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Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC)
1340 pages
A monumental, uncompromising philosophical epic that envisions the slow collapse of a world abandoned by its greatest minds.
What it feels like
Reading this massive epic feels like stepping into a stark, black-and-white world of towering skyscrapers, grinding steel, and uncompromising ideals. The narrative moves with a steady, deliberate weight, driven less by rapid-fire action than by the sheer force of its philosophical arguments. It immerses the reader in a tense, slowly decaying society, building an atmosphere of apocalyptic dread mixed with fierce defiance. The prose is grandiose and highly rhetorical, demanding patience as it unfurls into sweeping, book-length monologues that champion radical individualism. It is a polarizing, deeply earnest experience designed for readers who love sprawling ideological thought experiments and stories that treat the battle of ideas with the life-or-death stakes of a global thriller.
- Mood
- industrial
- tense
- apocalyptic
- defiant
- Tone
- didactic
- uncompromising
- grandiose
- earnest
- polemical
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- radical individualism · societal collapse · the burden of genius · rational self-interest · capitalism and morality
- The writing
- Declarative, sweeping, and highly rhetorical, built on stark contrasts and monumental philosophical monologues.
- The arc
- Begins in a state of mounting frustration against societal decay and builds toward a triumphant, uncompromising vindication of the individual spirit.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave massive, thought-provoking ideological epics that challenge conventional morality and champion the power of the individual.
Content notes
- societal collapse
- ideological extremism
- dubious consent
About the book
The year 2005 marks Ayn Rand's Centennial Year.The astounding story of a man that said that he would stop the motor of the world-and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is unlike any other book you have ever read.“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly.”-The New York Times
Description from Open Library.
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