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===Critical reception=== ''The Fountainhead'' polarized critics and received mixed reviews upon its release.<ref name="tfreviews">Berliner, Michael S. "''The Fountainhead'' Reviews", in {{harvnb|Mayhew|2006|pp=77β82}}</ref> In ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Lorine Pruette]] praised Rand as writing "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly", stating that she had "written a hymn in praise of the individual" that would force readers to rethink basic ideas.<ref name="Pruette 1943">{{harvnb|Pruette|1943}}</ref> Writing for the same newspaper, [[Orville Prescott]] called the novel "disastrous" with a plot containing "coils and convolutions" and a "crude cast of characters".<ref>{{harvnb|Prescott|1943}}</ref> Benjamin DeCasseres, a columnist for the ''[[New York Journal-American]]'', described Roark as "one of the most inspiring characters in modern American literature". Rand sent DeCasseres a letter thanking him for explaining the book's themes about [[individualism]] when many other reviewers did not.<ref>{{harvnb|Rand|1995|p=75}}</ref> There were other positive reviews, although Rand dismissed many of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications.<ref name="tfreviews"/> A number of negative reviews focused on the length of the novel,<ref>{{harvnb|Gladstein|1999|pp=117β119}}</ref> 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 in the United States|rationing]]". Other negative reviews called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style "offensively pedestrian".<ref name="tfreviews"/> The character of Dominique Francon has provoked varied reactions from commentators. Philosopher [[Chris Matthew Sciabarra]] called her "one of the more bizarre characters in the novel".<ref name = Sciabarra/> Literature scholar [[Mimi Reisel Gladstein]] called her "an interesting case study in perverseness".<ref name="Gladstein41"/> Writer Tore Boeckmann described her as a character with conflicting beliefs and saw her actions as a logical representation of how those conflicts might play out.<ref>Boeckmann, Tore. "What Might Be and Ought to Be: Aristotle's ''Poetics'' and ''The Fountainhead''". In {{harvnb|Mayhew|2006|pp=158, 164}}</ref> In the years following its initial publication, ''The Fountainhead'' has received relatively little attention from literary critics.<ref name="denuyl21">{{harvnb|Den Uyl|1999|p=21}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hornstein|1999|p=431}}</ref> Assessing the novel's legacy, philosopher [[Douglas Den Uyl]] described ''The Fountainhead'' as relatively neglected compared to her later novel ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' and said, "our problem is to find those topics that arise clearly with ''The Fountainhead'' and yet do not force us to read it simply through the eyes of ''Atlas Shrugged''."<ref name="denuyl21"/> Among critics who have addressed it, some consider ''The Fountainhead'' to be Rand's best novel,<ref>{{harvnb|Cullen-DuPont|2000|p=211}}</ref><ref name="baker57">{{harvnb|Baker|1987|p=57}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Merrill|1991|p=45}}</ref> although in some cases this assessment is tempered by an overall negative judgment of Rand's writings.<ref>{{harvnb|Kingwell|2006|p=70}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Walker|1999|p=79}}</ref> Purely negative evaluations have also continued; a 2011 overview of American literature said "mainstream literary culture dismissed [{{italics correction|''The Fountainhead''}}] in the 1940s and continues to dismiss it".<ref name="Yannella17">{{harvnb|Yannella|2011|p=17}}</ref>
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