Women and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Architectural History.

Women's Review of Books, The, November, 1998 by Ockman, Joan

By Alice T. Friedman. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998, 240 pp., $39.95 hardcover.

Architecture has long nurtured the myth of the great form-giver, a male (inevitably) who combines aesthetic inspiration with technical know-how to engender a masterwork in stone or steel. In this century, one of the foundation texts is surely Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (1943), whose heroic protagonist is loosely modeled on Frank Lloyd Wright. In the novel, the Wrightian character is vindicated for refusing to compromise his architectural principles to social demands. A poster for the movie, made shortly after the novel was published, depicts the hero (Gary Cooper) towering over the supine figure of the wealthy and powerful femme fatale who ends up (after he rapes her) as his...

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