The Fountainhead facts for kids
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Cover of the first edition
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| Author | Ayn Rand |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Philosophical fiction |
| Publisher | Bobbs Merrill |
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Publication date
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1943 |
| Pages | 753 (1st edition) |
| OCLC | 300033023 |
The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, her first major literary success. The novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, is a young architect who battles against conventional standards and refuses to compromise with an architectural establishment unwilling to accept innovation. Roark embodies what Rand believed to be the ideal man, and his struggle reflects Rand's belief that individualism is superior to collectivism.
Roark is opposed by what he calls "second-handers", who value conformity over independence and integrity. This novel has many themes that support philosophies of objectivism, and capitalism. There are themes that are against the idea of communism. The use of architecture and skyscrapers in this novel show that humans are able to do great things. Rand's belief in the novel is that a person should only work at something they love doing.
Twelve publishers rejected the manuscript before an editor at the Bobbs-Merrill Company risked his job to get it published. Contemporary reviewers' opinions were polarized. Some praised the novel as a powerful paean to individualism, while others thought it overlong and lacking sympathetic characters. Initial sales were slow, but the book gained a following by word of mouth and became a bestseller. More than 9 million copies of The Fountainhead have been sold worldwide and it has been translated into more than 20 languages. The novel attracted a new following for Rand and has enjoyed a lasting influence, especially among architects, entrepreneurs, American conservatives and libertarians.
The novel has been adapted into other media several times. An illustrated version was syndicated in newspapers in 1945. Warner Bros. produced a film version in 1949; Rand wrote the screenplay, and Gary Cooper played Roark. Critics panned the film, which did not recoup its budget; several directors and writers have considered developing a new film adaptation. In 2014, Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove created a stage adaptation, which has received mostly positive reviews.
The novel has been translated into more than 25 languages.
Contents
Major characters
Howard Roark
Rand's stated goal in writing fiction was to portray her vision of an ideal man. The character of Howard Roark, the protagonist of The Fountainhead, was the first instance where she believed she had achieved this. Roark embodies Rand's egoistic moral ideals, especially the virtues of independence and integrity.
The character of Roark was at least partly inspired by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Peter Keating
In contrast to the individualistic Roark, Peter Keating is a conformist who bases his choices on what others want. Introduced to the reader as Roark's classmate in architecture school, Keating does not really want to be an architect. He loves painting, but his mother steers him toward architecture instead. In this as in all his decisions, Keating does what others expect rather than follow his personal interests. He becomes a social climber, focused on improving his career and social standing using a combination of personal manipulation and conformity to popular styles. He follows a similar path in his private life: he chooses a loveless marriage to Dominique instead of marrying the woman he loves—who lacks Dominique's beauty and social connections. By middle age, Keating's career is in decline and he is unhappy with his path, but it is too late for him to change.
Dominique Francon
Dominique Francon is the heroine of The Fountainhead, described by Rand as "the woman for a man like Howard Roark". Rand described Dominique as similar to herself "in a bad mood". The character has provoked varied reactions from commentators. Philosopher Chris Matthew Sciabarra called her "one of the more bizarre characters in the novel".
Gail Wynand
Gail Wynand is a wealthy newspaper mogul who rose from a destitute childhood in the ghettoes of New York (Hell's Kitchen) to control much of the city's print media. While Wynand shares many of the character qualities of Roark, his success is dependent upon his ability to pander to public opinion. Rand presents this as a tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall.
Ellsworth Toohey
Ellsworth Monkton Toohey is Roark's antagonist. He is Rand's personification of evil—the most active and self-aware villain in any of her novels. Toohey is a socialist, and represents the spirit of collectivism more generally. He styles himself as representative of the will of the masses, but his actual desire is for power over others.
Adaptations
Film
In 1949, Warner Bros. released a film based on the book, starring Gary Cooper as Howard Roark, Patricia Neal as Dominique Francon, Raymond Massey as Gail Wynand, and Kent Smith as Peter Keating. Rand, who had previous experience as a screenwriter, was hired to adapt her own novel. The film was directed by King Vidor. It grossed $2.1 million, $400,000 less than its production budget. Critics panned the movie. Negative reviews appeared in publications ranging from newspapers such as The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, to movie industry outlets such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, to magazines such as Time and Good Housekeeping.
