The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand, 1943
Contemporary fiction Literary fictionRomance
An architect who will not build anything he doesn't believe in, against a city that rewards charm. The novel that made selfishness an argument.
Feels like defiance and awe. About ambition, freedom and love.
A page from the book
The freedom, and the cost, of starting your own line.
But you see,“ said Roark quietly, ”I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one. Ayn Rand.Twelve publishers rejected it before Bobbs-Merrill took it in 1943; Rand wrote much of it while working in Hollywood as a screenwriter.
Books that feel like this
More by Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand, 1957
A railroad executive fights to keep a collapsing America moving while the nation’s most capable people vanish one by one.
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Questions readers ask
- What is The Fountainhead like?
- Feels like defiance and awe. About ambition, freedom and love.
- What should I read after The Fountainhead?
- If you liked The Fountainhead, try V for Vendetta (Alan Moore), The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) and A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah J. Maas).
A taste of the feed
Three days of privacy, granted by the people who took it away.
Good evening, London. This is the voice of fate. Almost four hundred years ago tonight, a great citizen made a most significant contribution to our common culture. It was a contribution formed in stealth and silence and secrecy, although it is best remembered in noise and bright light. To commemorate this most glorious of evenings, Her Majesty’s government is pleased to return the rights of secrecy and privacy to you, its loyal subjects. For three days, your movements will not be watched, your conversations will not be listened to, and ‘do what thou wilt’ shall be the whole of the law. God bless you, and goodnight.
V for Vendetta · Alan Moore
The nothing-to-lose freedom of being robbed in a foreign country.
He looked around at the empty plaza again, feeling less desperate than before. This wasn’t a strange place; it was a new one…he had already traveled farther than any shepherd he knew. Oh, if they only knew how different things are just two hours by ship from where they are, he thought….As he mused about these things, he realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure. “I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure,” he said to himself.
The Alchemist · Paulo Coelho
What a stare can say before a secret even slips.
Rhysand stared at me for long enough that I faced him. "Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.
A Court of Thorns and Roses · Sarah J. Maas
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