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The Fountainhead
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The Fountainhead (1943) (edit title/settings)

by Ayn Rand (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Howard Roark is an architect whose genius and integrity will not be comprised. He has ideas that work against conventional standards.

Summary edit see section history

Howard Roark, a brilliant young architecture student, is expelled from the Stanton Institute of Technology for refusing to abide by its outdated traditions. Despite the determined effort of some professors to defend Roark, and the subsequent offer to continue at Stanton from the headmaster,... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Howard Roark, a brilliant young architecture student, is expelled from the Stanton Institute of Technology for refusing to abide by its outdated traditions. Despite the determined effort of some professors to defend Roark, and the subsequent offer to continue at Stanton from the headmaster, Howard chooses to leave the school. He goes to New York City to work for Henry Cameron, a disgraced architect whom Roark admires - being formally Cameron's employee but in fact his disciple, and in effect, his adopted son. Cameron who once was architecture's modernist hero, has fallen from fame due to the fickle demands of society and his own caustic personality. His work serves as an inspiration for Howard. Roark’s highly successful but vacuous schoolmate, Peter Keating, also moves to New York to work for the prestigious architectural firm, Francon & Heyer. Roark and Cameron create inspired work, but their projects rarely receive recognition, whereas Keating’s ability to flatter and please brings him almost instant success despite his lack of originality.
Roark closes his office rather than compromise his drawings, and his ideals, to the whims of his clients. He takes a job at a Connecticut granite quarry owned by Guy Francon, whose beautiful, temperamental, and idealistic daughter, Dominique, beguiles Peter Keating. Upon the urging of his mother, Keating breaks off his engagement with Catherine to facilitate his romance with Dominique.
While Roark is working in the quarry, he encounters Dominique, who has retreated to her family's estate in the same town as the quarry. There is an immediate attraction between them. Rather than indulge in traditional flirtation, the two engage in a battle of wills which results in rape. (Author Ayn Rand said that "if it was rape, it was rape by engraved invitation."<citation needed>) Not long after, Roark leaves to build the Enright House.
Ellsworth Toohey, a columnist for The New York Banner (a yellow press-style newspaper owned by Gail Wynand) and author of the popular column One Small Voice, is an outspoken socialist, who is covertly rising to power by shaping public opinion through his column and his circle of influential associates, and whose quite openly proclaimed designs are not understood or taken seriously. Toohey sets out to destroy Roark through a smear campaign he spearheads at the Banner. As the first step, Toohey convinces a weak-minded businessman named Hopton Stoddard to hire Roark as the designer for a temple dedicated to the human spirit and gives Roark carte blanche to design it as he sees fit. Roark designs the temple, with a naked statue of Dominique, which creates the first public outcry against Howard and Stoddard is (with Toohey's encouragement) appalled at what Roark has built. Toohey further manipulates Stoddard into suing Roark for general incompetence and fraud. At Roark’s trial, every prominent architect in New York (including Keating) testifies that Roark’s style is unorthodox and illegitimate. Dominique defends Roark, but Stoddard wins the case and Roark loses his business again.
Dominique believes that greatness such as Roark's should never be offered to a public unable to appreciate it, and decides that since she cannot have the world she wants (in which men like him are recognized for what they are) she will live completely and entirely in the world she has, which shuns him and praises Keating. That evening, Dominique pays Keating a visit, and makes him a one-time offer of her hand in marriage. Keating accepts, though he is engaged to Toohey's niece Catherine, and they are married that evening. Dominique turns her entire spirit over to Peter, hosting the dinners he wants, agreeing with him, and saying whatever he wants her to say. She fights Roark, and herds all of his potential clients over to the slowly weakening Keating. Despite this, Roark continues to attract a small but steady stream of perceptive, intelligent clients who see the value in his work.
To win Keating a prestigious architecture commission offered by Gail Wynand, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Banner, Dominique agrees to sleep with Wynand. Wynand then buys Keating's silence and a divorce for Dominique and Keating, after which Wynand and Dominique are married.
Wynand subsequently discovers that every building he likes is done by Roark, so he enlists Roark to build a home for himself and Dominique. The home is built, and Roark and Gail become great friends, although he does not know about Roark's past relationship with Dominique.
Now washed up and out of the public eye, Keating realizes he is a failure. Rather than accept retirement, he pleads with Toohey for his influence in favor of Keating to get the commission for the much sought after Cortlandt housing project. Keating knows that his most successful projects were aided by Roark, and he knows Roark is the only person who can design Cortlandt, due to its economical requirements. Roark agrees to design it in exchange for complete anonymity—and the agreement that it would be built exactly as he designed.
When Roark returns from a 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 and dynamites the building to prevent the subversion of his vision. 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 (thanks to Toohey's quiet conspiracy to "stack" the paper with those who agree with him, or those whom he can control), but Wynand keeps printing with Dominique’s help. Eventually the tide of public opinion rises against Wynand and most of his staff leaves in protest. Wynand is eventually faced with the choice of closing the paper or reversing his stance and agreeing to the union demands; he gives in, the newspaper publishes a denunciation of Roark over Wynand's signature.
At the trial, Roark seems doomed, but he rouses the courtroom with a speech about the value of ego and the need to remain true to oneself. The jury finds him not guilty. Roark marries Dominique. Wynand, who has finally grasped the nature of the "power" he thought he held, asks Roark to design one last building, a skyscraper that will testify to the supremacy of man: "Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours...and could have been mine."
A brief epilogue eighteen months later shows the Wynand Building well on its way to completion. The last scene follows Dominique (now Mrs. Roark), entering the site to meet Roark atop the steel framework.

