The Fountainhead (Centennial Edition Hardcover)

Author: Ayn Rand
Publisher: Plume
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

1041 reviews
Sales Rank: 15,430

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 752
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.5 x 1.8

ISBN: 0452286751
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780452286757
ASIN: 0452286751

Publication Date: April 26, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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•	ISBN13: 9780452286757
•	Condition: New
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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
The Fountainhead has become an enduring piece of literature, more popular now than when published in 1943. On the surface, it is a story of one man, Howard Roark, and his struggles as an architect in the face of a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey. But the book addresses a number of universal themes: the strength of the individual, the tug between good and evil, the threat of fascism. The confrontation of those themes, along with the amazing stroke of Rand's writing, combine to give this book its enduring influence.

Product Description
A special edition hardcover in celebration of Ayn Rands centennial.

When it was first published in 1943, The Fountainhead--containing Ayn Rands daringly original literary vision with the seeds of her groundbreaking philosophy, Objectivismwon immediate worldwide acclaim. This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him. This centennial edition of The Fountainhead, celebrating the controversial and eduring legacy of its author, features an afterword by Rands literary executor, Leonard Peikoff, offering some of Ayn Rands personal notes on the development of her masterwork.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 1041

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Good grief August 24, 2010
J. L. Tympanum (Winona, AZ)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

Good grief, this book is awful. Not only are the characters made out of cardboard, the plot itself is cardboard, not to mention the childish philosophy it promotes. It can appeal only to those who, despite being uneducated and without talent, have an exalted opinion of themselves.

5 out of 5 stars

a timeless message on society versus the individual. August 18, 2010
Robin Lapre (tenn)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Wow. This book was such a treat to read on so many levels! Don't be intimidated by the length - this book is incredibly readable, and you can read just a few pages at a time and enjoy what you are reading. However I guarantee by the end you will be up all night to see how it unfolds. I really was not sure up until the very end. This book is more than just a story of characters, it is a story of society, of power, and an assessment of what makes man tick. You can read it at any level you want. The book has helped me put my finger on many things I have thought about myself and others - it has expressed why I might like or dislike a person, and it explains why different personalities act as they do. Although the author is strong in her convictions, she allows alot of room for interpretation. How I interpret scenes may not be how others interpret the same scenes- thus it is a wonderful book for discussion. This is one of the few books where the character development is sufficient that i actually bothered to "question motives" of fictional characters - something I usually am uninspired to do. A word of caution, many of the characters are portrayed in absolutist terms, something which normally does not appeal to me. However in this book, it really helped to clarify my thinking on the matters which the author is presenting. In a nutshell, it was more than just brilliant, it was truly memorable.

4 out of 5 stars

Thought Provoking August 17, 2010
Jeff
The Fountainhead is one of those classics that ever reader needs to include in their library. Because the Fountainhead is sadly reliant solely on existential philosophy, the real gem in the story - the faithful expression of one's sole, is lost in a relativistic plot. Never the less, without much effort the reader can find a transcendent sense of self in the story's main character.

Reviewed by, Dr. Jeffrey Wincel, author of Climbing The Mountain of God, The Path to Mystical Discipleship, and Defying the Trend: Business Ethics and Corporate Morality from a Faith Perspective.

2 out of 5 stars

Weak Literature And Worse Philosophy August 9, 2010
J. J. Lisandrillo (Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

My, how time has a way of changing us. I first read The Fountainhead many years ago, while still in high school, and I clearly remember liking it a lot. It seemed then a compelling, well-written page-turner, filled with memorable characters and one finely-honed scene after another. So imagine my surprise when I picked the book up again not long ago and discoverd after only a few hundred pages that the brilliant masterpiece I remembered so fondly is in reality little more than turgid melodrama populated with cartoonish characters, all built around a philosophy (I use the word loosely) that only a self-centered egoist could have come up with.

What are the elements of good literature? Consistently well-crafted prose? Multi-dimensional characters imbued with the foibles of real human beings? A grappling with mature themes and subject-matter? Boundless imaginative energy? Relentless narrative drive? The Fountainhead sadly falls short on all counts.

The book's plot largely involves the tribulations of Howard Roark, a brilliant, dynamic architect whose singular vision of the future (which always takes the form of buildings, of course) is forever being thwarted by a world in which conformity is valued over individualism, and where Utilitarianism (the greatest good for the greatest number) is the overriding principle around which society is organized. The world of The Fountainhead, in short, is one that seeks to hobble genuis while rewarding mediocrity, and Roark, being something of a Knight errant, is determined to turn this world on its head. Aiding him in his quest is beautiful, headstrong Dominique, who despite her own strong will has a weakness for powerful men; and Guy Bannister, a newspaper magnate who sees in Roark the embodiment of an ideal that he himself lacks, and who willingly risks his hard-won empire to help further Roark's cause. Arrayed against Roark are an assemblange of sycophants, lackeys and dupes, all of whom Rand portrays as being little better than sheep. If you're looking for a novel that deals with life's gray areas, for a book that dares venture into the disorienting fog of ethics and morality, The Fountainhead is not for you. Here everything is either black or white, good or bad, right or wrong. On the other hand The Fountainhead does contain all of the elements of a good read. Romance. Murder. Deception. Betrayal. A climatic courtroom battle--in short, the very essence of good pulp fiction. But, unfortunately, Ayn Rand never intended The Fountainhead to be taken as pulp fiction, and as evidenced by more than a few of the reviews posted here, many of her readers don't see it as pulp fiction, either. They see it instead as a blueprint for the future.

