Anthem

by Ayn Rand

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Pages: 42

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About this book

Writing alone by candlelight is a forbidden act in the city where Equality 7-2521 lives. Councils assign work, teachers condemn difference, and even private preferences are treated as offenses against the community. The young street sweeper records these rules from a hidden underground tunnel, using the word 'we' to speak about a single person. His appetite for scientific knowledge, discouraged throughout his schooling, becomes the source of a secret experiment.

Ayn Rand's short science fiction novel sets the discovery of light against a world that demands obedience. When a wire begins to glow, Equality 7-2521 imagines sharing the invention with the scholars who govern accepted knowledge. The tension between that hope and his fear gives the narrative its urgency. Readers interested in freedom of thought will find an account of curiosity, conformity, and the difficulty of claiming an individual voice.

About the author

Ayn Rand

Alice O'Connor, better known by her pen name Ayn Rand, was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which she named Objectivism.