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''Valley of the Dolls'' is a novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966. The "dolls" within the title is a euphemism for pills, and was created by Susann. The term ''dolls'' also represents the women in the novel and their mishandling by the patriarchal world in which they are "played" by and dealt with as mere toys. The term also represents the women's reliance on stimulants, depressants, and sleeping pills, and how substance abuse is reminiscent of children clinging to toy dolls for comfort.〔http://www.jacquelinesusann.com〕 An overnight success when it was first published, ''Valley of the Dolls'' became the bestselling work of fiction of 1966. Since then it has sold more than 30 million copies, making it one of the bestselling books of all time. As the first roman à clef by a female author to achieve this level of sales in America,〔Possibly its nearest predecessor was ''The Group'' by Mary McCarthy in 1963 (5 million copies by 1991). (See: Frances Kiernan, ''Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2002 , p. 536). It was as scandalous in its own way.〕 it led the way for other authors such as Jackie Collins to depict the private lives of the real-life rich and famous under a veneer of fiction. The 1997 reissue by Grove Press calls the book "The All-Time Pop-Culture Classic" on its back cover. == Plot summary == The novel focuses on the famous lives of its three main characters Anne Welles, Jennifer North and Neely O'Hara: *In 1945, Anne Welles moves to New York City from Lawrenceville, Massachusetts, and finds employment with a talent agency representing the ultimately successful Broadway musical ''Hit the Sky''. *Welles meets Neely O'Hara (who changed her name from Ethel Agnes O'Neill), a vaudeville star living in her building, and recommends her for a role in the show’s chorus. *Jennifer North, a showgirl highly praised and regarded for her beauty and buxom figure, but with limited acting talent, appears in the play as well. The three women become fast friends. However, over the next twenty years, the women embark on careers that bring them to the heights of fame and fortune, but eventual unhappiness and self-destruction. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Valley of the Dolls」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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