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| 1979 novels | |
| gothic novels | |
| incest in fiction | |
| novels by v. c. andrews | |
| young adult novels | |
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PLOT Cathy Dollanganger narrates the story as a 12-year-old girl. The Dollangangers live a picturesque suburban life in Gladstone, Pennsylvania, in the 1950 s. Christopher and Corrine Dollanganger have four children: Chris, aged 14 years; Cathy, 12; and twins Cory and Carrie, 5. The latter two are called the “Dresden Dolls” because of their outstanding beauty. Their lives are thrown into turmoil when Christopher is killed on his 36th birthday in a car accident while returning from a business trip. Corrine falls into a depression and soon the family is penniless. Corrine tells the children they will go and live with their wealthy grandparents the Foxworths in Charlottesville VA. Her father Malcolm is on his death bed and she hopes to be written back into his will and inherit his estate. She was disowned by her family for something she did when she was 18. On their journey Corrine fills the children’s minds with fantasies of how rich they are going to become. However their arrival at Foxworth Hall is frightening in that they take a train to the remote countryside at 3:00am and walk miles in the dark to Foxworth Hall, a gargantuan mansion. They are let in by their cold hearted grandmother Olivia and locked in a bedroom in the North Wing. Corrine says goodnight to her children as if this is the last time she will ever see them. The children remain locked in the one bedroom with a bath. When Corrine returns she has been savagely whipped by Olivia whom explains to the children that their parents were half-uncle and niece. (It is later revealed in the series that Christopher and Corrine were actually brother and sister.) As a result of incest, Olivia accuses the children of being “Devil’s spawn.” She will never love them and their mere existence must be kept secret forever, especially from their grandfather Malcolm. The children are to be locked in the North Wing and will be brought food once a day. Olivia also has a list of 22 rules they must follow, many of which involve not “sinning” by “touching or thinking” about their “private parts,” and Olivia enforces that God will always be watching them and the sins they commit. Being young and innocent the children do not understand what sins they could possibly commit. Their single bedroom is connected to an enormous attic filled with antiques, and an adjoining room styled as a school classroom with children’s carvings dating back to the American Civil War , suggesting the Dollangangers are not the first children held prisoner at Foxworth Hall. Over the next 3 ½ years the children find ways of entertaining themselves by reading the large number of books in the attic and elaborately decorating their dreary prison as a garden in bloom with paper flowers. They use the old Civil War clothing as costumes to perform plays such as '' Gone With The Wind ''. At first Corrine comforts the frightened children in their imprisonment, assuring them they will only be locked away a short time until she wins back Malcolm’s love enough to tell him of his grandchildren. Until then she is enrolled at a secretarial school so she can work and provide for them. But all of this is a lie. Corrine has no intention of ever freeing them, as she must keep their mere existence a secret if she is to inherit a fortune. The children remain imprisoned for 3 ½ years. Corrine visits her children less and less and enthusiastically tells them of her fabulous vacations and socialite parties while they are suffering. She showers them with expensive gifts from Europe when they need food and sunlight. She remarries to a rich lawyer Bart Winslow. Over the 3 ½ years the children’s treatment becomes worse and worse. They wither emaciated from malnutrition and lack of sunlight, fresh air, and medical treatment. Olivia’s physical tortures also increase on the children from violent rages to beatings, whipping, burnings, and worse. She deprives the children of food for so long they resort to drinking each others blood and eating raw the rodents they are able to capture. In the hellish misery of their existence the children attempt to survive and better themselves as much as possible and a new family unit is formed with Cory and Carrie as the children and Cathy and Chris as parents. They study by reading books in the attic. Chris plans to become a doctor and Cathy practices dancing, hoping to one day become a ballerina. They also educate Cory and Carrie teaching them to read. As Cathy and Chris grow into young adults they fall madly in love. The sexual tension steadily increases as they often see each other naked. Though there is little sexual activity, they are openly affectionate like young lovers. Their infatuation is no doubt due to the mental trauma of their isolation and they worry they are a repeating their parents’ mistake of an incestuous romance. The children are later able to find ways to leave the attic and explore the further reaches of Foxworth Hall, stealing money for their escape and marveling the opulent treasures the Foxworths own. They also discover that their grandfather Malcolm is long dead and what little food they have been given was poisoned with arsenic. Because of their inhumane treatment Cory dies and is buried heartlessly by Olivia inside the house. Suffering from extremely poor health the three surviving children steal money and jewelry before finally escaping Foxworth Hall. Chris says they will travel to Sarasota FL where the flowers blossom every day of the year. Novel Ending Finally the elder children plan an escape, only to discover that their mother has remarried and moved away from the house where her children have been imprisoned. Movie Ending When the childern escape for the last time, they find out that their mother is remarrying. The children confront the mother and she falls over the balcony and is hung by her wedding dress. The most oft-remembered element of the novel is the Sexual Relationship that develops between an adolescent brother and sister, which has led to the novel's being Banned in certain areas at different times. FitA is the first book in the Dollanganger Series, and was followed by '''Petals in the Wind''', '''If There Be Thorns''', '''Seeds of Yesterday''', '''Web of Shadows''', and '''Garden of Shadows''', which is actually a prequel to FitA and is told from the point of view of Olivia Foxworth, the grandmother of Cathy. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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