Dr. Wallace Austin and Victoria Austin, parents; brothers John and Robert; sister Suzy
Victoria "Vicky" Austin is one of Madeleine L'Engle's frequently used fictional characters, appearing in eight books and referred to in at least one more. She is the protagonist of the Austin family series of books being the first person narrator of Meet the Austins, The Moon by Night, A Ring of Endless Light, Troubling a Star, and (as a younger child) the picture bookThe Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas. A developing poet and writer, Vicky observes the everyday events in her large family, dates several boys, communicates with dolphins, faces the occasional mortal danger, and reflects on important issues about life and death, faith and family as she gradually comes of age.[1]
Character traits
Vicky is the second eldest of four children. With a future
astrophysicist (John) for an older brother and a younger sister (Suzy) who has always wanted to be a doctor, Vicky sometimes feels at odds with others in her family with her less purposeful, more philosophical approach to life. She is intelligent and loving, an Anglican who questions her faith and considers the philosophies of others.[2] Introverted and sensitive, she sometimes wanders off to be alone, a tendency that annoys and concerns her family in several of the books.[2] Within her immediate family, she is closest to her younger brother, Rob, who shares her loving and questioning nature. She finds a mentor and kindred spirit in her maternal grandfather, retired minister Grandfather Eaton, who recognizes Vicky's poetic nature and encourages her to write.[2]
The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas
ISBN 0-87788-843-4) is the reader's look at Vicky at the age of seven, five years before her introductory appearance in Meet the Austins. Tall and skinny, self-described as "the middle Austin and the ugly duckling", she is elated at having been chosen to play the angel in the Christmas Eve pageant at church. When a blizzard
forces cancellation of the pageant and the church service, Vicky must give up her moment in the spotlight, and instead welcome the birth of her baby brother, Rob.
A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas
point of view
of her mother, Victoria Eaton Austin.
Meet the Austins
ISBN 0-374-34929-0 for the 1997 edition) introduces Vicky at the age of twelve, just as her family goes through another major upheaval. When an airplane
piloted by a family friend goes down, the Austins welcome the co-pilot's orphaned daughter, Maggy Hamilton, into their home. Vicky finds her home life disrupted as spoiled, selfish Maggy gravitates toward Suzy, causing chaos and straining Vicky's already difficult relationship with her younger, prettier sister.
) is a chapter that was omitted from Meet the Austins when it was first published, but restored to the book's later editions in hardcover and paperback. This missing chapter was published separately in 1980 as The Anti-Muffins. In it, Vicky is part of an Anti-Muffin Club, a small group of the Austin children and their friends, who believe in not judging by appearances and background. "Muffins" are a metaphor for conformity and snobbery. The chapter was apparently removed from the 1960 edition of Meet the Austins because it begins with a fight between boys who have just attended a church service and goes on to promote diversity; it also depicts the Austins as having a friend who is poor and Hispanic. "The Anti-Muffins" is Chapter Five of the post-1997 Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover and Square Fish paperback editions of Meet the Austins.
The Moon by Night
Zachary Gray, a handsome, charming, mercurial boy who sweeps her off her feet. He follows her around the country, leaving notes and on occasion going sightseeing with the Austins. Later in the trip, Zachary has a rival with Andy Ford, who is more stable and dependable than Zach - and therefore less exciting. Vicky also struggles with her own identity issues as she begins to see herself as an individual, not just a member of the family.[1] She is concerned about her developing looks and is even more concerned about her developing personality. Although some of her concerns are eased by Uncle Douglass in California
, Vicky remains doubtful of her true identity and maturity throughout the novel.
) takes place the following winter in New York City. Told in the third person, the novel relegates Vicky to a more secondary role than in other titles, concentrating instead on family friends Josiah "Dave" Davidson and Emily Gregory. Abandoned by Zach, and with Andy having unexpectedly moved away, Vicky feels out of place and isolated in the big city, and is surrounded by mysterious dangers involving a street gang, a genie and a dangerous new technology.
A Ring of Endless Light
kything in L'Engle's Time Quintet. After coping with the deaths of a family friend, and Leo and Jacky's father, Commander Rodney, a baby dolphin, and with her grandfather's physical and mental decline, Vicky has a mental breakdown after a child dies in her arms while waiting at the hospital for her sick grandfather. Vicky believes these events are all indicating that Zachary was right and that life is hopeless, painful and pointless. She is roused from near-catatonia by Adam and the dolphins. As she is saved from despair, she realizes the joy and the light in life, outweighs that darkness. She also realizes that when we focus on the darkness, it can overpower us. Joined in their passion for life and joy, it appears that Adam and Vicky begin a strong and close romantic relationship. In a television movie adaptation of this novel, which aired on Disney Channel in 2003, Vicky was played by actress Mischa Barton
.
Troubling a Star
ISBN 0-374-37783-9) is the last full-length novel about Vicky, and takes place several months after the end of A Ring of Endless Light. Again told in the first person, it begins with Vicky stranded alone on an iceberg off the coast of Antarctica. The novel proceeds to tell in flashback
how Adam's Aunt Serena paid for Vicky to visit Adam at Eddington Point in Antarctica, and of the interesting people and unexpected dangers she meets along the way. Vicky is concerned with Adam's cooling interest in her but it is later revealed as his attempt to protect her.
As this is the last book in which Vicky appears, readers are left to imagine what happens to Vicky when she grows up. It is likely she becomes a writer. Whether she and Adam end up together, or if she finds love elsewhere, is unknown. From the last statements of the books, it is at least certain that Vicky and Adam remain close friends.
Comparison with other L'Engle heroines
Vicky Austin is the most frequent protagonist in the fiction of Madeleine L'Engle, filling that function in four novels and two shorter works.
Polly O'Keefe
, although she appears in four novels, is the protagonist in only two of them.
Like Meg, Vicky lives in an old farmhouse near a "star-watching rock" outside a village in Connecticut; both settings are based on Crosswicks, L'Engle's actual house in Connecticut.
kything
.
Vicky Austin is about two years older than Polly O'Keefe, her contemporary. Adam Eddington meets first Polly and then, a year later, Vicky. Conversely, Zachary Gray meets and pursues a relationship with Polly a few years after alienating Vicky. Both heroines are caught up in international intrigue (Polly in The Arm of the Starfish, Vicky in Troubling a Star), and both are aided by
mentor
. Each of them keeps a journal, is given an international trip by an older woman to whom she is not related, and has difficulty deciding on a career path.
Vicky shares a similar personality to Madeleine L'Engle. Both share a passion for literature and poetry, and use writing to express their ideas as well as their emotions. In addition, both struggle with the problem of evil, but ultimately believe in the existence of a loving God.[2] L'Engle once described herself as looking much more like Meg Murry but acting much more like Vicky Austin. In an author's note to a paperback reissue of the Austins series, she further acknowledged that "I share all of Vicky's insecurities, enthusiasms, and times of sadness and growth."[4]