People edit see section history

  • Howard Roark: A person who believes in the purity of thought and who is filled with all the individual spirit he believes he needs to sustain his life happily. To the world, he is an aspiring architect who makes structures that are 'groundbreaking'.
  • Dominique Francon: Guy Francon's daughter who has a column in The New York Banner. Meets Howard Roark at a quarry.
  • Bert Keating: Roark’s schoolmate, moves to New York and goes to work for the prestigious architectural firm Francon & Heye. He is a kind of person who lives only for fame and the approval of others. Keating is good-looking and commercially successful, but he steals his only original ideas from Roark
  • Whitford Sanborn: Fan of Henry Cameron's work who comes to Roark to build a home for him.
  • Gail Wynand: Publishing giant who prints tabloids such as the New York Banner. Second husband of Dominique.
  • Steven Mallory: A sculptor and a good friend of Roark.
  • Catherine Halsey: Peter Keating's fiance. Keating calls her "Katie."
  • Austen Heller: A very well-educated and respected social activist.
  • Alvah Scarret: Man who works for Gail Wynand. He is Wynand's measure for public opinion because Scarret usually sides with the public. He is also Wynand's right-hand man.
  • Ellsworth M. Toohey: Writes for The Banner in his column, "One Small Voice". While Toohey has no specific talents, he is renowned as an expert in architecture.
  • Lucius Heyer: Guy Francon's firm partner. Heyer doesn't hold much power, but is mostly kept for the amount of money he has.
  • Mike Donnigan: A tough electrician Howard Roark meets. He calls Roark, "Red."
  • Henry Cameron: Fallen architect who is hated by the public for his revolutionary ideas.
  • Gus Webb: Architect made famous by Ellsworth Toohey.
  • Gordon L. Prescott: Architect presumed to bring on the new age of architecture.
  • Guy Francon: Dominique Francon's father who is the leading partner in his firm, Francon and Heyer.
  • Joel Sutton: Man who wanted to hire Roark, but is stopped by Dominique Francon.
  • Mitchell Layton: Extremely wealthy man who wants to be respected for other things than his money.
  • Lois Cook: Author who was made famous by Ellsworth Toohey.
  • Roger Enright: Self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur.
  • Lancelot Clokey: Novelist who is part of Ellsworth Toohey's Guild of American Writers.
  • Stengel: Chief designer for Guy Francon when Keating first comes to work for Francon's firm.
  • John Erik Snyte: Architect who does not follow one school of design. He has architects from different schools of design working for him, and when they are done designing, he molds all the designs into one building.
  • Kent Lansing: Member of the board for the building of the luxury hotel, the Aquitania.
Show all 24 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
  • “There will be days when you'll take a look at your hands and you'll want to take something and smash every bone in them because they'll be taunting you with what they could do.”
    Henry Cameron
  • “Sometimes he was asked to show his sketches...it was like having the clothes torn from his body and the shame was not that his body was exposed but that it was exposed to indifferent eyes.”
  • “Everything to which you grant your love is yours.”
  • “He thought what a power there was in words; later, for those who heard them, but first for the one who found them: a healing power, a solution, like the breaking of a barrier.”
  • “He had left them a gift, which they could not conceive...”
    Howard Roark
  • “Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched.”
  • “Prometheus was chained to a rock and torn by vultures—because he had stolen the fire of the gods. Adam was condemned to suffer—because he had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Whatever the legend, somewhere in the shadows of its memory mankind knew that its glory began with one and that that one paid for his courage.”
  • “And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways—by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others.”
  • “The leaders of collectivist movements ask nothing for themselves. But observe the results.”
  • ““That love is reverence, and worship, and glory, and the upward glance. Not a bandage for dirty sores. But they don’t know it. Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones who’ve never felt it. They make some sort of feeble stew out of sympathy, compassion, contempt and general indifference, and they call it love. Once you’ve felt what it means to love as you and I know it–the total passion for the total height–you’re incapable of anything less.””
  • “"Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours . . . and could have been mine."”
    Gail Wynand
  • “I have, let's say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I've chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I'm only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is the matter of standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.”
    Roark to Dean of Stanton
  • “You've made a mistake already. By asking me. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want you want? How can you stand it, not to know?”
    Roark to Peter Keating when the latter asks his opinion on the choice for his future.
  • “No man likes to be beaten. But to be beaten by a man who has always stood as a particular example of mediocrityin his eyes, top start by the side of this mediocrity and to watch it shoot up, while he struggles and gets nothing but a boot in his face, to see the mediocrity snatch from him, one after another, the chances he'd have given his life for, to see the mediocrity worshipped, to miss the place he wants and to see mediocrity enshrined upon it, to lose, to be sacrificed, to be ignored, to be beaten, beaten, beaten --------not by a greater genius, not by god, but by a Peter Keating ---- well, my little amateur, do you think the Spanish Inquisition ever thought of torture to equal this”
    Ellsworth Toohey
  • “Every loneliness is a pinnacle”
  • “Have you seen your best friends love everything about you ----- except the things that count? And your most important is nothing to them, nothing, not even sound they can recognize”
  • “To say 'I Love You' one must learn how to say the 'I'”
    Dominique
  • “I don’t feel helpless as a rule”
    Roark
  • “I don’t wish to be the symbol of anything. I’m only myself."”
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  • A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn’t need it.”
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  • Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea. That presupposes the ability to think. Thinking is something one doesn’t borrow or pawn.
    Highlighted by 373 Kindle customers
  • If one doesn’t respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others.”
    Highlighted by 335 Kindle customers
  • When facing society, the man most concerned, the man who is to do the most and contribute the most, has the least say.
    Highlighted by 311 Kindle customers
  • “It’s said that the worst thing one can do to a man is to kill his self-respect. But that’s not true. Self-respect is something that can’t be killed. The worst thing is to kill a man’s pretense at it.”
    Highlighted by 302 Kindle customers
  • “Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man’s independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn’t done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.
    Highlighted by 277 Kindle customers
  • “That love is reverence, and worship, and glory, and the upward glance. Not a bandage for dirty sores. But they don’t know it. Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones who’ve never felt it. They make some sort of feeble stew out of sympathy, compassion, contempt and general indifference, and they call it love. Once you’ve felt what it means to love as you and I know it—the total passion for the total height—you’re incapable of anything less.”
    Highlighted by 266 Kindle customers
  • Men hate passion, any great passion. Henry Cameron made a mistake : he loved his work. That was why he fought. That was why he lost.
    Highlighted by 261 Kindle customers
  • Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched. The things which are sacred or precious to us are the things we withdraw from promiscuous sharing.
    Highlighted by 246 Kindle customers
  • “But you see,” said Roark quietly, “I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.”
    Highlighted by 242 Kindle customers
Show all 30 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Show all 11 settings

