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Equality 7-2521 is a man apart. Since The Great Rebirth it has been a crime in his world to think or act as an individual. Even love is forbidden. Yet since his childhood in the Home of the Infants, Equality 7-2521 has felt that he is different. When he is sent by The Council of Vocations to work as a road sweeper, he stumbles upon a link to the old world that gives him the spur to break free. First published in England in 1938, Ayn Rand’s short dystopian novel crystalises the ideas of individualism and competition that would make her name.
About the Author
Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher. She was an uncompromising advocate of rational individualism, and vociferously opposed socialism. Rand's unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. Anthem was her second novel. She died in 1982.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
This was an interesting, if odd, novel - the first by Ayn Rand I've read. Although the scenario - the plight of an individualist trying to break away from a conformist dystopia - is a familiar one, Rand's intervention comes early in the tradition, although it postdates Zamyatin's `We' with which it has much in common. Both are set in a far future world in which humans have been stripped of names and are discouraged from forming meaningful relationships. In Rand's dystopia this process has been taken so far that the word `I' has been outlawed and any spark of wit or initiative is quickly stamped out. (I was reminded of Vonnegut's famous short story `Harrison Bergeron'.)
It's difficult to disentangle my response to the story from my response to Rand's philosophy - and I have reservations about both. Other writers have presented more appealing and humane visions of nonconformity. Rand's hero seems less a nonconformist, more a kind of Nietzschean superman whose superior height and good looks are emphasised as much as his intelligence and independent-mindedness. I much prefer the vision of a round peg character in a square hole society offered by Le Guin in The Dispossessed. It's a pity that both Le Guin and Rand made their maverick protagonists male; whereas Rand's ingenious hero rediscovers scientific breakthroughs from scratch, her heroine's most exciting moment comes when she first encounters a proper mirror. I'd forgive Rand her dodgy politics if the novel was more lively - but there's something rather ponderous and portentous about `Anthem'. If you find the theme of `Anthem' intriguing do try Ira Levin's underrated `This Perfect Day'.
It's difficult to disentangle my response to the story from my response to Rand's philosophy - and I have reservations about both. Other writers have presented more appealing and humane visions of nonconformity. Rand's hero seems less a nonconformist, more a kind of Nietzschean superman whose superior height and good looks are emphasised as much as his intelligence and independent-mindedness. I much prefer the vision of a round peg character in a square hole society offered by Le Guin in The Dispossessed. It's a pity that both Le Guin and Rand made their maverick protagonists male; whereas Rand's ingenious hero rediscovers scientific breakthroughs from scratch, her heroine's most exciting moment comes when she first encounters a proper mirror. I'd forgive Rand her dodgy politics if the novel was more lively - but there's something rather ponderous and portentous about `Anthem'. If you find the theme of `Anthem' intriguing do try Ira Levin's underrated `This Perfect Day'.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Anthem sits quite nicely with other dystopian books that pit the individual against a collectivist state such as Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and George Orwell's 1984. In common with those other novels the central character becomes self aware and finds love with a woman. Love being the emotion felt by one individual for another that is neither shared with the collective nor has any utility that could benefit the collectivist state (as such love is disparaged by the state in all 3 of these novels). The other common theme between these 3 stories is that the central character feels the need to reject the society in which they live. However, what separates Anthem from the others is that it is a simple story of an awakening self. The other two show what is at stake by destroying the central character by pitting them against an all powerful all conquering state. We and 1984 show the consequence of allowing the state to be truly totalitarian. The state in Anthem however, is rather pathetic in compassion; it is all too easy for Equality 7-2521 to run away. The state threatens but it only succeeds in its threats if the victim is somewhat complicit in their own punishment. Equality 7-2521 has it too easy. This does not mean that Anthem is in any way second rate in comparison to We and 1984, only that it explores the idea of what is good about individual by arguing that real joy comes from individual achievement or through feelings that cannot be shared equally amongst all men. You might perhaps be tempted to think that the novel promotes selfish pride as a virtue and this is true to an extent, however the novel is intended to be a simple hymn to the self and does not concern it itself with perils of a totalitarian state in the way that We and 1984 do. Anthem is just the unashamed enjoyment of a cog in a state machine realising their own individuality and nothing more.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
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I loved this book. It's a long time since I read something that I couldn't put down, but this definitely falls into that category. It's both inventive and terrifying as all good Distopian novels (or novellas) should be and has that unique quality of making you feel like you know the book before you've even finished reading it - because it resonates so strongly with you. It also stands up alongside other books in this genre by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting and Puzzling All In One
It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Simon Savidge Reads
An Interesting Read
On a par with Zamyatin's 'We', Rand has created a collectivist society where its inhabitants are mindless drones to a system that quickly stamps out personal achievement, thought... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Angela
We hold these truths to be self evident...
Equality 7-2521 who speaks of himself in the first person plural makes a few discoveries that lead him to rethink the nature and purpose of man. Read more
Published 21 months ago by bernie
Dystopian Novella
This is my first Ayn Rand book and knowing she is a strong philosophical writer I wasn't sure that her writing would be my thing. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2010 by Alison
A classic of art and philosophy
'Anthem' is a novella that describes the fight of a rebellious inventor and the woman he loves to achieve independence from the dull conformity and anti-rational hegemony of a... Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2010 by G. Imroth
Short and to the point
I couldn't find the copy that I have here on amazon, so I am writing the review on this one. My copy is the "centennial edition", and besides the actual book (which is less than... Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2009 by Blackbeard
Not Compelling
This book is neither compelling, nor interesting. It is a short story designed to make a case for Rand's egoistic philosophy, but it reads more like propaganda than philosophical... Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2009 by Sir Furboy
Another nail in the coffin of the Communist ideal
Sometime in the future (perhaps?) or in an alternate universe, the human race has (d)evolved to a slave ridden society, ruled by the Councils. Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2009 by M. R. N. Shackelford
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