FLOWERS IN THE ATTICS
Narrator Catherine 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 as a P.R. man 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 gorgeous and sports flaxen blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin. Chris Sr.’s best friend nicknamed them ‘The Dresden Dolls’ because of their resemblance to porcelain dolls.
Sadly, Cathy’s life in Gladstone ends upon her father’s tragic death in a highway accident on his birthday. Facing financial destitution, Corinne decides to move herself and her children back to Foxworth Hall, her family home in Charlottesville, Virginia. So Corinne begins to write letters to her mother, persuading her to let her and her children stay in the giant mansion. Her mother Olivia agrees as long as the children are hidden.
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 of by the train in the middle of nowhere and they end up walking to Foxworth Hall. When the children get settled into their room Corinne is taken to speak to her mother in private. 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, the son of Garland Foxworth and his second wife Alicia. If Corinne has any hope of gaining her father’s approval, the existence of the children must be kept secret. So 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. Corinne continues to favor Chris, though this love for her eldest does not motivate her to free her children.
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; flowers and animals. Chris makes a swing for them to make the flowers move like there’s really a breeze flowing through the attic. As time progresses, Cathy practices ballet in the attic, Chris and Cathy become voracious readers, and the twins are taught to read and write.
Corinne’s abandonment forces the ‘Dresden Dolls’ 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 schoolwork in a makeshift school room in the attic. And to keep themselves occupied, Chris and Cathy pursue their own dreams of becoming a doctor and the world’s best Prima Ballerina respectively.
The children are gradually fed and looked after less well, culminating in the grandmother pouring hot tar on Cathy’s hair and starving the children for a period of time, and Corinne visits less and less often, eventually getting married to Bart Winslow, a local lawyer. Her eventual abandonment leaves them in the cruel care of Olivia, who regards the children as “Devil’s Spawn".
As Cathy and Chris grow into even more beautiful young adults, they begin to develop sexual feelings towards one another, largely due to their confinement. This confuses and terrifies them, leading them to wonder if their grandmother is right about them.
Meanwhile, Olivia continues to abuse the children mentally and physically. They wither away from malnutrition as well as lack of sunlight, fresh air, physical activity and medical treatment. Eventually health problems force Chris and Cathy to start making plans for an escape, with Chris leaving their attic prison to explore the further reaches of Foxworth Hall with a wooden key that he had molded from the last time his mother visited. He steals small amounts of cash for their eventual escape and marvels at the opulent treasures the Foxworths own.
Later on, Chris has become ill, leaving Cathy to go and loot the Foxworth Mansion instead. Upon entering her mother’s room, Cathy spots Bart Winslow, her new stepfather. Bart is sleeping in a chair and does not notice Cathy; Cathy is dazzled by how handsome he is and before she can stop herself, kisses him while he slumbers. Chris finds out about this kiss sometime later by eavesdropping on his mother and stepfather. An enraged Chris returns to the attic, confronts Cathy about the incident , then pleads for forgiveness, stating that he did not mean to take advantage of her. Cathy forgives him, believing that she could have stopped him if she had really wanted to.
Cory becomes increasingly ill as they plan their escape, which leads both Cathy and Chris to plead with the grandmother and Corrine to take Cory to the hospital. Corinne balks, going so far as to slap Cathy for her insistence, but Olivia surprisingly intervenes on Cathy’s behalf and agrees that Cory must go to a hospital. Corinne and Olivia take Cory away that very evening, ostensibly to a hospital, and it is the last time his brother and sisters ever see Cory alive. Corinne visits her children the next day and informs them that Cory had been stricken with pneumonia and had died while in the hospital. Corinne adds stoically that there will be no funeral, as Cory’s body had already been buried under an assumed name.
Cathy and Chris mourn the loss of their brother, whom they had thought of as a son. They fear for Carrie’s health, as she has become distant from Cathy and Chris because of her twin brother’s untimely death. It is because of Cory’s death that Chris finally decides to take every dime, every diamond, anything of value in Corinne’s room and flee Foxworth Hall.
