Flowers in the Attic

For the film of the same name, see Flowers in the Attic (film).

Flowers in the Attic
First edition cover of Flowers in the Attic
Author(s)	V. C. Andrews
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Dollanganger series
Genre(s)	Gothic horror Family saga
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	November 1979
Media type	Print
Pages	400
ISBN	0671825313
OCLC Number	21616361
Followed by	Petals on the Wind (1980)

Flowers in the Attic is a 1979 novel by Virginia Andrews. It is the first book in the Dollanganger Series, and was followed by Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. The novel is written in the first person from the point of view of Cathy Dollanganger. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1987.

Plot summary

Cathy Dollanganger is twelve years old and the second of four children (following older brother Chris, who is fourteen years old, and preceding twins Cory and Carrie, who are both five years old). Cathy and her siblings live in Gladstone, Pennsylvania, with their father, Christopher and mother, Corrine. Their idyllic life ends when their father dies in a highway accident.

Facing financial destitution, Corrine decides to take her children to Foxworth Hall, her family home. Her mother, Olivia, agrees as long as the children are hidden; she does not want their grandfather, Malcolm, to know about them. Corrine tells the children their grandfather is dying and if she can earn back his love before his death, she will be the sole heir to a vast fortune. When the children are settled into a small room below the attic, Corrine leaves and promises to return the next day. Olivia explains to the children that their parents were half-uncle and niece; their father had been Malcolm's half-brother. If Corrine has any hope of gaining her father's approval, the existence of the children must be kept secret. They are told that they must remain in seclusion until Malcolm’s death.

At first, Corrine visits them every day and lavishes the children with expensive gifts and promises of a bright future. However, as time goes by, she slowly loses interest, coming less and less often. They are physically and emotionally abused by their grandmother, who tells them that they are "the devil's spawn." She often threatens them with horrible physical punishment if they disobey her rules. After months of imprisonment, Corrine abruptly stops visiting her children. During Corrine's absence, the children do what they can to pass the time. Cathy practices ballet, and Chris works toward his dreams of becoming a doctor by studying numerous textbooks in the attic. They also try to teach the twins appropriate school lessons. As the months turn into a year, Corrine’s abandonment forces the children to rely on one another for comfort and friendship. This leads to the formation of a new family, with Chris and Cathy assuming the roles of mother and father to the twins.

Cathy and Chris begin to mature and enter puberty. Cathy becomes curious about the changes in her body, leading to an incident where she admires her naked body before a mirror. Chris accidentally walks in on her; after getting over the initial shock, he proceeds to stare at her and tell her how beautiful she is becoming. Olivia catches Chris watching Cathy, and is confirmed they are sinners; she gives them an ultimatum: either Chris must cut off all of Cathy's hair or all four children will be starved for two weeks. When they refuse to comply, Olivia drugs Cathy in her sleep and pours hot tar onto her hair. The resulting starvation leads the older children to acts of desperation: Chris slashes his wrist so the twins can drink his blood, and skins and guts mice caught in traps for him and Cathy to eat. However, their grandmother leaves them a basket of food.

As Olivia continues to abuse the children, Corrine returns, revealing that she has remarried to her father's attorney, Bart Winslow. As time passes, Chris and Cathy become sexually attracted to each other and start to form a plan to escape their prison. They make an impression of their mother's key to their room in soap and carve a wooden copy. To finance their escape, they begin to steal small amounts of money from their mother and stepfather. One night, Chris is ill so Cathy goes alone, only to find her stepfather asleep. Confused and curious, she kisses him while he sleeps. Days later, Chris finds out about the kiss when he overhears his stepfather describing the incident in what he thought was a dream. Chris rapes Cathy in a jealous rage. Both feel tremendous guilt afterward and Chris professes his love to Cathy. Although Cathy reciprocates his feelings, she is unsure of how to respond.

