Oct 11, 2008

Atlas Shrugged | Ghosts on the Roof

In the following essay, which was originally published in 1957, Chambers finds it difficult to take seriously the plot and philosophy of Atlas Shrugged, and maintains that the work is more a tract than it is a novel.

Several years ago, Miss Ayn Rand wrote The Fountainhead. Despite a generally poor press, it is said to have sold some four hundred thousand copies. Thus, it became a wonder of the book trade of a kind that publishers dream about after taxes. So Atlas Shrugged had a first printing of one hundred thousand copies. It appears to be slowly climbing the bestseller lists.

The news about this book seems to me to be that any ordinarily sensible head could possibly take it seriously, and that, apparently, a good many do. Somebody has called it: "Excruciatingly awful." I find it a...