Summary of Atlas Shrugged
The astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world - and did.
Tremendous in scope, breath-taking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is unlike any other book you have ever read. It is a mystery story, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder - and rebirth - of Man's spirit.
With this acclaimed work and its immortal query "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. This is the book that made her not only one of the most popular novelists of our times, but also one of its most influential thinkers.
Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, philosophically the most challenging bestseller of its time. Her first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved a spectacular and enduring success. Miss Rand's unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are set forth in four non-fiction books: Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, For the New Intellectual, The Virtue of Selfishness, and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. The Romantic Manifesto is a magnificent statement of her artistic credo.
"It would be pointless to discuss either the logic or the feasibility of the program Miss Rand so vehemently puts forth. What is important is the spirit in which the book is written. Like THE FOUNTAINHEAD, ATLAS SHRUGGED is a defense of and a tribute to the superior individual, who is, in Miss Rand's view, superior in every way--in body as well as mind and especially in his capacity for life. Its spirit, regardless of the specific doctrines it preaches, is calculated to appeal to those who feel that life could and should have more meaning than they have experienced. Loudly as Miss Rand proclaims her love of life, it seems clear that the book is written out of hate. How well ATLAS SHRUGGED....Perhaps most of us have moments when we feel that it might be a good idea if the whole human race, except for us and the few nice people we know, were wiped out;
Publisher Marketing Description: |
| Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was Ayn Rand's greatest achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel she dramatizes her unique philosophy through an intellectual mystery story that integrates ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics, and sex. Set in a near-future U.S.A. whose economy is collapsing as a result of the mysterious disappearance of leading innovators and industrialists, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life-from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy...to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction...to the philosopher who becomes a pirate...to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad...to the lowest track worker in her train tunnels. Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller. |