Soon after, Cory becomes mysteriously sick and dies. Now desperate to escape, Chris plans to take whatever money and jewelry he can find in his mother's suite, only to discover that Corrine and Bart have left. In addition, he discovers that their grandfather has been dead for nine months. He overhears the butler, John Amos, saying that Olivia has been leaving arsenic-covered food upstairs to kill the mice in the attic. Chris, Cathy and Carrie escape from their imprisonment after three-and-a-half years of captivity. Once they are at the train station, Chris reveals to Cathy the final horror; he had also overhead John talking of the grandfather's will, learning that he was leaving all his money to Corrine on the condition that if it is proven she bore any children from her first marriage or has any in the future, she will be disinherited. He points out that the poisoned doughnuts started coming with their food right after the grandfather died and the will was read, therefore it was their mother who made the decision to poison them.

They decide against going to the police as they do not want to risk being separated from each other and placed into foster homes—their priority is to get away and make it on their own, always staying together and being there for Carrie. At the time of their escape in November 1960, Christopher is nearly eighteen years old, Cathy is fifteen years old, and Carrie is eight years old. Cathy vows to herself that she will get revenge against her mother and grandmother one day.

Characters

• Catherine Leigh "Cathy" Dollanganger: The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Cathy is the second child and oldest daughter of Christopher and Corrine. She becomes an accomplished ballerina and later a novelist. During their time in the attic, she falls in love with Chris. She is a mother figure to Carrie and Cory.
• Christopher "Chris" Dollanganger, Jr.: Eldest offspring of Christopher and Corrine, Chris is the older brother of Cathy, Cory, and Carrie. During their time in the attic, he falls in love with Cathy. He is described as being very intelligent and becomes a successful doctor.
• Cory Dollanganger: Twin brother of Carrie and younger brother of Cathy and Chris. He is described as introverted and musically talented. He becomes ill during their time in the attic and dies from arsenic poisoning by Corrine.
• Carrie Dollanganger: Twin sister to Cory and the younger sister of Cathy and Chris. She is described as an extraverted girly girl, but her twin's death changes her.
• Corrine Dollanganger (née Foxworth): Mother of Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie and widowed wife of Christopher Dollanganger. Eventually becomes an antagonist in the story when she tries to kill her children for her father's inheritance. She marries her father's attorney Bart Winslow later on and loses interest in her children and late husband.
• Bartholomew Winslow, Sr.: Second husband of Corrine Foxworth Dollanganger. He marries Corrine believing that she has never had any children. He is a "trophy husband" and Cathy is shocked to discover that he is eight years younger than Corrine.
• Olivia Foxworth (nee Winfield): Wife of Malcolm Foxworth. Grandmother of the Dollanganger children. Cousin of John Amos. Olivia and Malcolm are co-antagonists in this book but a different side of Olivia is revealed in Garden of Shadows.
• Malcolm Foxworth: Father of Corrine and grandfather of the Dollanganger children. Husband of Olivia. He is described as having a heart condition, which may be a paradox, because he is also described as heartless. He dies during the book, though Chris and Cathy don't find out until somewhere near the end. He was also the older half-brother of the children's father.
• Christopher Dollanganger, Sr.: Corrine's first husband; father of the children. He was Malcolm's younger half-brother. He is Corrine's half-uncle but never knew that he was also her half-brother. He is described as a wonderful father who couldn't bear to be separated from his children for longer than five days. He is killed in a car accident on his birthday at the beginning of the book.
• John Amos: A butler to the Foxworth family and Olivia's cousin.

Controversy

The book's success was not without controversy. The commission of incest between an adolescent brother and sister in the novel has led to its being banned in certain areas at different times. Chariho High School in Rhode Island removed it because it contained "offensive passages concerning incest and sexual intercourse." In 1994, it was removed from the Oconee County and state school libraries due to "the filthiness of the material."

The book was much disputed when the novel was said to be based on a true story. For many years there was no evidence to support this claim and the book was passed off as fiction. Nonetheless, the official V.C. Andrews website claims to have contacted one of Virginia's relatives. This unidentified relative claimed Flowers in the Attic was based on a true story. "Virginia was a young lady when my dad made arrangements to take Virginia to the University of Virginia hospital for treatment. While she was there, she developed a crush on her young doctor. He and his siblings had been locked away in the attic for over 6 years to preserve the family wealth. Obviously she cut the time back [in her novel] to be more believable. That area of the country has a lot of very wealthy people. I do not know who they were."