This declaration comes too late, for Corinne and Bart have left Foxworth Hall once more and, it appears, for good. This leads Chris to wander the mansion in search of items worth pawning. While scavenging the mansion, Chris finds Olivia’s room, where he discovers that his grandmother wears a wig because she is actually bald, with a few strands of gray hair on her head. Chris then finds his way to his grandfather’s room, where he is forced to hide behind a sofa to avoid being spotted by butler John Amos Jackson (Olivia’s distant cousin) and a maid.
It is through them that Chris discovers the horrible truth: Malcolm Foxworth died months ago. Corinne, as stated in her father’s will, would not be allowed to bear children in her future marriages, and if it were ever discovered that she had borne children in her first marriage to Chris Sr., she would be stripped of her inheritance and would be left penniless.
Chris also overhears that the servants were given the impression that mice lurked in the attic, in an effort to explain the noise the children made. The grandmother had also told the servants to never enter a particular room in the north wing because Corinne left food covered with arsenic in the room in order to kill the mice who stole down the adjoining attic stairs.
Finally, the three remaining children are able to escape after over three years of confinement. Chris is almost 18 years old, Cathy is 15, and Carrie is 8 years old. Chris says they will travel to Sarasota, Florida, where the flowers blossom every day of the year.
PETALS ON THE WIND
The story starts off with Cathy, Chris, and Carrie using their stolen funds to escape by bus their prison in Foxworth Hall. Carrie, still weak from the effects of the poison that killed her twin, is taken ill on the journey. While her elder siblings panic over how to get her the medical attention she so desperately needs without revealing their identities or exhausting their limited funds, the children are discovered by Henrietta "Henny" Beech, the deaf/ mute housekeeper of a local doctor, Paul Sheffield. Cathy tells Dr. Paul their story and he convinces them to stay with him.
Carrie, though physically stunted through malnutrition and lack of sunlight during her formative years, thrives under Dr. Paul’s care. The doctor also sees Chris’s potential and enrolls the boy into a medical school, where he soon readjusts to life outside Foxworth Hall. Cathy becomes just as stunning as her mother but is still bitter and bent on revenge against her mother, seeing her as the root of every problem in their lives from Carrie’s deformities to Chris’s incestuous obsession with Cathy. She is determined to become a world famous ballerina, just as she planned as a child, so that her mother cannot deny her existence.
Though Cathy soon falls in love with Paul, she marries a man in her dance troupe, a fiery dancer names Julian Marquet who has been pursuing her from the moment he saw her. Julian is possessive of Cathy and jealous of her relationship with both Paul and Chris. He abuses her, breaking her toes so that she cannot perform and destroying all her possessions. However, Cathy is pregnant with his child and feels she cannot leave her husband, even though both Paul and Chris insist that she must for her own safety. In the midst of this conflict, Julian is rendered paralyzed in a car accident. He commits suicide in his hospital bed when he learns he will never dance again. Cathy, though guilt-ridden, is free.
After the birth of her son named Jory, Cathy once more becomes determined to destroy her mother’s life. Under the guise of collecting Julian’s insurance, she hires her mother’s husband, Bart Winslow, as her lawyer, with the intention of seducing him; however, the two fall in love and begin a prolonged affair. All the while Cathy intends on revealing her true identity as Bart’s stepdaughter.
During this time, Carrie has a chance encounter with her mother. Her mother denies knowing Carrie. Depressed, Carrie commits suicide, leaving a note explaining her reasons. Carrie believed her grandmother about being the "devil’s spawn." Cathy becomes even more enraged and vows revenge. She becomes pregnant with Bart’s child, an act she believes will be a crushing blow to her mother, who, according to her mother’s father’s will, must forfeit her vast inheritance should she ever bear children. Bart is torn between his duty to his wife versus his desire to be a father.
