An Overly Long Summary
The Fountainhead shares the same theme as most of Ayn Rand's books: Glorification of Individualism.
The title is a reference to the figurative source (fountainhead) of creativity, determination, and worthiness: the spirit of oneself.
While the story is cohesive, it is technically divided into 4 parts, named after 4 of the main characters of the book:
Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, Howard Roark.
The story is motivated by architecture and serves as a way to motivate and differentiate characters.
Peter is a conformist. He does everything socially expected in every step of his career, but has no originality or passion. He becomes massively successful and climbs his way to the top of the social ladder and the architecture world.
He only accomplishes this because he occasionally asks Howard for help. Howard agrees because he doesn't care about people or social games. He loves his work, and refuses to compromise with it ever. He holds true to his ideals.
His finances and reputation suffer immensely for this, but neither of those are important to him so it doesn't matter.
Ellsworth Toohey is a manipulative power hungry genius. He is a writer for the Wynand paper. He is much more than his job.
He is the antithesis of Roark and does everything in his power to stop his buildings from coming into existence.
Toohey advocates for denial of the self and love for your fellow man. To create something extraordinary is a slight to those less talented.
Gail Wynand is the owner of the Wynand papers. His tabloids denounce everything Roark stands for, but in private he celebrates the achievements of humankind.
And then, there's Dominique Francon. She is the daughter of the head of the company that Peter joins, and writes for the Wynand papers as well.
Like Toohey, she writes tirelessly to destroy Roark's works. But her reason is very different. Like Gail, she reveres the highest achievements of humankind. Because of this, she loathes anything less.
She refuses to believe someone like Roark could truly exist, so she wants to destroy him. Someone so talented and devoted to his art.
She villianizes all of his works through her tabloids, but they eventually become secret lovers.
A Too-Short Review
The Fountainhead is long and unapologetic in its message.
I can understand Rand's philosophy, but I do not agree with it in the sense that it also advocates for self-reliance, which I do not think is productive way for a society to survive as a whole.
To pretend that we can and should rely on ourselves and ourselves alone, unconcerned about others, is a farce.
In light of Covid-19, it has never been clearer that our actions are not strictly autonomous.
It's true that in some instances the greatest beauty is achieved through the untainted work of one human.
But it is also true that many of the grand achievements of humankind, that I think Rand would cite as the paragon of human potential, were only possible through collaborative efforts.
My background, for instance, is highly collaborative. The discovery of the Higgs Boson or the detection of gravitational waves would not be possible through the unaltered vision of one genius.
It took thousands of talented minds standing upon past generations of similar talent.
It is very marvelously explained, with Roark as the pinnacle of individualism.
It was an exhausting read, I'll admit it. From what I've heard, Atlas Shrugged is even longer and more arduous.
I do not plan to read it.
However, I can now appreciate the celebration of humankind's ingenuity and limitless potential from individualism.
I think The Fountainhead's extreme length develops the characters to an extent such that I think they are the among the most developed fictional characters I have come to know.
For that, not the philisophical part, I came to love the characters as I love this book."
One of my favorite quotes was from Howard Roark to Gail Wynand:
“Roark smiled, "Gail, if this boat were sinking, I'd give my life to save you. Not because it's any kind of duty.
Only because I like you, for reasons and standards of my own. I could die for you. But I couldn't and wouldn't live for you.”