Ready Reference Treatise: We the Living

By Raja Sharma

“We the Living” by Ayn Rand was first published in 1936, although the author had finished writing the novel in 1934. The novel tells the story of life in Russia after the Revolution.

Ayn Rand is a Russian-American novelist. Through this novel, she gave her first statement against Communism. The author mentions in the foreword that “We the Living” was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography. It has been one of the bestselling books ever written by a Russian-American writer. The book has already sold more than three million copies around the world.

Ready Reference Treatise: We the Living
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Part One
Part Two
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis
Chapter Six: Some Interesting Facts

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jan 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311365903

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: We the Living

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: We the Living

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2016 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

We the Living by Ayn Rand was first published in 1936, although the author had finished writing the novel in 1934. The novel tells the story of life in Russia after the Revolution.

Ayn Rand is a Russian-American novelist. Through this novel, she gave her first statement against Communism.

The author mentions in the foreword that We the Living was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography.

It has been one of the bestselling books ever written by a Russian-American writer. The book has already sold more than three million copies around the world.

According to the author, We the Living was not widely reviewed. However, the famous scholar Michael S. Berliner pointed out that We the Living was the most reviewed of any of Rand’s works. More than one hundred and twenty five reviews had been published in different newspapers and magazines of the time.

The book generally received mixed reviews, but positive reviews were definitely more than negative reviews.

The New York Times mentioned that the book showed a good deal of narrative skill but the novel was slavishly warped to the dictates of propaganda against the Soviets.

Some other reviews described the book as a first rate representation of the realities of life in the Soviet Russia. Some other said that the novel was a realistic look at the impact of Soviet policies.

The Australian publication of the book was more successful than the other publications of the same book. It received several positive reviews.

The Women’s Weekly described We the Living as very vivid, human, and wholly satisfying. Similarly, The Barrier Miner described the novel as entertaining and intensely moving. The Australian reviews generally denied that We the Living was all propaganda.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

We the Living covers the time period from 1922 to 1925, in Russia after the Revolution. Kira Argounova is the protagonist of the story. She happens to be the younger daughter of a bourgeois family in Russia.

Kira is an independent-spirited woman. She possesses a strong independent will. In the early years after the revolution in Russia, her family and the Soviet state try to cast her into a mold, but she rejects all such attempts.

As the story begins, Kira comes back to Petrograd with her family. When the Bolshevik revolutionaries assaulted, the family had to go on a long exile. Before the revolution, Kira’s father was the owner of a textile factory. The factory got seized and nationalized.

The family has already lost hopes of regaining their past possessions. The Red Army has been victorious. Now the family has