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Title: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Edward Herrmann ISBN: 1-56511-787-5 Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks Pub. Date: July, 2003 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 7 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.15 (765 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: JUST READ IT.
Comment: Analyzing "The Fountainhead" is like dissecting a frog. Very few people are interested and it kills the frog.
Regardless of what you think of Ayn Rand's then breakthrough ideas of capitalism, selfishness, etc., you must pick up this indubitable powerhouse of a novel.
The protagonist, Howard Roark, is quite conveniently a total orphan with no social moorings or responsibilities. This allows the author a great deal of liberty in weaving philosophical tropes around him.
The presentation of the ideas though is simply delicious, couched in some riveting writing, and will keep your thought mills running for a good while. I underline my books and The Fountainhead is almost entirely colored.
A must-read. Period.
Rating: 5
Summary: Makes you want to go to the real America!
Comment: Its such a positive book I thoroughly recommend it. The characterisations are brilliant, no muddled mixed grey areas, Rand unashamedly creates extremes to illustrate the book. It made me want to go to America in the 1920's and be an architect! The fresh, forward looking joy of life is genuinely uplifting.
The lead character, Howard Roark, with his abrupt, polite conversation with the various people who attempt to sway him provides amusing, cutting but innocent one liners you'll want to use. His independence, demanding nothing from others, was so refreshing. I particularly love the part when Keating rushes up to Roark and demands to know what he really thinks of him. "I never think of you" Replies Roark, with un-contrived honesty. A more enjoyable read, in many ways, than the broader "Atlas Shrugged" which I would recommend as follow on to this book, after a couple of months rest!
And you'll never meet a more vile man than Ellsworth Tooh! ey, nor a more broken man than Gail Wynand. To detract from the book, saying its nazi-ism or social darwinism is ridiculous, I can see no connection! There is scene of the greatest benevolence involving Roark in the book. The infamous 'rape' scene, that many find objectionable, comes over as a private fantasy of Ayn Rand. Its hardly a shocker, it seems nothing like real accounts of rape. Don't let that cloud you.
The story is rather 'black and white', but I feel that's deliberate. It is a fictional story, Rand was a novelist first, then a philosopher. It may be currently a favourite with younger people, but its a book that gets richer as you get wiser. I think suggestions that the book is naive are a non-criticism by people who cannot consider a constructive criticism, its the "I'm, older and wiser therefore you wont understand, but I'm right" argument. Incidentally, I'm not that young!. Rand did not write it with a specific demographic audience in m! ind!
My advice? Go for it, but only if you're going to ! read it closely and thoroughly, you may as well get as much from the novel as possible.
Rating: 4
Summary: Impractical characters yet interesting plot
Comment: The protagonists- Howard Roark and Dominique are an embodiment of every conceivable other worldly impractical ideals. At the end of a decade of struggles in their lives, Howard and Dominique are given a fairy tale like "they live happily ever after" ending. If anything, I would consider Howard to have been extremely lucky in getting away with being an architect who considered his clients to be guinea pigs for his creative ideas.
Howard's statements in his own defense at the final trial, in which he draws a comparison between the creative human spirit behind the first use of fire and that of his own experiments in architecture, are contemptuous. In my opinion, Ayn Rand could have show-cased her philosophy of objectivism more effectively by grounding her story in some other profession which has a more direct impact on people's lives than in the field of architecture.
In summary, I found many parts of the story defying common sense and what emerges from the book is the mindless quest of two cold individuals who want to have their own way in the world, oblivious to whether they fit into the larger interests of society and in the process willing to subject themselves to adultery and violent schemes-all in the name of pioneering human progress. I would still strongly recommend this book for the fun of journeying through Ayn Rand's brilliant thoughts and unbelievable plot.
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Title: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff ISBN: 0451191145 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: Anthem by Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff ISBN: 0451191137 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: We the Living by Ayn Rand ISBN: 0451187849 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: January, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Fountainhead (Cliffs Notes) by Andrew Bernstein ISBN: 0764585584 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism by Ayn Rand ISBN: 0451163931 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: July, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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