Zamyatin is best known for the brilliant dystopian novel We, one of the great classics of science fiction. The Dragon is a collection of fifteen of his short stories (including a 67 page novella) published between 1918 and 1935. It also includes an introduction by the translator, Mirra Ginsburg, and the text of the letter Zamyatin wrote to Stalin in which he asked to be allowed to "go abroad ... with the right to return as soon as it becomes possible in our country to serve great ideas without cringing before little men". The stories are all tales of everyday life before, during and after the revolution, but are rather hard to classify further — "realist fairy tales", perhaps. In any case The Dragon is a collection of literary importance as well as being a great read; worth going out of your way for.

January 1995

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Related reviews:

- books by Yevgeny Zamyatin
- more short fiction
- books published by The University of Chicago Press