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Author: (USA) Ayn Rand / Gao Xiaojing / Zhao Yaqiang / Yang Yu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: The enduring charm of The Fountainhead stems from one fundamental reason—it acknowledges the spirit of youth and celebrates human glory, demonstrating the boundless possibilities of humanity. In every generation, only a few fully understand and realistically recognize human talent, while the rest betray it. But that doesn’t matter. It is these few who push humanity forward and give life meaning. What I have always strived for is to salute these few. The others are irrelevant to me: they betray not me, nor The Fountainhead. They betray their own souls. —Ayn Rand, excerpt from the preface to the 25th anniversary edition of The Fountainhead.
The protagonist of the novel, Howard Roark, is an honest and resilient architect who seeks to enlighten society. Yet, he is expelled from university just before graduation, and his design style is deemed heretical by society, forcing him to work as a laborer in a quarry. The woman he deeply loves also opposes him at every turn and marries his lifelong rival. Later, he agrees to design affordable housing for the government for free, but his design is arbitrarily altered by the government authorities. In desperation, he blows up the partially built building with dynamite, reducing it to rubble. In court, he also fights alone, defending his genius and original creation (long before 911 was even a concept): "Creation is a private matter, a natural right, and so is the defense of creation, equally a natural right of the individual." At that time, concepts like copyright and intellectual property had not yet been recognized by society. As a result, Roark is deemed "insane" and thus acquitted.