Ruby (novel)
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (February 2008) |
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| Author | V. C. Andrews |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Landry series |
| Genre | Family saga, Horror |
| Publisher | Pocket Books |
Publication date | February 1, 1994 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) & Paperback |
| Pages | 442 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0671759345 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
Ruby is the first novel in the Landry series, written in 1994 by V. C. Andrews. In an interview with Andrew Neiderman recently, he says that he and the publisher are in talks with the Lifetime network to do a TV series on one of the book series, possibly the Landry series.
Plot summary
Ruby is a young teenager who has lived her entire life with her grandmother Catherine, a traiteur (a Cajun folk healer). They live in Houma, a small swamp village in Louisiana. Ruby has a wonderful artistic talent and has sold some of her paintings to a gallery in New Orleans at their roadside stand for tourists. She also has a grandfather, Jack, who lives in a shack in the bayou. Ruby's mother died giving birth to her and Ruby has never met her father.
Ruby begins a relationship with a boy named Paul. Paul's parents hate their relationship and Ruby thinks that it is because Paul is dating a poor girl. But after Grandmere Catherine sees that the relationship is getting serious she tells Ruby the truth - that Paul is her half brother. Sad and angry, she has to do the only thing that is right and break up with Paul, with whom she was falling in love. Paul is also angry and thinks that Ruby has broken up with him for another boy. Eventually, Ruby's grandmother gets much sicker and she passes away. After her death, Ruby, who has begun to see Paul once in a while, admits the truth of their shared maternal parentage, explaining that to be the reason that she ended their burgeoning romantic relationship.
Shortly before Grandmere Catherine's death, though, she had told Ruby the remaining remnants of her familial past, including the details of her father: Ruby's mother Gabrielle had become pregnant as a result of an affair with a rich Creole man named Pierre Dumas. Pierre was already married, so Pierre and Gabrielle agreed that the child would stay and live with Gabrielle in the bayou. But Jack made a deal with Ruby's Dumas grandfather to sell the child to them for a large amount of money and Pierre's barren wife would pretend to be pregnant.
Grandmere Catherine knew that it was going to be twins, but she never let on to Jack or Gabrielle. When the time came, she gave the first baby to Grandpere Jack and kept the second baby, Ruby. She did not tell Jack but when he came back and wanted to sell the other baby, too, she sent him to live out in the swamps and told him to never return to the house. Her Grandmere Catherine's only wish was for Ruby to find her real father. With no one left now except Jack, Ruby flees to New Orleans to find her father after Jack tries to sell her to a man for sex. With the help of a woman on the bus to New Orleans, Ruby finds her father's address and goes to his house. Standing at the door she meets Beau Andreas. He takes her into the house because he had mistaken her for her twin sister Gisselle, the bought-and-sold first baby.
Ruby is accepted immediately by her father but not by her twin sister and her stepmother, Daphne. The Dumases concoct a story saying that Ruby was kidnapped as a baby from the hospital by some Cajuns. Ruby is thus brought into Creole society. But her twin sister, Gisselle, is extremely cruel to her and gets her in trouble. Beau Andreas is Gisselle's boyfriend, but Ruby and Beau become romantically close. This drives a further wedge between Ruby and her sister. Gisselle gets a new boyfriend, Martin Fowler, and they get into a car accident, which cripples Giselle and kills Martin. Ruby has to wait on Gisselle hand and foot. Daphne is doing anything she can to get rid of Ruby because Ruby is a constant reminder to her of Pierre's affair. She even has Ruby imprisoned in a mental hospital, but Ruby escapes with the help of an inmate. After this, Ruby's father decides that it may be best for the twins to go away to school in Baton Rouge.