Anthem: The Original 1938 Unabridged and Complete Edition (Ayn Rand Classics)
-
-
4.4 • 21 Ratings
-
Publisher Description
Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in the United Kingdom. The story occurs at an unspecified future date when mankind has entered another Dark Age. Technological advancement is now carefully planned, and the concept of individuality has been eliminated.
A young man known as Equality 7-2521 rebels by doing secret scientific research. When his activity is discovered, he flees into the wilderness with the girl he loves. Together they plan to establish a new society based on rediscovered individualism.
Rand originally conceived of the story as a play, then decided to write for magazine publication. At her agent's suggestion, she submitted it to book publishers. The novella was first published by Cassell in England. It was published in the United States only after Rand's next novel, The Fountainhead, became a best seller. Rand revised the text for the US edition published in 1946.
Customer Reviews
Individuals? Not likely.
In this society Ayn Rand created, there are no individuals, everything is a collective. There is no individual thought or clothing or even names. This is the story of one man who realizes that he is an individual and has his own thoughts and abilities and should not be a street sweeper. I was with the author during the whole story, until the ending, when everything was all about my sons and nothing about daughters.