Ayn Rand 
Anthem 

“Those who want slavery should have the grace to name it by its proper name.”

—Ayn Rand

 

In a dark, terrifying, and backwards future, people have no names and are taught never to think of themselves. Everything is subordinate to the all-powerful World Council. Individualism is illegal; as is love not authorized by the World Council. Just using the word “I” is a transgression punishable by death. Fear of innovation and change has stifled humanity and threatens to crush the world’s spirit. But when one man, Equality 7-2521, decides to fight the system, everything could change…

 

This is the setting for Ayn Rand’s early dystopian classic, first published in 1938. Unlike her later bestsellers,
The Fountainhead and
Atlas Shrugged, with their sprawling plotlines and epic settings,
Anthem is a bracing, stripped-down allegory just as much as it is a dramatic thriller. Every page of
Anthem rings with Rand’s defiant, optimistic belief in the power of the individual spirit.