Major New Literary Study Of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

(MENAFN- EIN Presswire)

Front Cover of The Journey of Dagny Taggart

A gospel for Capitalism that defends the role of the entrepreneur as the engine of progress

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, July 5, 2024 /EINPresswire / -- Pereset Press takes great pleasure in announcing the release of Frederick H. Cookinham's "The Journey of Dagny Taggart: a Commentary on Ayn Rand 's Atlas Shrugged ," a magnificent two-volume study of Ayn Rand's exquisite political thriller and brilliant philosophical adventure. It may be the most detailed and thorough literary analysis of any of Ayn Rand's novels ever published. Volume 1 is now available. Volume 2 should be released by November. 2024.

If Capitalism has a gospel, it must be Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," a robust defense of the entrepreneur as the engine of human progress. This exquisite political thriller and brilliant philosophical adventure has sold millions of copies worldwide and, for decades, has influenced many high-ranking government officials, political figures, think-tankers, and academics. Like any great gospel, it deserves a grand commentary that delves deeply into the text, extracts fascinating insights and overlooked details that illuminate the plot, explores the characters and their motivations, examines the author's literary style, and shows how the author's background influenced her writings. Frederick H. Cookinham's two-volume "The Journey of Dagny Taggart: A Commentary on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged" provides Rand's millions of fans with the commentary that her novel warrants.

Pereset Press is especially delighted that Cookinham focuses a significant amount of attention on Rand's literary skills as a writer in general and a novelist in particular, traits often overlooked by many of even Rand's most dedicated fans, who concentrate more on the polemics and philosophy in Atlas than on her literary talents. After all, Rand is, first and foremost, a novelist and deserves evaluation as such. Cookinham does a terrific job of bringing her abilities to the fore, provides many examples of Rand's literary skills, and scorchingly rebuts Rand's literary critics, most of whom have never read the book.

While John Galt and Francisco d'Anconia, two of the novel's chief characters, receive most of the fan love, Cookinham argues that Rand positioned Dagny Taggart as the central character. The story's primary mystery revolves around the sudden disappearances of the country's most productive business leaders and creative artists. Dagny Taggart, the Operating Vice President of Taggart Transcontinental, who keeps the company running while her useless brother gets all the credit, swears to kill the man responsible for the devastation caused by the missing entrepreneurs. The novel traces her intellectual journey from a sworn enemy of that man to his most important ally. Cookinham insists that Atlas Shrugged is not a political manifesto but a romance novel. Like many great novels, it unreels a love story in the foreground and a crisis unfolding in the background. Dagny Taggart's romance plays out against a collapsing economy in the face of rising corporate fascism.

The novel includes a page-by-page chapter-by-chapter commentary, an introduction to Ayn Rand's background as a writer, Part summaries, chapter overviews, scene descriptions, four Appendixes, a Recurring Themes Index, an Advance Echoes Index, a selection of choice passages from the novel, a timeline, and lists of significant protagonists and antagonists.

NOTE: Cookinham's page-by-page commentary does not include the text of "Atlas Shrugged." He strongly recommends placing a copy of the novel alongside the commentary to get the most out of his study. However, the book's various literary tools gently guide the reader through his analysis.

Gary Greenberg
Pereset Press
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