44 pages • 1 hour read
Graeme SimsionThe Rosie Project
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 17–20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary
On the night of the ball, Don dresses up in his formal tuxedo with tails and a top hat. He arrives by taxi, just as Bianca arrives. She is dressed in a spectacular, brightly-colored formal gown with a split up the side. The crowd laughs at Don’s costume, because no one else is dressed in tails with a hat. Don is a little annoyed that he got this wrong, but he plays up his entrance to cover his embarrassment.
Rosie shows up in a simple green gown. Don thinks she is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. Rosie has a date, Stefan, from her psychology program. Don instantly dislikes Stefan. Don doesn’t understand why he’s not attracted to Bianca. The Dean arrives and her date turns out to be another woman. Bianca is a former national dancing championship finalist, so they are asked out onto the floor to demonstrate their dancing in front of everyone.
Don blows it, and Bianca immediately leaves in an angry huff. Many people are laughing at Don, and he scans the audience to see who his real friends are: Rosie, Gene, the Dean, and her date are not laughing. Rosie talks to the bandmaster. She asks Don out onto the dance floor. This time, the dancing is magic. Don feels joy dancing with Rosie, and they are a big hit. Everyone compliments them on their performance; many people take pictures of their dancing.
After the ball, Don and Rosie share a taxi ride home. They laugh about Bianca; Don faked not being able to dance rather than tell her he didn’t like her. Don confides in Rosie about his grief after his sister’s death. He tells Rosie that her name was Michelle, speaking her name for the first time since her death. Michelle died as a result of an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. Rosie confides her problems with her father; primarily that he has disappointed her. Rosie invites Don up to her place. Overwhelmed by everything that has happened, Don refuses. He needs to be alone to recharge and process all that has happened. When Rosie asks him if he finds her attractive, he lies and says no, though really he thinks that she is the “most beautiful woman in the world” (150).
Chapter 18 Summary
Gene tells Don that he made a mistake by not telling Rosie he thinks she is beautiful. Don still thinks he made the right call. Don realizes that Rosie indicated that she wanted to have sex the night before. Because both of them have agreed that they are not romantically interested in each other, he seems to be in a position to have “no-strings-attached” sex. Don has never had sex, because he’s never had a second date.
Gene, as usual, coaches him. He tells Don to get a book.
After consulting a book to prepare, Don seeks out Rosie in the Psychology Department. He asks to speak with her privately, but she insists that he can say whatever he wants right there. He tells her that he has reconsidered her offer of sex. After a long silence, Rosie tells Don that it was a joke. When he asks her about when they can resume work on the other project, she says that there is no other project.
Chapter 19 Summary
Don resumes his regular schedule for a week. He attempts to contact Rosie and leaves a message for her. She does not respond. Claudia advises him to move on.
Unable to let the Father Project go, Don constructs a fake research project on the genetic markers of autism in high-achieving people. He sends off the fake research questionnaires and cheek scrapers to the remaining father prospects. Seven of the remaining 11 respond. None of them is Rosie’s father.
One of the possible fathers, Simon Lefebvre, insists upon receiving all the paperwork before he will give a sample. Two doctors in New York fail to return samples. Don decides to write a full proposal, spending hundreds of hours working on it, in order to get Simon’s sample.
Daphne dies and Don is contacted by her lawyer. Daphne left him a small legacy, with the instruction to use the money for something irrational. Don decides to use the money to go to New York to get the two remaining samples.
He gets a DNA sample from Simon, when he delivers the proposal and Simon laughs until he cries, wiping his eyes with a tissue.
Chapter 20 Summary
Don lurks for several days in the cafeteria where Rosie usually eats her lunch, waiting for his opportunity to tell her about his continuing work on the Father Project and to ask her to go to New York with him. At first she says no, but Don renews her interest in the project when he explains who the remaining three candidates are.
Chapter 17-20 Analysis
Don finds that his “perfect” date, as selected by his questionnaire, is not so perfect after all. Instead, he finds that he gets along much better with the supposedly incompatible Rosie. She cares enough about him to help him smooth over his initial dancing gaffe and they have a wonderful time at the ball. When Rosie invites Don up to her place afterwards, she has no idea that Don is too overwhelmed and inexperienced to accept her offer. By the time he has processed what happened and decided to accept, it’s too late. Embarrassed by his assertion that he’s not attracted to her, Rosie withdraws from him and ends their friendship.
Don tries everything he can think of to rekindle his friendship with Rosie. Daphne’s legacy gives him the freedom to pay for their trip to New York to pursue Rosie’s project.