First Sentence edit see section history

Howard Roark laughed.

Table of Contents edit see section history

I. Part One: Peter Keating
II. Part Two: Ellsworth Toohey
III. Part Three: Gail Wynand
IV. Part Four: Howard Roark

Glossary edit see section history

  • Second handers: "The basic need of the second-hander is to secure his ties with men in order to be fed. He places relations first. He declares that man exists in order to serve others. He preaches altruism."

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Objectivism: In words of Ayn Rand, the essence of Objectivism is as follows:1. Metaphysics Objective Reality (Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed2. Epistemology Reason (You can’t eat your cake and have it, too)3. Ethics Self-interest (Man is an end in himself4. Politics Capitalism (Give me liberty or give me death
  • Individualism: Rand indicated that the primary theme of The Fountainhead was "individualism versus collectivism, not in politics but within a man's soul." Apart from scenes such as Roark's courtroom defense of the American concept of individual rights, she avoided direct discussion of political issues. As historian James Baker described it, "The Fountainhead hardly mentions politics or economics, despite the fact that it was born in the 1930s. Nor does it deal with world affairs, although it was written during World War II. It is about one man against the system, and it does not permit other matters to intrude."
  • The Importance of Reason: Describe this theme.
  • The Cold Ferocity of Love
  • Technical Progress
  • Journalism
  • Labor
  • Granite
  • Ice
  • The Banner
  • The Primacy of the Individual
Show all 11 Themes entries

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 58 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Lightning Thief, and followed by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

This is book 26 of 37 in First Edition Library. (edition-based publisher list)

Preceded by Gone With the Wind, and followed by East of Eden.

This is book 65 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Fahrenheit 451, and followed by The Outsiders.

This book is in Big Fat Books. (community list)
This is book 58 of 214 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Winesburg, Ohio, and followed by The Wings of the Dove.

This is book 2 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Atlas Shrugged, and followed by Battlefield Earth.

This is book 70 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by A Child Called "It", and followed by Marley & Me.

This is book 53 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Two Towers, and followed by Gone With the Wind.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Ayn Rand (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Bobbs Merrill
Country: United States
Publication Date: April 15, 1943
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 754

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3535.A547 F6 1943
  • Dewey: 813.52

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

This book contains pervasive and persuasive new ideaologies. If your child is reading this expect to face some tough conversations soon.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Atlas Shrugged
  • Anthem
  • We the Living
  • The Virtue of Selfishness

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Ayn Rand Cult
  • Objectivism and the Corruption of Rationality: A Critique of Ayn Rand's Epistemology
  • Why People Believe Weird Things
  • Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (The Ayn Rand Library, Volume 6)
  • Objectivism in One Lesson: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Ayn Rand
  • The Vision of Ayn Rand: The Basic Principles of Objectivism

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Julius Caesar

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