It is 1925. Ellsworth Toohey has written a popular history of architecture. There have never been any great builders, he claims, only great buildings, which rise from the work and experience of a multitude of people. In the Middle Ages people had a sense of community, but then the dreadful idea of private property caught on. Individual taste arises from selfishness and is always unaesthetic. Some day all men will be as brothers and live in harmony again.
That same year, Henry Cameron retires. He has laid off everyone but Howard Roark, but his few commissions still aren't enough to support the practice. He has Roark burn all the firm's papers, but save a drawing of a soaring skyscraper that some genius may build some day.
Peter Keating's mother leaves Stanton and comes to live with him. She urges him to dress better; visits his office and tells him which of his co-workers are competitors to be watched or gotten rid of; and pushes him to get to know Guy Francon's daughter, who has graduated from college and writes a column on home decorating for the local Wynand paper, the Banner. Later, when Keating asks Francon about about his daughter, the old man mutters that Keating wouldn't like her and changes the subject.
Keating visits Katie Halsey and finds her sorting her uncle's fan mail. They talk, then go out for a stroll in a gentle snowfall. She confesses she loves him and he replies, "Katie, we're engaged, aren't we?" They agree to marry in a year or two, when he is better fixed at the firm.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment