Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged

A Dutton book, hardcover with dustjacket

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's epochal novel, first published in 1957, has been a bestseller for more than three decades as well as an intellectual landmark. It is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world - and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of lib­erators? Why did he have to fight his bat­tle, not against his enemies but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world's motor - and the motive power of every man? These are the questions behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, 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 composer who gives up his career on the night of his tri­umph ... to the woman who runs a trans­continental railroad ... to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

This is a riveting mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder-and rebirth-of man's spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events-with a ruthlessly brilliant plot and irresistible suspense.
Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, male and female, charged with awesome questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is a giant novel-the supreme triumph and ultimate testament of one of the towering genius­es of our time.

This special 35th anniversary edition of Ayn Rand's masterwork con­tains an illuminating Introduction by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime asso­ciate and legal heir.