Summary: Chapter 1
Howard Roark, a stern-faced young man, stands naked at
the edge of a granite cliff. The year is 1922 and
Roark has just been expelled from architecture school at the Stanton
Institute of Technology. Although Roark excels in engineering and
mathematics, he is an individualist whose modern designs run contrary
to everything his school teaches. After serenely contemplating his
future, Roark returns to his room in a local boardinghouse
to work on his drawings. His designs seem severe and simple, but
the structures are actually complex. Roark forgets that he has a
meeting with the Dean of the college until his landlady, Mrs. Keating,
whose son Peter is also a student at the architecture school, reminds
him. Roark goes to see the Dean.
The Dean says that Roark was expelled for turning in
overly modern designs. The Dean assures Roark that he may be able
to return to the school once he has matured. Roark refuses the offer. The
Dean is offended and informs Roark that he will never become a real
architect. Roark leaves the Dean’s office and thinks about how he
does not understand men like the Dean.
Summary: Chapter 2
At the Stanton commencement ceremonies, Peter Keating
sits reflecting on his own greatness. After the ceremony, Guy Francon,
a prominent architect who has given the commencement speech, offers
Keating a position in his firm. Keating does not know whether to accept
the position or take a prestigious scholarship. When Keating returns
home, he asks for Roark’s opinion. Roark says that Peter should
make his decisions without assistance. Peter’s mother manipulates
her son into taking Francon’s offer. Roark agrees that the job will mean
more actual building, and Keating is elated by his prospects.
Summary: Chapter 3
In New York, Keating begins working for Francon &
Heyer, Francon’s firm. He excels at office politics. Keating soon
discovers that the brains behind the firm actually belong to a man
named Claude Stengel, who acts as the chief draftsman and architect.
Keating befriends Francon. Roark finds work with the architect
Henry Cameron, a once-popular architect who has fallen from grace.
Like Roark, Cameron loves his buildings more than his clients. Roark
and Cameron work hard and talk little in their run-down and failing
office.
Summary: Chapter 4
Two years pass, and Keating scrambles further up the ladder
at Francon & Heyer. He gets his best friend at the firm fired
by absorbing so much of the man’s work that he becomes useless.
Keating knows a girl in New York named Catherine Halsey, who is
plain but has a beautiful smile, and who loves Keating. Keating
enjoys his time with Catherine, who he calls Katie. During one of
their talks, Katie mentions that her uncle is Ellsworth Toohey,
a renowned architecture critic. The revelation shocks Keating, who
suddenly has a premonition that his life will be dirty and impure.
He asks Katie not to introduce him to Toohey.
Henry Cameron draws on his own experience to describe
the future that awaits Roark. Because Roark has integrity, Cameron says,
the world will crush him. Cameron predicts that Roark will design
the most beautiful building anyone has ever seen, but that the world
will refuse his design. Desperate to get the project made, Roark
will beg and plead, but mediocre architects will always get the
commissions. Roark will break and cry like an animal. Cameron asks
if Roark wants such a future, and Roark replies that he does.
