House of Flowers by Truman Capote. Short summary

5 seconds

The most beautiful girl of the Elysian Fields brothel, Ottilia, fell in love with the peasant Royal and went to the mountains with him. But in the pretty flower house lived a mean old woman, Royal’s grandmother.

1 minute

Ottilia was the prettiest girl in the Elysian Fields brothel. Even as a child she was orphaned and grew up in the mountains in a simple peasant family. At 14, the girl came to town to sell grain and ended up at the Champs Elysées, where she stayed. She had two best friends, the fat Baby and the manly Rosita.

Three years passed. One day at a carnival, Ottilia met a young peasant, Royal, who had come to participate in cockfighting. Ottilia fell in love. After two days, she packed her bags and left for Royal’s house in the mountains.

The house where the girl got was like a flower house, but inside lived a mean old woman — Royal’s grandmother, who immediately began to torment the girl. When the old woman began to put cat heads, snakes and spiders in Ottilia’s things, the girl began to cook soup from them for the old woman. Upon learning of this, the grandmother died of a stroke. Royal decided to punish the girl by tying her to a tree for a day. At that time Little and Rosita arrived and wanted to take the girl away, but Ottilia, blinded by love, stayed.