Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett

Around the turn of the 20th century, Mary Lennox is a troubled, sickly and unloved 10-year-old girl, who was born in India to selfish, wealthy British parents, who never wanted her. She is cared for mainly by servants, who pacify her as far as possible to keep her out of her parents' way. She grows into a spoiled and selfish girl. After a cholera epidemic which kills Mary's parents and all the servants, Mary is discovered alive but alone in the empty house. She briefly lives with an English clergyman and his family, and is then sent to Yorkshire, England, to live with Archibald Craven, an uncle she has never met, at his bleak, isolated house, Misselthwaite Manor. At first, Mary is her usual self: sour and rude. She dislikes her uncle's home, the people in it, and most of all, the vast stretch of moor on which it sits, which seems scrubby and grey after the winter. She is told that she must stay confined to her two rooms and keep herself amused without much attention. Martha Sowerby, a good-natured maid, tells Mary a story of the late Mrs Craven and how she would spend hours in a private walled garden growing roses. Mrs Craven died after a tree branch fell on her in the garden, and the devastated Lord Craven locked the garden and buried the key. Mary's interest is aroused by this story and her ill manners begin to soften. Soon she comes to enjoy the company of Martha, the gardener Ben Weatherstaff, and a friendly robin redbreast, to whom she assigns a human personality. Her health and attitude improve, and she grows stronger as she plays by herself on the moor. Martha's mother buys Mary a skipping rope to encourage this, and Mary takes to it immediately. Mary occupies her time wondering about both the secret garden and about cries she hears at night. The servants claim not to hear the cries. As Mary explores the periphery of the gardens, her robin draws her attention to an area of disturbed soil. Here Mary finds the key to the locked garden and eventually the door to the garden itself. She asks Martha for garden tools, which Martha sends with Dickon, her 12-year-old brother. Mary and Dickon take a liking to each other, as Dickon has a kind way with animals and a good nature. Eager to absorb his gardening knowledge, Mary shared the secret of the garden with him