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The Fountainhead

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The Fountainhead

By: Ayn Rand
Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
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About this listen

 The Fountainhead studies the conflict between artistic genius and social convention, a theme Ayn Rand later developed into the idealistic philosophy knows as Objectivism. Rand's hero is Howard Roark, a brilliant young architect who won't compromise his integrity, especially in the unconventional buildings he designs. Roark is engaged in ideological warfare with a society that despises him, an architectural community that doesn't understand him, and a woman who loves him but wants to destroy him. His struggle raises questions about society's attitude toward revolutionaries. Since this book's publication in 1943, Rand's controversial ideas have made her one of the best-selling authors of all time.©1943 The Bobbs-Merrill Company, renewed 1971 Ayn Rand (P)1994 Penguin-HighBridge Audio Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Political Science Politics & Government

Critic Reviews

"Ayn Rand is a writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly." (The New York Times)
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Cute story. Narrated well. Fictional story with Rand’s philosophy of altruism tied in marvellously. Love

Fictional story with Rand’s philosophy of altruism tied in marvellously.

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The core of the book was excellent, interesting and the characters had very engaging internal monologue. I liked the way the characters described and justified their actions.

There were some really dated themes though, particularly the idealising of the old trope of women as a trophy. This was made worse with the sexual assault scene being so heavily rationalised by the victim. I understand that this represents certain fantasy's, and it was interesting to see how a person goes about rationalising things in their internal monologue. It gave a pretty good overview of a couple who would be the 'toxic couple' in a friend group today. The 'highly functioning' co-dependent's.

The start was a bit odd in how grandiose the prose was in introducing the main character (but was likely helpful to capture the reader, it just didn't interest me). Finally, while I really enjoyed a lot of the book after that initial intro (with the back and forth debates providing a lot of clever commentary on how people think through their actions), I didn't enjoy the elements at the end speech, which was clearly a propaganda speech for complete acceptance of capitalism; this was contrasted with the books view of the antagonist of Toohey. Toohey was an incredibly interest adversary for most of the book, but he suddenly became more careless and vindictive in a foolish way by the end of the book. I felt this strawmanned his character and the communist argument by extension. Some anti-communist arguments still rang very true, but others felt disingenuous.

Overall this is worth a good read, but don't expect to be convinced of communism or capitalism by the end. This is a Charles Dickens reminiscent take down of the caricature of communism. It's best to just enjoy it for what it is, a love letter to success under capitalism.

Intriguing Book - Though Feels Like A Time Capsule Of The Past

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A sublime story, with characters of depth and greatly nuanced. Sadly we have far too many Tooheys running and teaching in today’s world and far too few Roarks. A book with relationships written with such depth that, unsurprisingly, feminists over the last decades have been unable to either grasp the complexities or understand the depth of the relationships between any of the major characters and instead have maligned and slandered the story and the writer, a strong intelligent and empowered woman. I imagine she neither wanted nor needed their brand of acceptance.

Perfectly suited narrator to a great classic story.

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Good book in general. Excellent writing and easy reading but... The author took a single concept of not giving a fxck, milking it dry. 3 characters so different but so the same...above the weak proletariat. Huxley would have cherished the masses control with the main aim of happiness or power and control. If you like reading you might be able to pallet this novel with a strong slant towards promiscuity. Long love the strong in the name of freedom...I personally value the idea of individuality.

The subtle art of not giving a Fxck- one!

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I would like a refund. Several sections of the novel were omitted. Peter Keeting’s relationship with Catherine- toohey’s neice for example..

Parts of the story were omitted

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