| The Fountainhead |  | Author: Ayn Rand
Publisher: Signet
Category: Book
Buy Used: $3.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  963 reviews
Media: Paperback
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0451019954
EAN: 9780451019950
ASIN: 0451019954
Publication Date: July 1, 1968
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Binding is tight, text is clear, pages are clean. Cover has minor edge and surface wear and spine has light creasing. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade.
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Amazon.com
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 958 more reviews...
 "But I don't think of you" August 29, 2008
I'm not quite sure how she pulled it off, but with The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand managed to forge a literary masterpiece out of reheated libertarianism, stone age sexual politics, and dialogue that's so full of grandiose monologuing it would make William Shakespeare blush. I'm not being tongue-in-cheek here; I really do love this novel. I really do think that it's a jaw-dropping monument to the might of the individual, a symphonic ode to mankind's potential. Its seven-hundred pages see Rand laying waste to conventional standards, inverting all of society's most cherished values, and dropping more than a few subtle hints about the potential dangers of good intentions. Critics of Rand's work seem to miss out on the difference between quality and agreeability; they attack The Fountainhead for its philosophical underpinnings, calling it a piece of trash for no other reason than that they don't see things in quite the same way as Ayn Rand. They don't seem to care about its literary merit. Either that, or they just can't see the novel for what it is. They're completely oblivious to its ecstatic drama, angular poetry, remorseless tension, and epic scope. When they call Rand humorless, I have a hard time believing that they're missing out on the smirking satire and bruising irony that lurk beneath The Fountainhead's surface. When they call Rand inhuman, I wonder what they make of the dizzying panoply of characters that populate her work. Are they aware of the care she takes in evoking sympathy, even for her antagonists? Are they aware that she goes out of her way to remind us that Peter Keating, Alvah Scarret, and the Dean really are human beings? Even when she's depicting pure evil, Ayn Rand understands the importance of complexity, vision, and dimension; indeed, the novel's arch villain is every bit as masterful a creation as Shakespeare's Iago. Critics don't seem to appreciate the protagonist, either. I mean, do they really need to be told that Howard Roark is the very opposite of a soulless automaton, that he's the personification of struggle, of ambition, of hope, of everything that is pure and honest and noble about humanity? No, I don't sympathize with Rand's atheism (or with Roark's). I don't think that selfishness is as clear-cut a virtue as it's made out to be in her work. I am, for the most part (and I say this somewhat grudgingly), a liberal. I'm certainly not an objectivist, and I only have libertarian sympathies if you squint hard enough and ignore my views on our healthcare system. But that's beside the point; I'm not a Christian and I still like the Bible. I'm not an objectivist, and I absolutely adore The Fountainhead.
 Very bad DIscs August 10, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
The fountaun head is a great piece of Ayn Rand's work.
However I had trouble with 2 of the 6 discs I listened too. Returned the full set to Amazon.
Amazon got me a replacement set in nothing flat. Excellent service there. The replacement New set has 4 bad out of the 12 I have listened too. Its going back as well.
The manufaturer of these Audio books needs some new equipment of Quality control.
Attractive Book August 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
At first sight, i never thought I would like this book or read it like i'm in that world; but, i did. I was in and did not want to come out, for reasons i, myself, can't explain. it's a great book of mysterious power to suck the readers into the vacuum of its world.
Excellent Book! July 12, 2008
This is an excellent story that will keep you entertained the whole way through! The reader does a great job of doing different voices for characters which is also amusing to listen to. It will not disappoint!
no atlas shrugged July 9, 2008
this book is not on the same level of entertainment as atlas shrugged, but i did still very much enjoy it. i find myself aggreeing with what ayn rand writes and find her philosophy very interesting and compelling
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