a copy, word by word, of what was published this morning in the State newspaper:
"In another hundred and twenty days the building of the Integral will be completed. The great historic hour is near, when the first Integral will rise into the limitless space of the universe. A thousand years ago your heroic ancestors subjected the whole earth to the power of the United State. A still more glorious task is before you,—the integration of the indefinite equation of the Cosmos by the use of the glass, electric, fire-breathing Integral. Your mission is to subjugate to the grateful yoke of reason the unknown beings who live on other planets, and who are perhaps still in the primitive state of freedom. If they will not understand that we are bringing them a mathematically faultless happiness, our duty will be to force them to be happy. But before we take up arms, we shall try the power of words.
"In the name of The Well-Doer, the following is announced herewith to all Numbers of the United State:
"Whoever feels capable must consider it his duty to write treatises, poems, manifestoes, odes and other compositions on the greatness and the beauty of the United State.
"This will be the first load which the Integral will carry.
"Long live the United State! Long live the Numbers!! Long live the Well-Doer!!!"
I feel my cheeks are burning as I write this. To integrate the colossal, universal equation! To unbend the wild curve, to straighten it out to a tangent—to a straight line! For the United State is a straight line, a great, divine, precise, wise line, the wisest of lines!
I, D-503, the builder of the Integral, I am only one of the many mathematicians of the United State. My pen, which is accustomed to figures, is unable to express the march and rhythm of consonance; therefore I shall try to record only the things I see, the things I think, or to be more exact, the things we think. Yes, we; that is exactly what I mean, and "We" shall, therefore, be the title of my records. But this will only be a derivative of our life,—of our mathematical, perfect life in the United State. If this be so, will not this derivative be a poem in itself, despite my limitations? It will. I believe, I know it.
I feel my cheeks are burning as I write this. I feel something similar to what a woman probably feels when for the first time she senses within herself the pulse of a tiny, blind, human being. It is I, and at the same time it is not I. And for many long months it will be necessary to feed it with my life, with my blood, and then with a pain at my heart, to tear it from myself and lay it at the feet of the United State.
Yet I am ready, as everyone, or nearly everyone of us, is. I am ready.
About the author
Evgenii Ivanovich Zamiatin
1884 Lebedyan – 1937 16th arrondissement of Paris · Russian author
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin, sometimes anglicized as Eugene Zamiatin, was a Russian author of science fiction, philosophy, literary criticism, and political satire.
- 1884Born, Lebedyan
- 1924We
- 1937Died, 16th arrondissement of Paris
If you like We
More like this
Start with “Record One”
First chapter free right now — no account. Your place follows you to iPhone and Android.