Cathy returns to Foxworth Hall and visits a room that she and her siblings were locked up in; She describes the room as being as they have never left. She believes that she heard the voices of Cory and Carrie begging to go outside. Cathy also discovers that the attic is where her mother and her grandmother hid Cory’s body, and they never took him to the hospital as they made it appear. Then Cathy takes her revenge on her mother by exposing the truth to Bart and a crowd of guests at her mother’s Christmas Party at Foxworth Hall. The mother confesses in front of Bart but then exposes her side of the story, claiming to be a victim of her father, whose vicious plot was to ensure his grandchildren died trapped in the attic. However, Cathy is reluctant to believe her mother’s portrayal of having been a victim rather than a villain. Cathy’s mother suffers a mental breakdown in which she suddenly believes that Cathy is twelve again and has somehow escaped the attic to confront her. In her madness, she sets fire to Foxworth Hall. Cathy and her mother escape, but Bart rushes back into the burning house to rescue his wife’s elderly mother, who is paralyzed and confined to a hospital bed. Both he and the elderly woman perish. Cathy’s mother is committed to a mental institution. In a twist of fate, although she forfeited her father’s inheritance when it was revealed she had borne children to her first husband, all that money reverted to her now-dead mother, who stated in her will that her daughter was to receive everything.
Cathy finally marries Paul, but due to complications from a heart attack, Paul dies. On his deathbed, Paul encourages Cathy to be with her brother Chris, who has loved her and waited for her all these years. Cathy is amazed that Chris still loves her and that he wants to be with her, noting that all the men she has loved have died. Cathy and Chris take the name "Sheffield" and plan to raise Cathy’s two sons together, although Cathy secretly dreads what will happen to the children if their secret is ever revealed.
IF THERE BE THORNS
The book is narrated by two half-brothers, Jory and Bart Sheffield. Their mother, Cathy, is married to Christopher Sheffield. The elder brother, Jory, is a handsome, talented young man who wants to follow his mother in her career in the ballet, while the younger Bart is clumsy, ugly, and feels misunderstood by his parents and outshone by Jory. Lonely, Bart befriends an elderly neighbour, who invites him over for cookies and encourages him to call her "Grandmother". The old woman and Bart soon develop an affectionate friendship, and the woman does her best to give Bart whatever he wants, provided that Bart promises to keep her gifts–and their relationship–a secret from his mother.
Her butler, John Amos, also seems to befriend Bart, but soon John Amos begins to fill Bart’s mind with stories about the sinful nature of women, especially women who, like Bart’s mother Cathy, flaunt their bodies on the stage. John Amos reveals that the old woman is truly Bart’s grandmother. He also gives Bart a journal belonging to Bart’s biological great-grandfather, claiming that this journal will help Bart become as powerful and successful as that man. Bart is enveloped by the journal and begins to pretend that he is his great-grandfather, who hated women and was obsessed with their degradation.
Cathy, Chris, and Jory soon notice the change in Bart, but only Jory suspects that the changes are due to the mysterious woman next door. At the same time, Cathy is injured in a ballet accident and is told that she will never dance again. While confined to a wheelchair, Cathy begins to write out the story of her life. Bart filches his mother’s manuscript pages and is enraged to learn the truth about his parents: Cathy and Chris are brother and sister, and his beloved "grandmother" locked them in an attic for years, feeding them poison to gain an inheritance.
Cathy has also discovered the truth about the woman next door and goes to confront her. The old woman, who is indeed the mother of Cathy and Chris, expresses remorse for her crimes against them and begs them to forgive and love her again. Working on John Amos’ orders, Bart, who now believes he is a vessel for his great-grandfather’s vengeful spirit, helps to lock Cathy and her mother into the cellar of the house next door, where John Amos plans to starve them to death. In the course of this, Bart realises how much he loves his mother and grandmother, despite their sins, and tells Chris where the women are. But before they can be reached, the house next door catches fire. Cathy is saved, but her mother dies of smoke inhalation, along with John Amos.
