| | Fountainhead may be the better first choice. It is much more of a character portrait. It is a richer character study. It was where Rand perfected her ability to portray individuals, their actions, and their psychology as expressions of their most deeply held beliefs. The story shows this in primarily in the arenas of love and career. Her focus was particularly on integrated premises, the sense of life that arise from them - and the ideal man.
When she went on to Atlas Shrugged she was painting on a much broader canvas and showed how the full range of philosophical principles expressed themselves across the full range of human action. We create the world around us (our art, our loves, the economy, politics, business, the economy) based upon our beliefs (held implicitly or explicitly - from metaphysics to aesthetics). But she didn't just show that ideas matter in all areas, she had created a new set of ideas - an entire philosophy - and presented it, contrasted it, and all, integrated as a novel with a fast paced plot. It is an extraordinary achievement, but one that by its nature makes it harder to have as rich of a character study. (However, having said that, the characters in Atlas Shrugged each have deep, distinct personalities that have stayed with me for decades). Your mileage may vary.
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