“The best single work of science fiction yet written.” -Ursula K. Le Guin

“The dystopian novel most relevant to our time.” -The Week

“Left an indelible watermark on 20th century culture.” -Publishers Weekly

Easily one of the most influential science-fiction novels of all time, this 1921 masterpiece inspired George Orwell’s 1984 and became the first book ever banned by the Soviet Union.

One thousand years in the future, the perfect totalitarian state has stripped humanity of any desire for individuality, privacy, or control over their own lives… almost. When a government scientist becomes enamored with a sultry revolutionary, his eyes are opened to the horrors of his own unthinking, unfeeling existence in total subservience to the state. But when he enlists in her plot to overthrow the government and its all-seeing figurehead, the Well-Doer, he’ll soon discover there is no escape and freedom is an irretrievable relic of an all-but-forgotten past.

This is the original English translation as first published in 1924, including the foreword by translator Gregory Zilboorg.