The epilogue, resumed with Cathy as narrator, describes Cathy’s emotional forgiveness of her mother at the woman’s funeral. Cathy and Chris, for the sake of their sons and adopted daughter, realise that they must never allow their secret relationship to be revealed. Bart seems to have recovered from the worst of his madness, but still dwells on the power wielded by his great-grandfather, whose millions he now stands to inherit.
SEEDS OF YESTERDAY
The story begins with Cathy and Christopher arriving at the house of their son, Bart, which was entirely built to replicate Foxworth Hall (which burned down in Petals On the Wind). They are planning on moving to Hawaii soon afterwards, but several events keep them from doing so. They meet Joel, who they soon learn is Corrine’s brother, who was long thought dead. He claimed he spent several years in an Italian monastery and they soon learn that he is feeding Bart false information about God and punishment. Bart also begins to look at Joel as a father figure; a fact that troubles Cathy greatly. Bart is still bitter towards his mother and Chris for their incestuous relationship, so their stay is not pleasant. He has grown into a handsome young man, who is extremely jealous and power hungry, and bitter that Chris is the guardian of his money until he reaches thirty-five. Eventually, Cindy and Jory, along with his wife Melodie, join Bart at his home, which adds to the tension.
Bart soon shows signs of jealousy towards Jory, because of Melodie. We soon find out that Melodie is pregnant, but the happiness soon dies when Jory gets into an accident leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Melodie withdraws from Jory and finds solace in Bart and the two begin an affair, which Bart soon realizes is an empty relationship and he is just a replacement for Jory. Melodie goes into labor on Christmas Day, although she tells no one and ends up having twins Deirdre and Darren who are said by Cathy to resemble her twin brother and sister. The pressure of motherhood is too much for her and she flees, leaving the children and Jory. Cathy tries to console both her sons and tries to keep a firm hand on the pretty and free-spirited Cindy, who has a knack for finding boys. After a long period of torment from Bart, and later Joel who disapprove of her ways, Cindy leaves to go to a school in New York.
They hire a beautiful nurse, named Antonia Winters, or Toni for short, who comes in to try and help Jory recuperate and she soon starts an affair with Bart, who seems infatuated. Cathy discovers, though, that Jory has feelings for Toni and that he deserves her love more than Bart. Cathy and Christopher stay there for years, which disturbs Cathy because it reminds her so much of Foxworth Hall. Eventually, Toni falls for Jory and they begin a relationship. Cindy later comes home for a visit and notes of how she ran into Melodie in New York, who had apparently remarried two days after her divorce from Jory was final and resumed her dancing career. Bart has now built a chapel, in which he commands the family to attend Sunday sermons, presided over by Joel. Cathy and Chris eventually become disgusted by the "fire and brimstone" sermons and tell Bart that they will no longer attend. Bart secretly starts having the twins go to the chapel, in which they pray for forgiveness for being the "Devil’s Issue", which Cathy overhears, reminding her of Cory and Carrie. She confronts Bart with this, and tells him to leave the twins alone, telling Toni never to let them out of her sight, unless she knows they are with Jory or herself. Soon Chris and Cathy decide to move out with Jory, the twins and Toni, and Cathy eventually confronts Bart with this telling him they are all leaving, and Bart in his resentment, acts as if he wants nothing more.
In the end, while Cathy is waiting for Chris to come home from work, he never shows. Joel comes and quite happily tells them that he heard on the radio of a car accident, in which a man was killed. She later finds out that it was Chris who was killed, and she notes how similar it was when their father was killed. Bart soon realizes how much he really loved Christopher and gives a moving eulogy at his funeral, and soon after finds his place as a televangelist who travels the world. Toni and Jory have also gotten married, and Jory later tells Cathy that she is pregnant, and if they have a boy they will call him Christopher and if it is a girl they will call her Catherine. Then one night Cathy goes up to the attic and sits by the windows and dies (but not before decorating it with paper flowers), ending the Dollanganger tales.
