Flowers in the Attic
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| Flowers in the Attic | |
| Author | 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 | |
| Pages | 400 |
| ISBN | 0671825313 |
| Followed by | Petals on the Wind (1980) |
Flowers in the Attic is a 1979 novel by V. C. 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.
Contents |
[edit] Plot Summary
Narrator Catherine Leigh Dollanganger (12) is the second of four children, following older brother Chris (14) and preceding twins Cory and Carrie (5). Cathy and her siblings live lovely blissful lives in Gladstone, Pennsylvania. Their father, Christopher Sr., works in public relations for a computer company. Their mother, Corinne Dollanganger, is a housewife and cares for Cathy, Chris Jr. and the twins. Each member of the family is beautiful and sports flaxen blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin. They are nicknamed "The Dresden Dolls" because of their resemblance to porcelain dolls. Their idyllic life in Gladstone ends when Christopher Sr. dies in a highway accident on his 36th birthday.
Facing financial destitution, Corinne decides to move herself and her children back to Foxworth Hall, her family home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Corinne begins to write letters to her mother, Olivia, persuading her to let her and the children stay in the giant mansion. Corinne tells the children that her parents are very rich, but were upset with Corinne for an unexplained reason and so she had not seen them in years. She also relates that their grandfather is dying and if Corrine can earn back her father's love then the children can live a life of riches. Olivia agrees to Corinne's wishes as long as the children are hidden; she does not want their grandfather, Malcolm, to know about them. Corrine and her children move out of Gladstone without a goodbye to any friends and take a train to her parents' mansion. They are dropped off by the train in the middle of nowhere and end up walking to Foxworth Hall.
When the children are settled into a small room below the attic, Corinne leaves with her mother and promises to return the next day after she has spoken with her father. She believes seeing him in person will win him over. When she returns to her children, she has been savagely horse whipped by Olivia, who explains to the children that their parents were half-uncle and niece; their father had been Malcolm's half-brother. If Corinne has any hope of gaining her father's approval, the existence of the children must be kept secret. The children are told that they must remain in seclusion in the end bedroom and the attic of their grandparents' vast mansion until Malcolm’s death.
At first, Corinne lavishes the children with expensive gifts and promises of a bright future. However, as time goes by, she slowly loses interest in her children, particularly Cory and Carrie, who have almost stopped growing due to the stress of being locked inside and not getting any sunlight. Corinne continues to favor Chris, though this love for her eldest does not motivate her to free her children. After months of inprisonment Corinne stops visiting her children, leaving Cathy and Chris to believe that something has happened to her while they have been trapped in the attic. The children are both physically and emotionally abused by their evil grandmother and are constantly told that they are the devil's spawn and an abomination in the eyes of the Lord due to their parents' incestuous relationship. The grandmother warns them to abide by her list of strict rules and reminds them that God will punish any evil she does not witness.
The children initially spend most of their time decorating the attic to make it less scary for the twins. They turn it into their own paper-made garden with flowers and animals. Chris fashions a swing for them, to make the flowers move as if there is really a breeze flowing through the attic. As years pass, Cathy practices ballet, she and Chris become voracious readers, and Chris works toward his dreams of becoming a doctor, yet the two elder siblings, largely due to their confinement, begin to share sexual feelings about each other. Cathy reminds Chris that the two must not repeat their parents' incestuous mistake.
Corinne's abandonment forces the children to rely on one another for comfort and friendship. This leads to the formation of a new family unit, with Chris and Cathy assuming the roles of mother and father for their beloved twins. Chris and Cathy resolve to teach the twins in a school room in the huge attic.
Corrine soon tells the children that she has remarried. While Corrine is away on her honeymoon, the Grandmother catches Chris watching Cathy as she admires her naked body before the mirror. She gives Christopher and Cathy an ultimatum: Either Chris must cut off all of Cathy's hair or all four children will be starved of food for two weeks. Cathy tries to trick her Grandmother into believing that Christopher has cut off her hair but the Grandmother is not fooled and after drugging Cathy in her sleep, pours burning tar onto Cathy's hair. As a consequence of their betrayal the children are starved. After several weeks, food, along with a new addition of powdered doughnuts, is finally brought to the children. Corrine also returns, which triggers Cathy's fury, sending the mother scurrying from the room, threatening to return only when the children convey their regret for their accusing actions.
The abandoned children begin to rebel against their grandmother who whips both Cathy and Christopher for defying her orders. Cathy vows revenge on her grandmother.
As time passes the children start to form a plan to escape thier prison. Christopher fashions a rope that the children can climb down, however they soon discover the small twins are too frightened to climb from such a tremendous height and so the two elder siblings decide to use the rope to visit the family lake, where the two go skinny dipping and continue their incestuous desires. They make an impression of the key that is used to lock them in their room and are able to get out. They began to steal small amounts of money to finance their escape from their Mother and new stepfather's lavish suite. One night, Christopher is too ill to steal so Cathy goes to the room alone, only to find her stepfather asleep on a chair. Confused and curious, she kisses him before she can stop herself. Days later, Christopher finds out about the kiss and, in a jealous rage, rapes Cathy. Afterward, Christopher is ashamed and apologetic to Cathy who forgives him admitting she could have stopped him, had she truly wanted to.
Soon after, Cory becomes very sick with pneumonia. After Cathy yells and berates her mother, Corrine promises to take Cory to the hospital. Corrine returns and tells the children that Cory has died, leaving Cathy to feel that God has punished them, just as the Grandmother had them believe. Now desperate to escape, Christopher plans to take whatever money and jewelry he can find in his mother's suite, only to find that Corrine has once again left them, and it appears this time, for good. He also discovers that the Grandfather had died nine months before leaving all his money to Corrine on the condition that if it is proven she bore any children from her first marriage to Christopher Sr. or has a child in her second marriage, she shall be disinherited. In this shocking revelation the children realize that their mother brought them to Foxworth Hall, knowing that they would never leave the attic. Chris begins to suspect that they were poisoned when he overhears the butler, John Amos, talking about how the Grandmother has been leaving arsenic-covered doughnuts upstairs to kill the mice in the attic. After testing one of the doughnuts on their pet mouse Mickey, who dies from the poisoning, Christopher, Cathy and Carrie escape from their imprisonment after three-and-a-half years of captivity and plan to head to Sarasota, Florida where the flowers blossom every day of the year. Christopher is nearly eighteen, Cathy is fifteen and Carrie is seven.
[edit] Controversy
The book's success was not without controversy. The discussion of incest between an adolescent brother and sister in the novel has led to its being banned in certain areas at different times. The Richmond 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 school libraries due to "the filthiness of the material".[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Doyle, Robert (1998). Banned Books Resource Guide. The American Library Association.
