Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews
"Flowers in the Attic" by V. C. Andrews is a novel that delves into the harrowing experiences of four children—Cathy, Christopher, Carrie, and Cory—who are confined to an attic by their mother due to family secrets and societal pressures. The story is narrated in the first person by Cathy Dollanganger, who recounts her family's tragic history, including the incestuous relationship between her parents and the resulting stigma from their wealthy relatives. Following the death of their father in a car accident, the children's mother, Corrine, seeks refuge with her parents, leading to their imprisonment in the attic as she attempts to hide them to secure her inheritance.
The children's struggles for survival in isolation form the crux of the narrative, highlighting themes of familial cruelty, resilience, and the complexities of love, particularly as Cathy and Chris's bond evolves into a romantic and sexual relationship. The novel explores dark subjects, including child abuse and the psychological impacts of their confinement, leading to its controversial reception and censorship in some areas.
Published in 1979, "Flowers in the Attic" became a bestseller and laid the groundwork for subsequent works by Andrews, who described her writing as adult fairy tales confronting life’s adversities. The book's raw portrayal of trauma and the quest for agency resonates with readers, establishing Andrews as a significant figure in contemporary literature, despite the moral controversies surrounding her themes.
Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews
First published: 1979
Subjects: Emotions, family, and sexual issues
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological realism and thriller
Time of work: The 1950’s
Recommended Ages: 15-18
Locale: The foothills of Virginia
Principal Characters:
Cathy Dollanganger , a twelve-year-old girl who dreams of becoming a beautiful ballerinaChristopher Dollanganger, Jr. , her fourteen-year-old, scholarly brotherCarrie Dollanganger , their four-year-old sisterCory Dollanganger , Carrie’s twin brotherCorrine Foxworth Dollanganger , the children’s beautiful but weak-willed motherThe Grandmother , the woman who keeps the children imprisoned in the attic of Foxworth HallMalcolm Neal Foxworth , the children’s grandfather, a sickly man who uses his wealth to control the people around him
Form and Content
V. C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic is a painful account of four children’s attempt to survive in a family that despises their existence. Although the author stated numerous times that the novel is fiction, the rumor persists that it is based on a true story—a comment noted in the British edition of Flowers in the Attic published by Fontana. Perhaps the rumor persists because, written in the first person, this novel presents itself as a fictionalized rewriting of journal entries kept by the protagonist and published under an assumed name, Cathy Dollanganger, in order to shame the family that humiliated and imprisoned her and her siblings Christopher, Carrie, and Cory.
Their parents, Corrine and the elder Christopher, were half uncle and half niece, and they defied their wealthy family’s wishes in order to marry and have a family. Although they were initially successful at maintaining a life distant from their past troubles, Corrine convinced her husband to live beyond their means—that having luxuries was a necessity. After the elder Christopher is killed in a car accident, Corrine is left with many debts and no means to pay. She turns to her parents for help, assuming that she will be able to win them over in spite of her earlier defiance. Unfortunately, accepting her parents’ help means that she must deny the children she had during her marriage. Her father, a highly hypocritical man, will cut Corrine off from a considerable inheritance if he ever learns that she had children—to him, they are “devil’s spawn” and inherently evil. Corrine’s mother, who knows of the children’s existence, is no different and decides to torture them as punishment for their mother’s sins.
Unaware of what is to happen to them, Cathy and her siblings are told that they will only have to live in the attic of Foxworth Hall for a short time while their mother uses her persuasive wiles on their sickly grandfather. Weeks stretch into months, however, and they end up spending nearly four years of their childhood trapped in a dusty attic. They struggle to make their lives as happy as possible, cleaning the attic and decorating it with paper cut-outs to mimic the passing seasons in the outside world. They learn to lean on one another; Cathy and Chris become like parents to their younger siblings, and their devotion to each other develops into a romantic, sexual relationship.
After much time has passed, Cathy realizes that her pessimistic feelings concerning her mother are true. Corrine does not acknowledge her children even after their hateful grandfather has died, since to do so would cause her to lose her inheritance. She remarries, convinced that she can keep her children as hidden as her secret past. Only after the tragic death of Cory from poisoning—all the children have been fed small doses of arsenic over a period of time—do Cathy and Chris decide that they cannot rely on their mother. Using their ingenuity, they devise their own means of escape and leave Foxworth Hall.
Critical Context
When V. C. Andrews’ book appeared in 1979, it proved to be a remarkable success, although a hard-to-categorize one. Flowers in the Attic was only released for two weeks before it made the best-seller lists and remained there for fourteen weeks. The first three Dollanganger novels were recordbreakers for Pocket Books, the first two alone selling more than seven million copies within two years. Other books by Andrews, drawing on the same themes, would follow: My Sweet Audrina (1982) and the Casteel series, including Heaven (1985) and Dark Angel (1986), among others. The popularity of her themes has continued beyond their creator’s death. After Andrews’ death in 1986, her family selected a ghost writer not only to finish Andrews’ Casteel series for publication but also to continue writing novels in her name, such as Dawn (1990).
Although she is frequently depicted as a writer of mainstream horror and a contemporary of Steven King and Richard Matheson, Andrews saw herself as a writer of adult fairy tales, situations where individuals face enormous odds in life and are strengthened by their trials. Flowers in the Attic does what no previous book had done—present a terrifying but believable account of family cruelty and incest to young adults. Because of its strong content, the book was called pornographic and banned from library bookshelves in some places. Andrews’ own secrecy about her birth year and her general reclusiveness did little to dispel the rumors that swirled around her. Instead, before her death from cancer in December, 1986, Andrews chose to write in spite of the moral qualms of those who would be offended by what she had to say. Her stubbornness, like that of her character Cathy, allowed her to write memorably about developing strength of character.