Admittedly, Rand's prose at its best is succinct and transparent, with sentences that move the story forward without getting too much in the way. And occasionally her writting is even borderline lyrical, especially in the book's early descriptive passages where Rand seems most at ease. But let her start describing one of her heroic characters -- Howard Roark, Dominique, Guy Bannister -- and all of a sudden we're deep in the land of Purple Prose. Every man's profile is seemingly chiseled out of granite. Every torso is as sharp and angular as the images in a cubist painting. Michelangelo's David would envy the physique Rand gives Howard Roark. Dominique's statuesque figure exists only in the imaginations of pre-pubescent boys. These aren't characters Rand is creating, certainly not characters meant to represent real flesh-and-blood human beings; these are merely cardboard cutouts that Rand can manipulate in the service of her plot, which in turn exists only to further explicate her sophmoric philosophy. And as for the character's thoughts and musings, they generally range from the historionic to the banal with little else in between. If one didn't know any better, one would swear these "people" all suffer from a sever case of bi-polar disorder. Case in point: Dominique is a model of independence, determined to make her own way in life; that is until Howard Roark rapes her (there's no other way to describe their first coupling), at which point she becomes totally subservient to Roark's will and ambition.

For what it's worth, it's interesting to note that there isn't a single child to be found anywhere in Rand's massive tome. And the only two people who are less than physically perfect are the art critic Ellsworth Toohey (can there be any greater parasite than a professional critic?), and his "crippled" niece, a social worker (maybe not as bad as a critic, but still beyond redemption). In both cases their physical imperfections serve as outter manifestations of their inner flaws. Both characters are portrayed as morally weak, conniving, manipulative, and imprudent. And poor Ellsworth Toohey: descriced as squat, swarthy, hairy, with an almost rodent-like countenance, his appearance could easily have been lifted straight out of the agit-prop "literature" of 1930's Germany used to stir up anti-Semitism. In the forward to my paperback copy of The Fountainhead, Rand describes a night in the early 1940's, her book as yet unfinished, when she was overcome with a sense of dispair upon realizing that the vast majority of people in the world were far less intelligent, less ambitious, and less productive than was she. How could such a drab, uncreative world ever possibly understand the likes of a Howard Roark? A Dominique? A Guy Bannister? Or for that matter Ayn Rand herself? Fortunately for Rand, her husband was there to talk her out of her dispair that night, and thus she was able to finish her book and bequeath it to the undeserving masses.

I guess this brings us finally to Rand's "philosophy" of Objectivism. But is it really a philosophy? as rigorously thought out as, say, Kant's theory of knoweldge? or Locke's principles of democratic government? Or is it really just a disjointed world-view expounded upon ad infinitum in one big novel after another. Personally, I believe the latter. Rand titled another of her books "The Virtues of Selfishness," which in fact is a more apt description of her world-view than is Objectivism. But perhaps an even more apt desription would be "Survival of the Fittest," or "Dog Eat Dog," or "Every Man (and Woman) For Himself." Because, after all, isn't that what Objectivism really is in the end? To quote that old poster from the Sixties: "You Do Your Thing, And I'll Do Mine, I'm Not Here To Fulfill Your Expectations, And You're Not Here To Fulfill Mine..." and so on and so forth. In other words, just let things run their course without rules or regulations, and in the end we'll see who comes out on top. The funny thing about the followers of Objectivism is that, like believers in reincarnation who all imagine themselves as having been kings and queens in past lives, Objectivists all see themselves as standing on top of the social and economic heap when the dust finally settles. And that may be so for a few of them. But the truth is, in a world where anything goes, for many of them, should they ever get their wish, it's just going to be one long hard scramble at the bottom of the hill.

I never finished my second reading of The Fountainhead, and although I still have my copy of the book, I doubt I ever will. I'm giving the book two stars instead of one largely for sentimental reasons, and because more often than not the book is well written. If a young person ever asks me, should I read The Fountainhead? I'll say, "Sure, if you feel you must, then go ahead and enjoy it. But whatever you do, don't take the damn thing seriously."

5 out of 5 stars

Great piece of literature August 4, 2010
Nicholas Fey
I had read "Atlas Shrugged" prior to finishing "Fountainhead", and now I must say I did it all wrong-because this book really builds a foundation for which "Atlas Shrugged" fits well atop. As for the book itself, I would have to say otherwise by itself this book is a great read.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 1041

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