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The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead

List Price: $8.99
Your Price: $8.09
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Overly simplistic pseudo-thought
Review: Like the rest of Rand's work, this is an occasionally entertaining but sloppily reasoned diatribe promoting a surprisingly stilted and immature view of economics and society. Hers is a stridently simplistic and sophomoric philosophy, far removed from the kind of carefully reasoned discourse one expects from someone alleged to be a "great philosopher".

Rand's plots are unctuously contrived to buttress her obsessively monochromatic portrait of human nature, one oblivious to life's true subtleties and uninformed by a deeper wisdom. Her characters are cardboard cutouts designed for little more than advancing her childish laissez-faire rhetoric, and seem utterly incapable of even thinking of the kind of insightful questions that could mar the author's heavy handed operatic themes.

Perhaps most troubling for me personally are her paeans to reason, something I consider to be the foremost of human accomplishments, but which in Rand's clumsy hands devolves disgracefully into blind, uncritical adherence to her churlish libertarian dogma of unrestrained greed and reckless individualism. With such "friends", reason needs no enemies!

There are those that actually argue that the fact that Rand is so vilified by thoughtful reviewers means that she must be "on to something". This is a remarkably vapid observation, for one still routinely hears and reads much justifiable criticism of numerous historical figures who have helped to reverse human progress. Perhaps you can think of a few...

To conclude, fans of Rand's books, in my experience, seem to have been all-too-easily bamboozled by one-dimensional characters with no trace of nuance, profound-sounding but empty-headed sophistry, and all-out rhetorical sledgehammer blows wielded in the service of avarice.

My advice to readers is to pick up some real philosophy or science or carefully reasoned economic work -- or even the latest thriller -- and to leave Ayn Rand's deluded, crackpot vision to the dustbin of history.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: interesting
Review: Beautifully written, an interesting view of a often dark side of humanity. kind of left me questioning everything.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: grey is the color of death
Review: Firstly, it is not weakness to feel emotion; Roark is a passionate person. His perfection, as the ideal man, comes not from his suppression of emotion (he never suppresses an emotion), but from his lack of negative emotion.

He feels no jealousy when Keating brags to him of his success. He feels no disappointment when the architecture community mocks his efforts. It's best summed up as Roark stated to Toohey, when Toohey asks what Roark thinks of him: "I don't think of you". Roark doesn't need any outside confimation of his success, because he has not let anyone else define his terms. The point of the whole book is that it is glorious to be a passionate person, to live up to your potential. This is possible. But don't create your success on other's terms. Don't define yourself by other's standards. Don't lift yourself up through other's failures. Be who you are, not what everyone expects you to be, and you have nothing to fear.

I especially enjoyed the number of people who wrote how this book inspired them in their youth, but as they grew older, they realized its shortcomings.

I agree, it is much easier to realize the book's shortcomings as opposed to your own.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: W. W. H. D.?
Review: This book is overlong, filled with ponderous prose, and many banal trivialities. It could have benefitted from a decent editor. It is nevertheless a greatly inspiring book. While the characters are generally drawn in black and white, at least "white" is well-defined in a creative way, and in many respects gives the readers some true perspective which in fact may be applied to their lives. On my wall at work, I have written: "What would Howard Roarke do?" and while I can't say that this has greatly influenced all of my major (or even minor) life decisions, I value the availability of this benchmark personality, no matter how perfect (and hence unrealistic). It is very easy to be cynical about Ayn Rand and I have enjoyed that pastime myself. However, her work survives due to the truly insights it provides. I recommend The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged for both good stories and potentially life-changing ideas.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply great
Review: Effective encompassing of a philosophy by literary means, this is an inspiring tale of a man who LIVES life, not subsides in a body dominated by society. The length of the text might deter, but it is worth the later. Flowing verse that keeps the reader flipping. Highly recommended.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: intense novel from a powerful voice
Review: As a junior in high school, a decade and a half ago, I read The Fountainhead nearly seven times. And although I wouldn't say that I was an Ayn Rand fanatic, I did read quite a bit of her work. At this point in my life The Fountainhead wouldn't have quite the same meaning that it did to me at age seventeen. However, I think that I still could appreciate aspects of the novel, which is certainly a modern classic, though some might say (and some might be really offended by this term), a cult classic. What comes to mind for me looking back is the strength of the protagonists and the really powerful way in which the author portrayed each character. For me as I read the book, the characters really came to life. Although I may not have understood it completely or caught nuances that might be apparent to me now, the characters were very well developed. Thinking back on the novel, what must have resonated strongly for me was the bravery, the belligerence, and the independent spirit embodied by Howard Roark and Dominique Francon. To my adolescent thinking these were really admirable and essential qualities, and even now I appreciate aspects of the integrity of their characters. Also I think that there is something in the novel that hooks into an environmental ethic. Though certainly the rape scene embodies an opposite spirit. If I were to recommend any of her work, it might be The Early Ayn Rand, because the stories seem to come from a less extreme and polar place than the later works that I have read, and they reveal an intelligent, articulate, tenacious, and developing author and artist.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best novel ever written
Review: OK, well it's at least the best I've ever read. Lots of people tend to judge this book based on their opinions of Objectivism. Don't. Whether you agree or not with Rand's political views, this is a great story and an extraordinarily well-written novel.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Life-Confirming Book
Review: If you have always felt that you were a different sort of person (and you like it that way), this book will be the most affirming work you will ever read. Ayn Rand puts into words what it is to be a true individual - a heroic person. The book is a wonderful fictional story about an architect, and the message throughout is one that will affirm all of the unfocussed thoughts that have been swimming around your head for some time now.

Every day I can now look in the mirror and proudly proclaim, "Trey, you are one of the last great heroes walking the face of the Earth." You'll be saying the same thing...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Inspiring" "Five thumbs up!"
Review: As a student of architecture (now recently graduated), I found this book inspiring, powerful, elegant and philosophicaly rich. Although it sometimes feels long and slow, the philosophy, struggle and goals of the characters are quite convincing and exhilarating. I recommend it to architecture students who want to find a source of inspiration and a connection between architecture and its creator.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Concrete Density
Review: I really like this book. I may not agree with all of the ideals described within its pages, but as far as keeping me interested, it is one of the most challenging, yet eloquent books I've ever read.

I feel, though, as if I missed a lot of what the author was trying to say. I felt as though she repeated herself with slots of continuous dialogue that made me feel as if I should fall to the ground and cry "OK! I submit!" But, perhaps I missed something.

I love all the characters except for Dominique. I wasn't quite sure of her motives and actions. She talked a lot about how she wanted to suffer, but she didn't really suffer. Trying to ruin Roark made her happy, and being with Roark made her happy. She had a happy second marriage, but broke it off and tried to "sacrifice" herself for other reasons. Her actions would seem only to hurt somone else, and barely give her a scratch. But, on the other hand, she was, I suppose, living like a true egotist. But, then again, she was only happy through a few other people. I don't know. I'm just confused.

Ellsworth Toohey was my favorite. They way he manipulated people was often funny and frightening at the same time. The fact that he always "had a sense of humor" showed how easy it was for him to needle into anyone's life.

All in all, I think the book is worth reading again. I still feel as though I don't have a grasp on everything, just maybe a jist. I think I was trying too hard when I read this. I don't know, perhaps I'm one of those people who would have found "The Gallant Gallstone" a good book.


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