In letters written at the time, Rand's reaction to the film was positive. She said it was the most faithful adaptation of a novel ever made in Hollywood and a "real triumph". Sales of the novel increased as a result of interest spurred by the film. She displayed a more negative attitude later, saying she disliked the entire movie and complaining about its editing, acting, and other elements. Rand said she would never sell rights to another novel to a film company that did not allow her to pick the director and screenwriter, as well as edit the film.
Various filmmakers have expressed interest in doing new adaptations of The Fountainhead, although none of these potential films has begun production. In the 1970s, writer-director Michael Cimino entered a deal to film his own script for United Artists starring Clint Eastwood as Roark, but postponed the project in favor of abortive biographical films on Janis Joplin and Frank Costello. The deal collapsed after the failure of Cimino's 1980 film Heaven's Gate, which caused United Artists to refuse to finance any more of his films. Cimino continued to hope to film the script until his death in 2016.
Play
The Dutch theater company Toneelgroep Amsterdam presented a Dutch-language adaptation for the stage at the Holland Festival in June 2014. The company's artistic director Ivo van Hove wrote and directed the adaptation. Ramsey Nasr played Howard Roark, with Halina Reijn playing Dominique Francon. The four-hour production used video projections to show close-ups of the actors and Roark's drawings, as well as backgrounds of the New York skyline. After its debut the production went on tour, appearing in Barcelona, Spain, in early July 2014, and at the Festival d'Avignon in France later that month. The play appeared at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris in November 2016, and at the LG Arts Center in Seoul from March 31 to April 2, 2017. The play had its first American production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, where it ran from November 28 to December 2, 2017.
The European productions of the play received mostly positive reviews. The Festival d'Avignon production received positive from the French newspapers La Croix, Les Échos, and Le Monde, as well as from the English newspaper The Guardian, whose reviewer described it as "electrifying theatre". The French magazine Télérama gave the Avignon production a negative review, calling the source material inferior and complaining about the use of video screens on the set, while another French magazine, La Terrasse, complimented the staging and acting of the Odéon production.
American critics gave mostly negative reviews of the Next Wave Festival production. Helen Shaw's review for The Village Voice said the adaptation was unwatchable because it portrayed Rand's characters and views seriously without undercutting them. The reviewer for the Financial Times said the play was too long and that Hove had approached Rand's "noxious" book with too much reverence. In a mixed review for The New York Times, critic Ben Brantley complimented Hove for capturing Rand's "sheer pulp appeal", but described the material as "hokum with a whole lot of ponderous speeches". A review for The Huffington Post complimented van Hove's ability to portray Rand's message, but said the play was an hour too long.
Television
The novel was adapted in Urdu for the Pakistan Television Network in the 1970s, under the title Teesra Kinara. The serial starred Rahat Kazmi, who also wrote the adaptation. Kazmi's wife, Sahira Kazmi, played Dominique.
The novel was also parodied in an episode of the animated adventure series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures and in season 20 of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, in the last part of the episode "Four Great Women and a Manicure".
Other adaptations
In 1944, Omnibook Magazine produced an abridged edition of the novel that was sold to members of the United States Armed Forces. Rand was annoyed that Bobbs-Merrill allowed the edited version to be published without her approval of the text. King Features Syndicate approached Rand the following year about creating a condensed, illustrated version of the novel for syndication in newspapers. Rand agreed, provided that she could oversee the editing and approve the proposed illustrations of her characters, which were provided by Frank Godwin. The 30-part series began on December 24, 1945, and ran in over 35 newspapers. Rand biographer Anne Heller complimented the adaptation, calling it "handsomely illustrated".
Related pages
Images for kids
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Rand's descriptions of Roark's buildings were inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, such as Fallingwater.
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Gary Cooper played Howard Roark in the film adaptation.
See also
In Spanish: El manantial para niños
