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Title: Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC)
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Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
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| Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC) by Dutton Adult Ayn Rand's Epic Objectivist Novel Still Packs a Wallop in Spite of Its Convolutions | Fourteen years after The Fountainhead, objectivist pioneer Ayn Rand wrote an even bigger epic novel that would end up being her most definitive book on her polarizing philosophies. She again wraps her perspective in a powerful, often melodramatic character-driven story, this time on a more sweeping landscape and with a pervasive mystery suspense element. It's a fulsome story that dares the reader to envision an intellectual revolution where the great thinkers disappear to avoid the complete destruction of their spirits. Rand populates this fanciful world with her trademark Baroque-style characters beginning with her beautiful protagonist, Dagny Taggart, a young railroad VP driven to run Taggart Transcontinental as she fends off the looters. She is surrounded by a bevy of conflicted men - great steel industrialist Hank Rearden who creates an alloy that renders steel and aluminum obsolete and whose ruthlessness marks the way for his own self-destruction; flamboyant Francisco D'Anconia who converts himself from an innovative copper mining baron to a hedonistic playboy; failed philosopher Ragnar Danneskjold who becomes a pirate stealing for the rich; and self-sacrificing composer Richard Halley.
Through the fray comes the pivotal character of John Galt, who actually does not appear until about two-thirds into the dense story. As the brilliant mind behind an automobile engine that will convert atmospheric static electricity into motor power, he witnesses his invention lie dormant under the ignorant leadership of the factory's owners. Galt masterminds the strike of the world's great minds, and gradually, the greatest thinkers and most ingenious engineers find their way to Atlantis, the hidden valley where they can escape the persecution of the bureaucrats exploiting them. Their absence means that the industrialists lose their social and economic leverage and fall prey to each others' machinations until they lose control completely. It is only at this point of desperation that the philosophers become accepted as honorable citizens worthy of respect. Told with Rand's familiar verbose writing style intact, it's an audacious, often compelling story that carries far more plot convolutions than necessary to carry through on the author's convictions.
At 1,192 pages in the Centennial Edition, the book could have realistically used the hand of an equally strong-minded editor who would have seen through the repetitive nature of Rand's didacticism. Still, the story is arresting, and Rand makes it clear that the highest goal in life is one's own productive achievement, that individual rights must be upheld over any form of collectivism, whether social or political in basis. Whereas in The Fountainhead, she focuses her philosophical application to the somewhat rarefied world of architecture, here she takes a much more grandiose look where the ideas of independence and personal liberty have even greater ramifications. At the same time, there is no denying that the world Rand paints is palpable and more relevant than ever as CEOs today are reading the book to justify their positions of self-interest from a moral as well as economic perspective. Even at its most basic level, the book is about deciding what's important in life, i.e., the choice between self-reliance and dependence, and going as far as one can to fight for it. Rand succeeds in bringing vivid life to these arguments in a most eminently entertaining way. | | Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC) by Dutton Adult An Epic Adventure | | A wonderful epic told by a master story teller. I was held joyously captive by this book. | | Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC) by Dutton Adult Atlas Shrugged A Masterpiece of 20th Century Literature? | | Atlas Shrugged should be thought of as a sequel in imagery only to her other classic -The Fountainhead. This novel fortells the destruction/implosion of American society by our fatalistic approach to living without concern for others and society at large. Mrs Rand style of writing is somewhat gossip columnish in frank style but is still effective in portraying the major characters faults, aspirations and actions with vivid color. The novel denotes the struggle of a brother (Jim) and sister (Dagny) Taggert who run the family business of the Taggert Transcontinental Railway headlined by the Luxorious(?) Comet train. She vividly portrays Dagny Taggert's acumenal and better business management as being the only reason why their railroad line is still operation. Jim Taggert is only a figurehead at best with a few personal problems (he beats his wife and calls her a whore about a year into their marriage) he is a poor excuse for a human being in just every facet of your imagination. He should be restricted to a neighborhood cocktail lounge. But little at a time close friends and lovers of Dagny are introduced and expertly developed. The millionaire Reardon steel magnate who is married but bored with and out of love with his spouse. The idealist character-John Gault. An automotive engineer who develops an engine which runs on ambient light and heat energy. Dagny discovers this engine as it is left after the automobile factory closes and she becomes obsessed with finding its creator. There is a running line said well before and after she discovers this motor-Who is John Gault? The novel is 1168 pages long but it is captivating and obviously had a profound effect on societies intelligensia of the 1950's and 60's. It is a book were the pages tear easily and my binding is very weak after one read and the pages are soon to fall out. I wish this novels was housed in a better binding. | | Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC) by Dutton Adult Wow! | Why this is not required reading in college or even high school is beyond me. A truly an eye opening book. I have recommended this to all my friends especially those in business.
I only wish my boss would read this book. | | Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC) by Dutton Adult Night's Splender Studded in Diamonds. More Stars, Please! | I've read this novel three times. I'll read it again.
Each time it seems to live in my mind on a grander, higher scale.
In interviews and in some of her nonfiction books, Rand has said that the purpose of a novel is to entertain, to tell a good story. In ATLAS SHRUGGED she has accomplished this purpose, possibly better than any other novel. I haven't read every other novel; I don't want to read every other novel, so I won't attempt to say or prove this with certainty. I will say with certainty that ATLAS SHRUGGED is not a good story; it's a great story.
