The Fountainhead

About this book

One of the centurys most challenging novels of ideas The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion. The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke the genius who is resented because he creates purely for the delight of his own work and on no other terms; Gail Wynand the newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire whose power was bought by sacrificing his ideals to the lowest common denominator of public taste; and Dominique Francon the devastating beauty whose desperate search for meaning has been twisted through despair into a quest to destroy the single object of her desire: Howard Roarke. Dramatic poetic and demanding The Fountainhead remains one of the towering books on the contemporary intellectual scene.