The Fountainhead (Penguin Modern Classics)

Product Details

Author : Ayn Rand
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780141188621
Number of Pages : 752
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2007-02-01
Publisher : Penguin Classics

ASIN : 0141188626

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Editorial Reviews

Synopsis

This is Ayn Rand's story of Howard Roark, a brilliant architect who dares to stand alone against the hostility of second-hand souls. First published in 1943, this best-selling novel is a passionate defense of individualism and presents an exalted view of man's creative potential; it is a book about ambition, power, gold and love.

Customer Reviews

Amazing Read (2008-08-26)

I won't go into too much detail as there are plenty of reviews on here already. I have to say I love this book. It just makes you think. I don't think enough people think these days not for themselves anyway which is what this book is all about. The book is long and I agree with another one of the reviewers that it could have been shorter, but it was the style back then to write lengthy novels. A must read. This should be in the 1001 books to read before you die but it's not!!

Atlas yawned - dreary and juvenile (2008-06-30)

I picked this book after I hearing it was based on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright. Big mistake. The robotic central character Howard Roark plods around the book in a permanent sulk, with an enormous chip on his shoulder. The whole cast of characters are cardboard cut outs and plot is painfully dull and lifeless.Its clearly the work of somebody with a stunted personality. Rand was in such a hurry to sledge hammer us with her dreary politics, that she forgot to write a book in the process.As a work of political thought this book is utter tripe. Its self indulgent nonsense that hasn't stood the test of time. It also the type of book a moody, immature teenager would seize upon as they struggled to assert their identity. Years later , when they grew up they might come across this book again, laugh and toss it in the bin. It a dated piece of navel gazing rubbish and should be left to gather dust.

Bloated (2008-06-16)

Some books are clearly works of literature, and others are clearly intended to appeal to lovers of philosophy or politics, and there are also clearly works which are intended to operate as a means to philosophical or political inquiry whilst being framed as a literary work (a venerable tradition). There are, however, relatively few novels which can immediately and effectively communicate the myriad of positions within a dialectic framework (you might immediately think of Orwell's '1984' or Tressel's 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist), and 'The Fountainhead' is an attempt by Ayn Rand to produce a work that falls within this latter tradition.As a work of literature, with the primary aim of communicating the human within the structures and framework provided by Rand, this novel establishes and provides the template to the pattern replicated in her other major novel 'Atlas Shrugged'. Each character is necessarily intended to be representative of a particular position within the dialiectic that Rand is seeking to explore, each is presented as an embodiment of a position, and this leads to largely superficial characters that are stylised and which lack the vagaries and complexities which are essential to maintaining interest in the narrative. The most obvious effect of this approach is the rendering of Rand's ideas in to large tracts of text which are apparently meant to be thought of as being representative of human speech - but the effect merely highlights the superficiality of Rand's commitment to the novel as an artistic literary form. This can be further seen by the predictable parallels which can be seen as existing between 'Atlas Shrugged' and 'The Fountainhead' - the apparently independent and wealthy female, perceived as emotionally detached yet sexually alluring, the iconoclastic male, prepared to suffer for the values which remain ignored or understood by his fellows. There is also the notable fact that the apparent freedoms enjoyed by the lead female in both 'The Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged' are predicated on a position of inherited wealth and security, founded on the unquestionable and inherently moral excercise of capitalism.As other reviewers have noted, this artificiality, this attempt to provide amplified ideals by way of character, largely fails to engage a genuine interest in the reader. These are not characters that you would want to meet, even if you were sympathetic to 'objectivism'. More importantly and significantly, these are not characters that you are you ever likely to meet in the real world, such is their dysfuntionality.Perhaps, of course, this is entirely the effect that Rand intended. These are hyper-characters, some are the representation and embodiment of Rand's ideals whilst others represent all that she loathed and despised. Perhaps Rand never intended to produce a naturalistic novel or text, but given the apparent effort to place the events described within a recognisably 'real' and 'familiar' world and time frame, this is not likely to have been the case.A further criticism might be extended to the fact this is a large book which owes more to the verbose than the necessities of philosophical exploration. Points are repeated, with the effect that the reader is likely to feel harangued as the subject of an extended lecture. The basic substance of Rand's position could be articulated in less than five hundred words, here the reader has to negotiate through page after page of often repeated stock descriptive phrasing and language which does little to conceal the paucity of Rand's vocabulary or imagination. For a novel to succeed there has to be more than this! And ultimately, in my view, this is why the book does not function as a work of literature. The vacuity of character, the inability to engage beyond the superficial, the purely functional language, these are critical failings in what might be described as the base framework of a book. With such a poor base structure the superstructure of 'Objectivism' (despite its relative ideological simplicity) can not be functionally supported, and for this reason the book fails as a work functioning as fiction, as a contribution to the art of literature. This remains the most telling failure of the book. It is difficult to imagine a writer producing such a self-destructive and damaging literary introduction to their philosophical and political ideology.

