Princess Daisy (novel)
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| Author | Judith Krantz |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Romance novel |
| Publisher | Crown Publishers (USA) & Sidgwick & Jackson (UK) |
| Released | 1980 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-283-98647-6 (UK hardback edition) |
Princess Daisy is a 1980 novel by Judith Krantz.
[edit] Plot summary
It tells the story of a young girl, Princess Margeurite "Daisy" Valensky, who is sent to England to live with her father, Prince Valensky. Stash Valensky is a Russian-born, wealthy polo player and former playboy, who meets Francesca Vernon, a beautiful and talented American actress, at a polo match in Deauville. Stash and Francesca, madly in love, are thrilled by her pregnancy and the news that she is carrying twins. However, a problem during delivery denies one of the twin girls enough oxygen, and she is brain-damaged. Francesca suffers from acute post-partum depression. Stash, who has a fear and disgust of that which is not "perfect" after a childhood in Davos watching his mother slowly waste away from tuberculosis, is unable to accept or love Danielle, who is brain-damaged from birth. He lies to Francesca, telling her the 2nd-born twin died soon after birth. She (of course) finds out his secret and flees with both twins for California, where she is helped by her former agent and his wife. She lives a secluded life in Carmel, and grants Stash short visits with Daisy.
Francesca dies in a car accident, and Daisy and Danielle are reunited with their father, only to have him send Dani away to an expensive but remote home for retarded children. When Daisy turns 16, their father dies in a plane accident. Her half-brother Ram's increasingly obsessive love for Daisy leads him to brutally rape her. Daisy is sent by her father's mistress, Anabel (a mother figure to Daisy), to the University of California, Santa Cruz for college to get her away from Ram. She forms what will be a lifelong friendship with Kiki Kavanaugh, an auto industry heiress from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Because of Daisy's total estrangement from her half-brother, Ram, she neglects to instruct him to sell off her stock portfolio at a crucial time, and thus loses the inheritance capital her father left her, and on which she is living. As a result, she is forced to drop out of college and go to work. She paints pictures of horse-mad rich peoples' kids on ponies to pay to keep Dani in the expensive school, and works a demanding job as a commercial producer.
When Anabel gets sick, Daisy must make a decision to abandon her private life and live as "Princess Daisy" in order to make money to take care of Anabel. Until this point Daisy had lived out of the public eye, refusing to trade on her title. Daisy must learn to trust a man who loves her, to accept her sister's disability, and make peace with the life she's been given.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- Princess Daisy was filmed in 1983 by Waris Hussein.
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