"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, September 28, 2015

The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand, 1943)

This author of course provokes all sorts of reactions.  Complicated by efforts to shape, or modify, her legacy.

My reaction after now reading four of her novels:  she's continually thought-provoking and highly worthwhile.  The characters and the story lines do seem over the top, but I have to believe that's intentional on her part.

The Fountainhead is the story of Howard Roark (the architect).  I've seen most of the movie version (Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal) but for whatever reason hadn't picked up the book before.

Ellsworth Toohey, Peter Keating, Dominique Francon, etc.
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