A deserved classic (2007-12-04)

I can't remember now where I heard the name Ayn Rand but it was definetly only this year that I picked up on her. I was glad I remembered her was I was looking for something to read by someone I hadn't read. This book deserves the classic status - even if it is not that well known.The story of an uncompromising architect pitched against a world which wants more of the same rather than individualism. He is ranged against those trying to bring him down because he challenges their positions of power, and those who are trying to bring him down because they don't want him to suffer when the world rejects him.Written in the 1940's, set in the '20's and 30's, this novel still feels contemporary and highlights the constant struggle between the individual and the mass. It also echoes through the ages with the ghosts of people who have gone against the status quo, but, ultimately have produced ideas which have changed the way we think.This book deserves to be read and, like one of Roark's buildings, there is not a word out of place.

A Romantic exploration of the soul (2007-10-28)

This novel is an essential read for any person interested in breaching the stagnant superficiality of today's capitalist controlled mechanical consumerism. Written in 1943, Rand's `spiritual' insights continue to expose the consequences of rigid conventions, status and power, altruism and ego in opposition to the reactionary individualism of originality. For Rand the success of those in power (i.e. corporations, politicians, media magnates, academics) to manipulate public opinion and control artistic creativity creates an unthinking, deluded population subservient to the needs of others. Rand describes these people as second-handers: `the man who cheats and lies, but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others think he's honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand.' The few individuals who notice and seek to transgress this form of control are treated with suspicion and in many cases ostracised and demonised. Their freedom (or selfishness) is `to ask nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing.' All these elements are played out in Rand's acutely observed critique of human behaviour and personal motivation (`there's nothing as important about human beings as their relations to one another'). Howard Roark is the fountainhead, an original source of creative genius, uncompromising, indifferent to prevailing conventions (artistic, political, social) and driven by a loyalty to his own aesthetic principles, underpinned by a profound commitment to his inner self (this is the essence of Rand's Objectivism). These special qualities are contrasted with the cursory experiences of the `common herd'. For Roark the solemn appreciation of originality provides an incommunicable emotional response rather than a superficial materialist evaluation. Works of art are more than superficial compositions; they harbour the artist's innermost feelings and become an inexhaustible source of inner emotions. Roark's antithesis is Peter Keating, a scheming, sycophantic, fellow architect, who readily adopts personae to appeal to and influence those around him. Keating will sacrifice artistic integrity, personal love and happiness for a celebrity lifestyle, professional eminence and high profile commissions. The colourful relationship between Keating and Roark is a central and highly absorbing part of Rand's story.Rand's 1920/30s setting is packed with showbiz glitz, upmarket speak-easies, economic depression, Faustian connotations and blinkered liberalism. And the device that binds these elements together is the tabloid press, principally the media empire of Gail Wynand and influential columnists like Dominique Francon and Ellsworth Toohey. The symbolism of trash journalism exposes the futile attempts of the masses to come to terms with originality (`literal-minded people, with a dry soul and a limited imagination'). Roark's designs are one example but the principle could be applied to many other artistic creations. Rand makes it clear that `fear', `need', `dependence' and `hatred' combine to oppose challenges to prevailing conventions: weapons of moral consciousness that deter original thought and betray individual honesty.For me the most powerful aspect of the book is Rand's acknowledgement of the anonymous `few' who admire in silence, not willing to `take part in public issues'. These people do not want to meet the individual whose work they love. They exist to extract meaning from `man's proper stature' - not to betray it. Individual honesty requires a never ending journey involving new ways of approaching aesthetic experiences based on the need to absorb meaning, to shape purpose and to proclaim `man's glory.'

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