About this title: A philosophical novel from Russian-born Ayn Rand, who was known for her belief in the concept of "enlightened self-interest." It portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness.
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Description: Fair. 0451187849 **mass market paperback**-EX LIBRARY BOOK, with usual stickers, stamps, though no pocket-Book has shelf wear and rubbing, lots of stickers and has been used, but is still holding together well and is a good reader copy. -Exactly as pictured--EXACT ISBN MATCH--No marks in the text at all. Tight and well bound. Ships Quickly-IN STOCK-Satisfaction guaranteed! read more
Edition: Abridged.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Signet Book
Date Published: 1960
ISBN-13:9780451078445ISBN:0451078446
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Covers flexible some, binding a little flexible, little edge wear as pages edges seem mostly crisp, clean pages may be slightly age-toned. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: New American Library
Date Published: 1959
Description: Grade: C. Catalog: Fiction General Synopsis: Editions vary. 446 pages. She would die to live and love. To those who found in Ayn Rand's bestsellers The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged a powerful... read more
Description: Mass Market Paperback. Good/As Issued No Jacket. Reprint. Novel by author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Spine curled and pages and covers are browning. read more
Edition: 9th PB printing since 1936. T 1791.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Signet Book
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Foxingexterior. Cover creasing. 446 p. Red page edges. Autobiographical novel by Russian-born Rand. Set during Russian Revolution, a love story; individuals against the new Communist laws of the land. Timeless theme. read more
"Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum) wrote her first novel as an unabashed indictment of the monstrous, despotic communism taking hold in Petrograd (St Petersburg) and all of Russia, following the close of the Civil War in the early 1920's. Rand said this was a semi-autobiographical work, "in the intellectual sense."
The chief protagonist is Kira Argounova, a smart and rabidly individualistic college-age woman, who, with her family, returns home from a long self-exile in the Crimea. What they find is a fearful, paranoid, semi-police state in which privation is the norm.
Kira's dream is to become a civil engineer, but as her ambition is blocked by her family's lack of proletariat roots and red credentials, she resorts to desperate measures, and a sordid love triangle, to survive. Though given the choice to unite with the "Proletarians of the World" in good standing, her undying thirst for freedom goes on, as does her wish to go "abroad" in search of liberation.
This is a very good novel, as a novel of ideas and as a political and social sounding. It is an average novel, in my opinion, as to the writing itself. The numerous characters inhabiting the story are relatively well-made. Some of the writing is impressively descriptive, esp. in drawing the atmosphere of cold decay and darkness. However, Rand begins repeating phrases and loses me in some extended dialogue. Her imagination, at times, strikes me as limited.
Again, it's a first novel written by, as is granted, a very intelligent voice who would, essentially, invent a philosophy in the years to follow. I will likely read another of her later, more praised novels in the future."
"I really don't know that there is much I can say about this novel that hasn't already been said. We The Living is the most tragic of Ayn Rand's novels and possibly the most under appreciated.
While it is clearly an early effort for her - her use of English is occasionally off and her style is not consistent throughout the novel - the story line is the most (I hate to use this word, but I can't think of a better way to put it) realistic of all her novels. There are no amazing machines or amazing feats in We The Living, the most amazing thing that anyone does is survive under the early Communist rule.
However, the survivors are the villains of the book. Rand never allows her heroes to exist under tyranny. Kira and Andrei struggle against it in their own individual ways, one choosing death over a life of lost ideals and the other dying in an attempt to escape.
Holding on to the idea of the individual must have been impossible in early Communist Russia. Rand should know - she escaped Russia in 1926. We The Living is probably one of the most accurate pieces of literature we have to depict what life was like under the initial Communist regimes. The 'great idea' that fueled the Revolution of 1917 turned in to what can only be called a 'great mess' that lasted for nearly 80 years and has still not completely resolved itself.
If you are interested in life in the 1920's, We the Living is a must read book. The people of Russia had a very different experience with this decade compared to those of Europe and the US. While for much of the decade the big cities of the Western world were the Land of Plenty, the general Russian population was suffering hardships that made the poorest mid-western farmer seem to be living the life of a King.
We the Living is a testament to man's ability to survive. It is a testament to Rand and held the seeds to her philosophy. It is an encouragement to all of us to strive to be the best we can be - even when the world is against us. It is also a warning to reason before revolt and to express as opposed to repress. You can take away an mans home, you can take away his possessions, you can take away his family, you can take his life, but his mind and soul are his and his alone unless he chooses to give them to you. It is a reminder to all of us, that every individual has that choice to make every day."
"I think what I liked the most about this book was the characterization. For a first book Rand manages to keep her characters very true to themselves. There wasn't a single action by any of them in the book that made me think "no...they wouldn't have done that." It's not a cheery book, but name one about this place and time period that is. I enjoyed the way in which she used the characters to display the common "roles" that arose in post revolution Russia: Kira's mother transforming from elite to Soviet teacher...her father falling from rich manufacturer to slaving bookkeeper...and the one that affected me the most, her uncle Vasili, the independent, strong trapper and fur trader; furrier to the Czars who becomes the broken and beaten father who can not help his children, selling off all of his belongings, and finally becoming one of the many street corner saccharine sellers. Each character in the book has their job to do and she weaves them into the story well. Strangely enough I think the character I cared for least was Leo, arguably the hero. To me the hero of the story was Andrei the arch communist. He was the only one who stayed true to his beliefs; right to the bitter end. When they failed him it was the end of him.
"Ayn Rand's first major work of fiction, written when she was just 25, while she was still too young and inexperienced in language to be a great writer, but too experienced in life to not have something great to say. If the book seems a little deriviative, one should remember that the now well-known and almost cliched story of Soviet-era repression was first told in this book, and later told in better style by Pasternak and others. But Rand's signature elements are present even at this early age: the beginnings of her individualist philosophy, the love triangle between a strong woman and two lesser men, the florid chapter-beginning sensory descriptions, and the somewhat wooden, speechifying dialogue. And this is not a criticism; I found "We the Living," as all Rand's work, to be both less than a novel and more: less because of her lack of talent as a novelist in terms of plot, pacing, and dialogue. More because of the intellectual ideas and ideals to which she subscribes; the standards by which her characters' lives and choices are judged. Not bad work by a young, inexperienced writer in her second language, and strong, foundational support for her later works, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged," both highly recommended."
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