Reportedly, Rand's intellectual friends were continually asking her to write her ideals into nonfiction (maybe so they could digest them better); yet her soul lived in stories painting the heroic in life. She believed we live in a beneficent universe and that human beings were meant to achieve great joy, and to feel that joy in every moment.
In ATLAS SHRUGGED, Rand proceeded to dramatize (not to intellectualize) her concept of why we have thoughtlessly allowed ourselves to pervert this beneficence, and how to get back on track.
Many would say that a 50 page speech, given to the world by John Galt over secured radio waves, is more intellectualization than dramatization. I read that clear radio voice as drama perfectly staged within a well executed plot; I saw it as well earned, actually necessitated, by the complex weaving of multiple mysteries building unequivocally to the dramatic enlightenment presented in that speech.
The first time I read Atlas, in 1986, it took me a few months to get through it. It had taken me years prior to that to get past the first scenes of Eddie's "causeless uneasiness." I would read carefully to the point of him recalling the magnificent oak tree which was rotten inside, and I'd put down the book. Eddie's gestalt was so depressing and confusing, I couldn't push forward, couldn't go beyond this budding and painful awareness in Eddie, a seeding of consciousness which felt as if it had nowhere, no way to blossom.
Maybe I sensed the plot would move slowly, complexly, mysteriously, dramatically ... backward ... into the darkest night of the soul of the human race, before it would be ready to lift into any type of healing light.
It took me a while, a bit of growing, to be ready for that backwards, downward soul drop.
Yet, when Atlas lifted the reader into Galt's Gulch, I soared.
I soared higher than I've been taken by any work of fiction.
Is it a great story when an author takes a reader into the bowels of human culture, into the primal, absolute absence of true thought, paints that dank sewer-of-a-world brilliantly with the deepest, richest, most frightening and heart-wrenching color and clarity, then surges the reader suddenly upward on the strongest wings available to an embodied human form? Is that a great story, or what??
I'm speaking beyond the airplane ride Dagney piloted to break through to a small setting where a tiny, almost toy-like railroad was a more true-to-life example of that industry than the ugly, gritty, dark world beyond Galt's location.
When I say, simply, that there are true CHARACTERS in this book, I might have to set that statement against a contrast which would have to consider that there may be no true characters in any other novel. But, I don't want to say that, exactly. I merely want to exalt as it deserves, Rand's executed skill as a novelist.
I love stories. I love characters. I consistently read books I'm able to unfailingly and honestly give 5 Star reviews.
But to read ATLAS SHRUGGED is to be temporarily diminished in ability to fully enjoy other novels. This is why I hesitate to read it again right away. The contrast in the depth of characters, the complexity of plot and subplot machinations, the beauty of the mystery which unfolds in pacing so perfect it cannot be called pacing, it must be described as a natural, living sequence of cause and effect, all this honoring of the true form of the story, of a saga, is almost too rich to exist in the same time frame of other examples of human art.
Even as I exalt Atlas, however, this time I will be able to return immediately to my culinary cozies and love the heck out of them. Why? That's for me to know and you to find out, if you're interested.
For a placement of my customer review of ATLAS SHRUGGED on Amazon.com, I chose the cover of this novel which was taken from a painting by Ayn Rand's husband, Frank O'Conner. He was an artist; he gave a worthy image for his wife's novel.
I admire and appreciate every artistic version of this book, every exquisite cover presentation; the book's gestalt has the capacity to draw greatness from anyone who attempts to capture any nuance of it. But, I wanted to honor Rand's husband's contribution to her career as a novelist, a contribution which went beyond what most of her readers would be able to imagine. And I love O'Conner's red sun setting, his glowing, straight steel rails heading toward that day's end. I love the deep greens and iron-rust-red of the sun ball, and more.
I will stand, spine straight as possible with arthritis, and salute Ayn Rand and Frank O'Conner. They lived. They suffered. As all of us, possibly they suffered unnecessarily, as a matter of maturing as a race, as a matter of growing in consciousness about cause and effect. In their art, Ayn and Frank transcended the pain and left us gifted.
Live enthralled within this book as a story, as a novel, first. Then begin thinking your own thoughts, making your own living, one you're able to enjoy as who you are, not as Ayn Rand, not as Frank O'conner. As you. A simple person rich in capacity to enjoy the most basic of moments, to feel the grandness of human life in every breath.
Remember the perfect flavor of that cheeseburger Dagney relished in the small diner which almost magically appeared on her hardrock route to nirvana. (And you wonder why I love culinaries?)
Maybe that's what Rand wanted to accomplish all along. She wanted to give each of us that unique individual inside, terrified of shining, filled with shame (afraid to eat, even). Maybe she wanted to tell us, no, to show us that we have made no Original Sin. We were born free.
Now we must each live free, in our own way. And, to be a hero might not mean to conquer impossible dreams which we honestly don't want to reach. Maybe it means to enjoy each day and do what we can to live as who we are, to know who we are. Inside and out. As unique individuals, each unlike any other, yet coexisting with other individuals who are interesting to know in their variety of faces, not masks.
Who is John Galt?
Who are YOU?
I know who I am. Sort of. I'm gaining on the concept daily.
Rest assured that life was meant to be abundantly benefic, not a pain in the patootie.
For attempting to paint this awareness in words and oils, I thank you Ayn Rand and Frank O'Conner. Wherever you are (somewhat against your precepts, I believe your consciousness still exists), "live long and prosper,"
Linda G. Shelnutt
Author of several Kindle books, including:
Molasses Moon | | Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC) by Dutton Adult Product Description | | 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 |
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