Page "The Fountainhead" Paragraph 48

The Fountainhead received extremely mixed reviews when it was released.

The New York Times review of the novel named Rand " a writer of great power " who writes " brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly ," and it stated that she had " written a hymn in praise of the individual ... you will not be able to read this masterful book without thinking through some of the basic concepts of our time.

" Benjamin DeCasseres, a columnist for the New York Journal-American, wrote of Roark as " an uncompromising individualist " and " one of the most inspiring characters in modern American literature.

" Rand sent DeCasseres a letter thanking him for explaining the book's individualistic themes when many other reviewers did not.

There were other positive reviews, but Rand dismissed many of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications.

A number of negative reviews focused on the length of the novel, such as one that called it " a whale of a book " and another that said " anyone who is taken in by it deserves a stern lecture on paper-rationing.

" Other negative reviews called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style " offensively pedestrian.