"Anthem" by Ayn Rand is a dystopian novella written in 1937 and first published in 1938. Set in a future Dark Age where individuality has been erased and technological progress is controlled, the story follows Equality 7-2521, a young man who commits the ultimate transgression: independent thought. Through secret scientific research, he rediscovers electricity and falls in love with Liberty 5-3000. When his forbidden activities are exposed, they flee into the wilderness to forge a new world built on the revolutionary concept of "I."