["The Fountainhead"] tells of exciting events and colorful characters. It is daring, not offensive. Its style would satisfy the most exacting professor, yet it has the vim and snap of the best journalese. It is frankly intellectual, and fearlessly discusses life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but it never sinks to the highbrow….

The central character is an architect, or, if you prefer, it is Architecture. But the novel is not a technical study in fictional form…. The real subject—a boldly general one—is The Genius, or Superman, vs. the Rabble of "Second-handers."

The characters are hard to visualize, but they talk in human words: indeed, the presentation, all the way through, displays amazing competence. The heroes move dramatically, with a swift, fantastic logic. They are strangely transparent; what we see under their skin is neither sawdust nor flesh and bone: it is an elementary formula...