The Fountainhead [Paperback]

The revolutionary literary vision that sowed the seeds of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophy, and brought her immediate worldwide acclaim.

This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Rand’s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction—that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...

“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.”—The New York TimesBorn February 2, 1905,Ayn Randpublished her first novel,We the Living, in 1936.Anthemfollowed in 1938. It was with the publication ofThe Fountainhead(1943) andAtlas Shrugged(1957) that she achieved her spectacular success. Rand’s unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are put forth in three nonfiction books,Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology,The Virtues of Selfishness, andCapitalism: The Unknown Ideal. They are all available in Signet editions, as is the magnificent statement of her artistic credo,The Romantic Manifesto.

Part 1

PETER KEATING

I

Howard Roark laughed. He stood naked at the edge of a cliff. The lake lay far below him. A frozen explosion of granite burst in flight to the sky over motionless water. The water seemed immovable, the stone flowing. The stone had the stillness of one brief moment in battle when thrust meets thrustlS.