Jul 25, 2008

Atlas Shrugged | Who Is Ayn Rand?

In the following excerpt, Branden discusses the climax of Atlas Shrugged and the novel as the climax of Ayn Rand's novels.

Just as, within each novel, the climax sums up and dramatizes the meaning of all the preceding events, raised to the highest peak of emotional and intellectual intensity—so, as a total work, Atlas Shrugged is the artistic and philosophical climax of all of Ayn Rand's novels, bringing the full of her dramatic, stylistic and intellectual power to its most consummate expression.

Ayn Rand has proudly referred to Atlas Shrugged as a "stunt novel"—proudly, because she has made the word "stunt" applicable on so high a level. By the standard of sheer originality, the idea of a...