Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in dystopian literature, political philosophy, or social critique
- Literature lovers who enjoyed 1984 and Brave New World and want to trace the genre's origins
- Thinkers concerned with modern questions of the individual versus the collective and freedom versus order
- Readers who want to understand the literary and intellectual currents of early twentieth-century Russia
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking light entertainment or plot-driven popular fiction
- Readers impatient with abstract concepts, philosophical speculation, and symbolic narrative
Reading tips
- Read the translator's preface or afterword first to learn the historical background of the work's creation and its author's exile—this deepens your understanding of the text's spirit of resistance
- Pay attention to how the diary language of the protagonist D-503 shifts from mechanical regularity to chaotic fragmentation; this is the key clue to understanding his awakening consciousness
- Read this book alongside 1984 and consider the similarities and differences in how the two depict the workings of totalitarian societies, as well as the marks of their respective eras
About the publisher
Northern Literature and Art Publishing House focuses on contemporary and modern literary and artistic works, literary theory, and translations of foreign literature, while also covering categories such as history, popular science, Eastern philosophy, and world classics. Its collection includes 737 titles, with representative publications ranging from traditional Chinese classics such as Records of the Grand Historian, The Exploitation of the Works of Nature, and The Analects to foreign literary works including the complete classic plays of Shakespeare, Balzac's Old Goriot and Eugénie Grandet (in celebrated translations by Fu Lei), and The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Its author resources span classical figures such as Sima Qian, Song Yingxing, and Confucius, foreign writers such as Shakespeare and Balzac, and translators such as Zhu Shenghao and Fu Lei. The press combines the transmission of classics with an orientation toward general reading, developing a distinctive profile in both the editing of traditional texts and the translation of foreign literature. Public information is limited, so the above emphasizes the publishing profile reflected in the books held in the collection.
Contents
- 笔记之一
- 笔记之二
- 笔记之三
- 笔记之四
- 笔记之五
- 笔记之六
- 笔记之七
- 笔记之八
- 笔记之九
- 笔记之十
- 笔记之十一
- 笔记之十二
- 笔记之十三
- 笔记之十四
- 笔记之十五
- 笔记之十六
- 笔记之十七
- 笔记之十八
- 笔记之十九
- 笔记之二十
- 笔记之二十一
- 笔记之二十二
- 笔记之二十三
- 笔记之二十四
- 笔记之二十五
- 笔记之二十六
- 笔记之二十七
- 笔记之二十八
- 笔记之二十九
- 笔记之三十
- 笔记之三十一
- 笔记之三十二
- 笔记之三十三
- 笔记之三十四
- 笔记之三十五
- 笔记之三十六
- 笔记之三十七
- 笔记之三十八
- 笔记之三十九
- 笔记之四十
FAQ
Compared with 1984, which of these two books is more worth reading first?
Does the "One State" depicted in the book connect to today's society?
Why was this work banned in the Soviet Union for so long?
Comments
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About the author
Yevgeny Zamyatin is a distinctive voice in twentieth-century Russian-language literature, though reliable details of his life are scarce in publicly available sources. He is remembered chiefly for the novel We, often placed within the dystopian tradition. Set in a highly rationalized future society, the work explores the tension between the individual and the collective order, examining the conflict between freedom, individuality and collective will in a cold, ironic tone. Its themes give the writing both intellectual weight and an experimental literary quality, with careful attention to structure and recurring imagery. Four of his works are held in this collection, all centred on We, and they commonly appear under classics, foreign literature and fine fiction, reflecting continued Chinese readership for his best-known work. Given the limited biographical material, this note avoids speculation about his life and focuses instead on the themes, style and literary influence of his writing.
Zhang Li was born in Hebei in 1971. She holds a doctorate in literature and is a professor, doctoral supervisor and vice dean at the School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, as well as vice chair of the Beijing Writers Association. She has long engaged in the study of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and women's literature, and is the author of such works as The Landscape of Fiction and The Firebearer. She received the Literature Theory and Criticism Award at the 8th Lu Xun Literature Prize. Her work spans research and anthology editing: her representative titles include the English-Chinese edition of the Anti-Utopian Trilogy, We, and Zongzi Weicheng: A View of Chinese Society from 1000 to 250 BCE through Archaeological Materials, as well as women's literature anthologies such as Bright Moon and Plum Blossoms: Selected Chinese Women's Fiction of 2023 and Flowing Water Today: Selected Chinese Women's Prose of 2023. She is also the author of I See Countless Versions of Her: Thirty Nights Talking with Girls about Literature and Film and Sun Li: The Fragrant Charm of Lotus Literature. The database holds 28 of her works, covering fine fiction, classic works, history, social fiction, prose and biography, reflecting a scope that reaches across literary criticism, women's writing and humanistic historical reading.
