Review

The Mysterious Valley

Review of The Mysterious Valley by Maurice Champagne, author; introduction by Harry Binswanger; translated by Bill Bucko. (ages 10 to 13)

This is the adventure story, originally serialized in a boys' magazine, through which Ayn Rand discovered the world of romantic fiction. Here is how Harry Binswanger, in his Introduction, describes the book: "The Mysterious Valley is the book that kindled the soul of Ayn Rand, at age nine, growing up in Russia on the eve of the Communist revolution . The overwhelming impact of the story on the young Ayn Rand came with her discovery of a true hero. ... Miss Rand compared Cyrus to two of her own fictional heroes: 'He was very much a cross between Rearden and Roark – grim, but not repressed, the man of action who is totally self-confident, enormously defiant. Nothing could stand in his way.' ... [The Mysterious Valley] remains what it was for Ayn Rand in 1914: a vision of man the hero."

(256 pages)

Books

The Mysterious Valley by Maurice Champagne, author; introduction by Harry Binswanger; translated by Bill Bucko. (ages 10 to 13)

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