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The Fountainhead Mass Market Paperback – September 1, 1996

by Ayn Rand (Author), Leonard Peikoff (Afterword)

1,781 customer reviews

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When The Fountainhead was first published, Ayn Rand's daringly original literary vision and her groundbreaking philosophy, Objectivism, won immediate worldwide interest and 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 edition contains a special afterword by Rand’s literary executor, Leonard Peikoff, which includes excerpts from Ayn Rand’s own notes on the making of The Fountainhead. As fresh today as it was then, here is a novel about a hero—and about those who try to destroy him.

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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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly. -- The New York Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 720 pages
Publisher: Signet; 25 Anv edition (September 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451191153
ISBN-13: 978-0451191151
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.4 x 6.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,781 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #824 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics
- #980 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

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Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved spectacular and enduring success. Through her novels and nonfiction writings, which express her unique philosophy, Objectivism, Rand maintains a lasting influence on popular thought.

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#26 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

Customer Reviews

1,781

4.2 out of 5 stars

5 star		64%
4 star		15%
3 star		8%
2 star		4%
1 star		9%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

593 of 664 people found the following review helpful

Brilliant despite stilted dialogue

By David E. Levine on March 9, 2001

Format: Mass Market Paperback

This is one of the fastest paced books I have ever read. Ayn Rand's characters come to life as she paints very clear pictures of who they are and what they represent. She does this in spite of the fact that the dialogue is sometimes a bit wooden and stilted. In this novel, she sets forth her philosophy of "objectivism." She exposes those, such as a character named Peter Keating, an architect, who seemingly achieve greatness by copying others but somehow give the illusion of originality and creativity. In order to achieve "greatness," Keating was literally willing to sell anything, including his wife. Thus despite wealth and apparant achievement, his life was empty. Rand begins to formulate her values that altruism is an evil because a society which seeks to achieve this must do so at someone's expense and therefore leads to collectivism. In the person of Ellsworth Toohey, a flamboyant newspaper columnist, she shows how the power hungry manipulate the masses by setting a standard of mediocrity which fosters collectivism.
This book is full of passion, including a flaming, complex romantic affair between individualist architect Howard Roarke and socialite Dominique Francon. Their relationship develops from one in which they each seek to assert power over the other while achieving sexual release to one of true love between genuine soul mates. Roarke also has a passion for his work and is uncompromising in his creativity in accomplishing his professional goals. He will not ever compromise these goals despite enormous pressures to do so. Rand believed that there is only black and white in moral issues; there is no gray. Therefore, giving in a little is not compromise but rather, selling out your values and giving in to evil.Read more ›

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649 of 777 people found the following review helpful

Brilliant, very flawed work by brilliant, very flawed woman

By Cathy Young on February 3, 2003

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Funny how most of the reviews are either unqualified adulation from Rand worshipers or slams from Rand haters. IMO, "The Fountainhead" is neither a prophetic work of great genius nor a piece of evil tripe. It is a brilliant work, perhaps even with flashes of genius -- but as flawed as its author.
I think Rand had the potential to be a great novelist, which she largely ruined when she decided she was the world's greatest philosopher since Aristotle. Any dogma is the enemy of art. If you read Rand's three major novels -- "We the Living", "The Fountainhead", and "Atlas Shrugged" -- you can see her dogma becoming more and more rigid, and her characters less and less human. "The Fountainhead" is a novel you can still appreciate even if you don't agree with the philosophy (and I think the philosophy has some excellent points, just taken to an absurd extreme).

[SPOILERS FOLLOW BELOW
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CONTINUE

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Unlike some reviewers here, I don't find Howard Roark to be completely inhuman. He does feel pain -- not only the pain of his own struggle but of his mentor Henry Cameron and his friend Steve Mallory, the sculptor. It's just that, as Rand says, the pain "only goes down to a certain point" because it can't touch the core of his independent soul. But consider this passage when Dominique tells Roark she has married Peter Keating: "It would have been easy, if she had seen a man distorting his mouth to bite off sound, closing his fists and twisting them in defense against himself.Read more ›

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155 of 184 people found the following review helpful

One small voice, mine.

By Ruth Dubb on October 4, 2001

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Read just about any four or five star customer review and you have a fine summary of this book. It is not necessary for me to repeat what has already been said. I myself would like to talk about the individual characters which keep me rereading this book as much as the philosophy does. Roark, Keating, Toohey (shudder), Dominique, etc., all represent facets of humanity, good and evil. But characters like Keating and Wynand are more complex than the characters in Atlas Shrugged. Yes, they are Randian archetypes but they have taught me much about human nature.
Keating, had he a little more backbone, might have actually been able to make something of himself. Unlike the villains of AS, he was somewhat sympathetic. He was in love with Catherine, a woman who may not have possessed the glamor and poise of Dominique but who was right for him simply because they were happy when they were together. Fool that he was, he instead opted for what he thought he was supposed to, just as he chose architecture over his true calling, painting. His story is a lesson for all of us. To detractors of the book who call it contemptuous of people I say you don't HAVE to be this way. Don't be a Peter Keating. It is up to you.
Ellsworth Toohey is a villain for the ages, somebody you just love to hate. I won't even describe him as a man. I relish the creepy, slimy feeling I get rereading the passages about him. Every patronizing, smarmy sentence that comes out of his mouth is designed to make one cringe. The fact that he DOESN'T seek out wealth, or even happiness, makes him all the worse.
It is through him and this book that I learned what is evil: holding society and "the greater good" over the individual.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Classic reading This should be required for all High School students.

Published 13 hours ago by Timmy Boy

Listen to your heart

It was a pageturner and a wonderful book that gives a life lesson to its readers. If you are courageous enough to follow your dreams sooner or later you will be successful. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Deniz Bağcı

Five Stars

Nothing compares to fountainhead.

Published 4 days ago by Sindhu Prasad Kapur

Five Stars

This should be required reading for all high school students

Published 4 days ago by wayne

Five Stars

Great book

Published 8 days ago by Alfredo Jidy

Five Stars

My second favorite book by Rand and a prerequisite to Atlas.

Published 14 days ago by Brandon A.

A challenging read, but I would definitely recommend.

I am an Ayn Rand fan. I did like this book a lot more than "Atlas Shrugged". Much less long dialogues. More concise. I loved the characters.

Published 15 days ago by Amazon Customer

Leran how to live by great ideals

The Fountainhead is a fantastic story about a self-made person who lives by great American ideals. If you create it, you own it.

Published 16 days ago by Marius

Ayn Rand tells the story of an arcitect, but ...

Ayn Rand tells the story of an arcitect, but it is much more than that. It a story about the freedom of the human spirit. Read more

Published 17 days ago by setmuckler

Warped but compelling

Cartoonish. Warped. Long-winded. But oddly compelling.

Published 17 days ago by Amazon Customer

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