Ruby (novel)
| 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 |
| Followed by | Pearl in the Mist |
Ruby is the first novel in the Landry series, written in 1994 by V. C. Andrews. In an interview with V. C. Andrews ghost writer, Andrew Neiderman, he says that he and the publisher are in talks with the Lifetime network to do a TV series on this series that is tentatively called The Landry [1]
Plot summary
Ruby is a young teenager who has lived her entire life with her grandmother Catherine, a traiteur (a Cajun folk healer) because her mother had died giving birth to her. 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. Also living at a shack in the bayou is her grandfather Jack.
Ruby begins a relationship with a boy named Paul. Paul's parents don’t approve of the relationship and Ruby thinks that it is because she is poor. Only after Grandmere Catherine sees that the relationship is getting serious does she tell Ruby the truth - that Paul is her half brother. Sad and angry, she does what is right and breaks up with Paul, with whom she was falling in love. Soon afterwards, Ruby's grandmother gets sick and passes away. After her death Ruby admits the truth of their shared maternal parentage, explaining that to be the reason that she ended their budding romantic relationship.
Shortly before Grandmere Catherine's death, she had told Ruby the remaining pieces 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 married, so he 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 told Jack or Gabrielle. When the time came, she gave the first baby to Grandpere Jack and kept the second baby, Ruby. When Jack saw Ruby he wanted to sell her too. At this she sent him to live out in the swamps and told him to never return to the house. Grandmere Catherine's only wish was for Ruby to find her real father. With no one left now except Jack, who had tried to sell her for sex, Ruby runs to New Orleans to find her father. 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 mistaking 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 or stepmother, Daphne. The Dumases concoct a story that Ruby was kidnapped as a baby from the hospital. Ruby is thus brought into Creole society. 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. They get into a car accident, which cripples Giselle and kills Martin. All the while Daphne is doing anything she can to get rid of Ruby because she is a constant reminder to her of Pierre's affair. She has Ruby imprisoned in a mental hospital, but Ruby escapes with the help of an inmate. After this, Ruby's father decides that it is best for the twins to go away for school in Baton Rouge.