The Fountainhead
by Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ayn Rand, Leonard PeikoffEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-01
ISBN: 0451191153
Number of pages: 720
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of The Fountainhead
Book Review: OBJECTIVISM 101: Live for yourself, not through others.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is not a joy to read. It isn't fun, happy, or uplifting. Indeed, most of it is oppressively dark and disturbing. It is however, masterfully written and very rewarding. Not as captivating or inspiring as Atlas Shrugged, this book still ranks as one of my all time favorites. Definitely recommended to anyone and everyone.
THE FOUNTAINHEAD follows a central cast of extremely memorable (but not generally likeable) characters through a story that's main purpose is to highlight and demonstrate Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophies. All of the characters represent extreme personalities (and are thus rather one-dimensional). The self-confidant, unreliant, productive man (Howard Roark) battles the worst of society's altruistic and self-sacrificing demands. The socialist progressive movement is the enemy, excusing weakness, stupidity, and laziness; while demagoguing production, achievement, and individualism. This book actually provides a mastermind antagonist in Ellsworth Toohey that knowingly strives for the downfall of civilization by promoting liberalism, and is one of the most intriguing, but unlikely, characters in Rand's novels. Dominique Francon, Peter Keating, and Gail Wynand all contribute to make this story truly unforgettable.
IMO, Rand is one of the most ill-represented and misunderstood philosophers of all time. Rather than being radical, I believe that she would fit right in with current day Libertarians. She was not heartless or without compassion, she just understood that living for yourself is the way to peace. She didn't dislike charities, she disliked the government forcing people to give up their property for the benefit of others. Paying welfare taxes does not equate to kindness or charitable giving when it is done under coercion. Stating that no man has a right to others' property does not reflect selfishness, but an understanding of natural law.
Rand was a huge believer in America, and its promise to the future. She wrote these books and developed her philosophies to combat what she saw as the liberalization of America and the world. Many of us today see and fear the same things even now. A couple of my favorite quotes demonstrating Rand's love of this country and nicely summarizing the theme of her two best books:
".. built on the principle of individualism. This, our country. The noblest country in the history of men. The country of greatest achievement, greatest prosperity, greatest freedom. This country was not based on selfless service, sacrifice, renunciation or any precept of altruism. It was based on man's right to the pursuit of happiness. His own happiness. Not anyone else's. A private, personal, selfish motive."
-Howard Roark (The Fountainhead)
".. for the first time in history, a country of money - and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being - the self-made man - the American industrialist."
-Francisco d'Anconia (Atlas Shrugged)
Summary of The Fountainhead
Howard Roark is an architect whose genius and integrity will not be comprised. He has ideas that work against conventional standards.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.
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