Robert Mayhew has edited a series of books featuring essays examining the novels of Ayn Rand. This book is the third in the series, and it is a highly recommended collection. Among the best essays are those written by Shoshana Milgram, Jeff Britting, Tore Boeckmann, and Mayhew. The book does, however, suffer from a few scholarly lapses.

Ayn Rand is often put on a par with Vladimir Nabokov, proceeding from the similarity of their creative destinies. The general vicissitudes of life forced the two writers to converge on one theme—the indisputable statement of the supreme value of a human life, by understanding the importance of the individual “I” over the public. The main problem of their poetic worlds is the question of self-identification. As Russian immigrant writers, both occupy the position of “estrangement” in relation to both their (...) own heritage and the environment to which they immigrated. (shrink)

This article closely compares the opposing foundations of theoretical philosophy in René Descartes and Ayn Rand. The developmental course of Rand's foundations, with their continual opposition to Descartes, is tracked. Arguments particularly against Descartes are assembled in this article, and the bountiful contemporary scholarship on Descartes is engaged.