The Fountainhead cover art

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

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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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Every character is perfect, message clearly explained with no pretence, Edward Herrmann the perfect choice to narrate

A masterpiece

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the omitting of several interactions of some key players from the books caught me off guard, but was of great importance to the overall flow of the story and its performance.

the characterization of the main figures in the story has left me astounded and inspired.

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Ayn Rand is one of those rare literary geniuses that is too far ahead of her time & too damned clever for her own good. In this age of tribalism & stupidity we need her voice more than ever & this story is as close to perfect as it gets.

Excellent

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I loved every part of it, it’s a brilliant story! Just like her book Atlas shrugged.

Everything was brilliant

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Brilliant book for all creators Great performance, very subtly dramatised. I was ‘negatively’ recommended this book.. but it turned out to be a real inspiration for my art. It gets your personal integrity and value system recalibrated. The historic reality it was written in is also so poignant and enlightening… how far we have come, yet her ‘people watching’ reveals such awfully similar undercurrents nowadays. Definitely a ‘must-read’.

Grounding and Uplifting

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This book is certainly a worthy listen, especially with the narrator's performance. He really brings the characters to life, from the despicable ellesworth toole (spelling?) to the fascinating dominique franken. I always knew who was speaking, and felt like a fly on the wall to some historic events.

While the story itself was sometimes a bit much, with the characters feeling more like a parody and the story a bit preachy, it was still thought provoking, and has led me to much further reading. Also, remember that it was written in the 40s, where people did talk more like they do in this book.

If you are looking for something a bit more than fiction but less than a documentary, something to challenge your own thought processes and life motivations, I highly recommend this book!

Pretentious but provocative

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Must read in these times where mediocrity, victim mentality, and low integrity seem to be accepted and even celebrated by society

More timely then ever

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brilliant narrator, story is not too bad but mainly as a romantic tail. I couldn't stop listening to the story. the narrator has done an exceptional job!

the Fontainehead

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I guess this is always the fear when you buy an old abridged novel, that the unabridged version is just around the corner - sure enough this is the .



As with Atlas Shrugged the reader does get bashed by the message but what did you expect.



While I don't agree with Rand, or Objectivism totally, she sure makes you think.



Buy the unabridged version.

Good but I should have waited

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Nowhere does it state that this is an abridged version. I started to follow the text with my printed copy and found sentences and even series of paragraphs omitted. I would not have bought the audiobook had it been made clear it is not the full version.

The version is abridged, with no reference thereto

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