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Selected works by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Short stories
Big Kids’ Fairtyales
The Dragon & Other Stories
Islanders & The Fisher of Men
Non-fiction
A Soviet Heretic: Essays
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2020 by Canongate Books
Text copyright © 1920 Yevgeny Zamyatin
Translation and Translator’s Note copyright © 2020 Bela Shayevich
Introduction copyright © 2020 O.W. Toad Ltd
‘Freedom and Happiness’ (review of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin) © 1946 George Orwell ‘The Stalin in the Soul’ copyright © 1989 Ursula K. LeGuin
The right of Yevgeny Zamyatin to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The right of Bela Shayevich to be identified as
the translator of this work has been asserted by her in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 83885 058 6
eISBN 978 1 83885 059 3
CONTENTS
Introduction by Margaret Atwood
1. Announcement. The Wisest Line. An Epic.
2. Ballet. Quadratic Harmony. X.
3. Jacket. Wall. The Table of Hours.
4. The Savage and the Barometer. Epilepsy. If only.
5. A Square. The Masters of the World. A Pleasant and Useful Function.
6. An Incident. That Damned ‘Clear’. Twenty-four Hours.
7. An Eyelash. Taylor. Henbane and Lilies of the Valley.
8. An Irrational Root. R-13. The Triangle.
9. Liturgy. Iambs and Trochees. The Iron Hand.
10. A Letter. Membrane. My Hairy Self.
11. No, I Can’t, No Brief This Time.
12. Limited Infinities. An Angel. Thoughts About Poetry.
13. Fog. You. A Completely Improbable Incident.
14. ‘Mine’. Mustn’t. The Cold Floor.
15. The Bell. The Mirroring Sea. I Will Burn Eternally.
16. Yellow. Two-Dimensional Shadow. Incurable Soul.
17. Through The Glass. I Died. Hallways.
18. A Jungle of Logic. Wounds and Bandages. Never Again.
19. An Infinitesimal of the Third Order. Under the Brow. Over the Balustrade.
20. Discharge. What an Idea is Made Of. Zero Cliff.
21. My Duty as an Author. Swollen Ice. The Most Difficult Love.
22. Frozen Waves. Everything Is Perfected. I Am A Microbe.
23. Flowers. Dissolving Crystal. As Long As.
24. Function Limits. Easter. Cross It All Out.
25. The Descent from the Heavens. The Greatest Catastrophe in History. The End of Everything Known.
26. The World Exists. A Rash. 41°.
27. No Brief – It’s Impossible.
28. Both of Them. Entropy and Energy. An Opaque Part of the Body.
29. Face Threads. Shoots. Unnatural Compression.
30. The Final Number. Galileo’s Mistake. Wouldn’t It Be Better?
31. The Great Operation. I Forgave Everything. Crashing Trains.
32. I Don’t Believe It. Tractors. A Sliver of Humanity.