Ayn Rand's Fiction

Ayn Rand was the prolific author of thought-provoking novels, plays, short stories, and screenplays. A complete listing of her published fiction appears below. (A list of Rand's screenplays can be found under the subsection, Ayn Rand's Films.)

Novels

Atlas Shrugged (1957)
This is Ayn Rand’s masterwork – her monumental story of the man who swore he would stop the motor of the world...and did! It is the novel in which Rand first presented and dramatized her radical morality of rational self-interest – and which has launched a philosophical revolution.

Story Synopsis

Story Timeline

Atlas Shrugged at 50: a Tribute in The New Individualist 

Expert Analysis

Buy Atlas Shrugged

Buy Atlas Shrugged on audiocassette

Buy The World of Atlas Shrugged

The Fountainhead (1943)
The powerful novel that made Ayn Rand famous: the story of a rebellious individualist, architect Howard Roark – and his battle to live and work by his own standards.

Expert Analysis

Buy The Fountainhead

Buy The Fountainhead on audiocassette

Film version of The Fountainhead

Anthem (1938)
A beautifully written and inspiring novelette of a man who, in a totally collectivist future, rediscovers his own sense of selfhood.

Anthem: An Appreciation   by Stephen Cox

Expert Analysis

Buy Anthem

Buy Anthem on CD or Cassette

We the Living (1936)
The dramatic story of one young woman’s struggle for freedom during Russian Revolution, as she is torn between two men: the aristocrat she loves, and the dangerous communist who loves her.

Expert Analysis

Buy We the Living

Film version of We the Living

Buy the film on videocassette

Night of January 16th (1936)
This exciting courtroom melodrama ran successfully on Broadway, and is a staple of the amateur stage. Its "gimmick" is that the jury is chosen from the audience – and how they decide the trial is determined by their philosophies.

Expert Analysis

Buy this play

Ideal (1934)
The theme of this bitter play centers on people’s willingness to betray their highest values. It appears in the anthology of Rand’s work titled The Early Ayn Rand.

Expert Analysis

Buy The Early Ayn Rand

Unconquered (1938)
Ayn Rand adapted this play from her novel, We the Living. Though it ran on Broadway briefly, it was not successful. It has not yet been published.

Think Twice (1939)
A clever murder mystery, and the first of Rand’s mature works, this play appears in the collection The Early Ayn Rand.

Expert Analysis

Buy The Early Ayn Rand

Short Stories

The Husband I Bought (1926)
Good Copy (1927?)
Escort (1929)
Her Second Career (1929)

These early short stories were not intended for publication, but were written while Ayn Rand was still learning her literary craft and gaining familiarity with the English language. They have considerable charm, however, and contain the seeds of ideas and values that would characterize her mature work.

These stories and others are anthologized in The Early Ayn Rand. To buy this book online, please click here.

The Simplest Thing in the World (1940)
This short story, which shows how an artist’s values affect his creative processes, appears in Ayn Rand’s nonfiction work, The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature. To order this book online, please click here.

About Ayn Rand's Fiction

What Does Objectivism Consider to Be Art (Aesthetics)? by William Thomas

The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature by Ayn Rand

The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand

The Literary Method of Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden

The Literary Art of Ayn Rand  by William Thomas (editor)

What Art Is by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi

Atlas Shrugged: Manifesto of the Mind by Mimi Reisel Gladstein