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| Edition: | Plume (Hardcover) |
| Author: | Ayn Rand |
| Published: | April 2005 |
| Pages: | 752 |
| ISBN 10: | 0452286751 |
| New: | $20.61 (33) |
| Used: | $9.49 (40) |
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Overview
The Fountainhead examines the life of an idealistic young architect, Howard Roark, who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision by pandering to the prevailing taste in building design. The book was rejected by twelve publishers before a young editor, Archibald Ogden, at the Bobbs-Merrill Company publishing house wired to the head office, "If this is not the book for you, then I am not the editor for you." Despite generally negative reviews from the contemporary media, the book gained a following by word of mouth and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The Fountainhead was made into a Hollywood film in 1949, with Gary Cooper in the lead role of Howard Roark, and a screenplay by Rand herself.
Summary
Howard Roark, a brilliant young architect, is expelled from his architecture school for refusing to follow the school’s outdated traditions. He goes to New York to work for Henry Cameron, a once-famous and lauded, but now disgraced architect whom Roark admires. Roark’s schoolmate, Peter Keating, moves to New York and goes to work for the prestigious architectural firm Francon & Heyer, run by the famous Guy Francon. Roark and Cameron create beautiful work, but their projects rarely receive recognition, whereas Keating’s ability to flatter and please brings him almost instant success. In just a few years, he becomes a partner at the firm, after he causes Francon’s previous partner, Lucius Heyer, to suffer a fatal stroke on being threatened by Keating's blackmail. Henry Cameron retires, financially ruined, and Roark opens his own small office. His unwillingness to compromise his designs in order to satisfy clients eventually forces him to close down the office and take a job at a granite quarry in Connecticut owned by Francon.
Francon's daughter Dominique is engaged to Peter Keating. Dominique is beautiful, temperamental and idealistic. She refuses to allow herself to want anything or to be dominated by anything, so the only reason she is engaged to Keating is because she feels nothing for him. Dominique works as a columnist for Gail Wynand, a brilliant publisher and owner of the Banner. He has lost his early idealism and made his fortune by printing newspapers that say exactly what the public wants to hear.
Wynand wants Dominique and thinks Keating is weak. So Wynand hosts a dinner where the only guests are Keating and Dominique. Wynand offers Keating a prestigious contract that will gain him fame and position in exchange for his giving up Dominique. Keating accepts the offer. Wynand offers Dominque anything she wants in exchange for her hand in marriage. Dominque refuses, but she keeps working for "The Banner."
Dominique is disgusted with society and man's weakness, evidenced by his allowing desires to control him. So she retreats to her father's country house in Connecticut near the granite quarry where Roark is working as a day laborer.
While taking a look at the work in the quarry, Dominique and Roark catch one another's attention. There is an immediate physical attraction between the two of them. Dominique visits the quarry frequently to tempt Roark and requests that he be the one to repair some marble around the fireplace in her bedroom that she intentionally marred. He starts the work and subtly suggests to Miss Francon that she prey on someone in her own class. But she persists. After several meetings, Roark and Dominique have sex. There is controversy as to whether or not it was an act of rape. Rand herself has addressed this by stating "if it was rape, it was rape by engraved invitation." The acts of Dominique before and after the sex act are not consistent with a rape, but of a desired and consensual sexual encounter.
Dominique has now discovered a person she not only desires but who she cannot resist. But when she looks for Roark, he has left the quarry to design a building for a prominent New York businessman. At this point she doesn't even know Roark's name.
Roark is being noted in the press for the stunning building he has designed. However, Ellsworth Toohey sees Roark as a threat. Toohey is an architectural critic and columnist at "The Banner." He's an undercover socialist and is covertly rising to power by shaping public opinion through his column and circle of influential associates. He seeks to prevent men from excelling by teaching that talent and ability are to be used only for the benefit of the masses and not for personal gain, and that the greatest virtue is self-sacrifice. Toohey sets out to destroy Roark. Toohey is planning to incite the public against Roark through a smear campaign he spearheads at "The Banner."
Dominique, however, sees the value in this architect's building and in his character not realizing that this is the man she was involved with in Connecticut. Since Wynand, "The Banner's" publisher offered her anything in exchange for her hand in marriage, she asks Wynand to call off the smear campaign against this brilliant achitect. Wynand's response is that he'll give her anything except for "The Banner" and sets off on a several month long cruise on his yacht.
Roark's building is finished. The building's owner hosts a gala inviting all the who's who of the town including Toohey and other critics. This is where Dominique and Roark meet again and she realizes that the brilliant architect she admired and took a stand for was the man she was involved with in Connecticut.
Dominique and Roark begin to meet in secret. Dominique urges Roark to give up his ideals afraid that the public will reject and destroy him because of his greatness, his talent, his character, his ideals. However, Roark has never been afraid of or moved by public opinion. He basically tells Dominique that he won't have anything to do with her because she's afraid. On the rebound from Roark, Dominique marries Gail Wynand.
Still out to destroy Roark, Toohey convinces a weak-minded businessman named Hopton Stoddard to hire Roark as the designer for a temple dedicated to the human spirit, then persuades the businessman to sue Roark once the building is completed. At Roark’s trial, every prominent architect in New York testifies that Roark’s style is unorthodox and illegitimate. Stoddard wins the case and Roark loses his business again.
Wynand and Roark meet and become fast friends, but Wynand does not know the truth about Roark’s relationship with Dominique. Meanwhile Keating, who has fallen from grace, asks Roark for help with Cortlandt Homes, a public housing project. The idea of economical housing intrigues Roark. He agrees to design the project and let Keating take the credit on the condition that no one makes a single alteration to his plan.
When Roark returns from a summer-long yacht trip with Wynand, he finds that, despite the agreement, the Cortlandt Homes project has been changed. Roark asks Dominique to distract the night watchman one night and then dynamites the building. When the police arrive, he submits without resistance. The entire country condemns Roark, but Wynand finally finds the courage to follow his convictions and orders his newspapers to defend him. The Banner’s circulation drops and the workers go on strike, but Wynand keeps printing with Dominique’s help. Eventually, Wynand gives in and denounces Roark. At the trial, Roark seems doomed, but he rouses the courtroom with a statement about the value of selfishness and the need to remain true to oneself. Roark describes the triumphant role of creators and the price they pay at the hands of corrupt societies. The jury finds him not guilty. Roark marries Dominique. Wynand asks Roark to design one last building, a skyscraper that will testify to the supremacy of man.
