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When her parents die of cholera in India, Mary Lennox, a sickly, spoilt and sour little girl, is sent to live in her uncle's gloomy manor on the Yorkshire…
When her parents die of cholera in India, Mary Lennox, a sickly, spoilt and sour little girl, is sent to live in her uncle's gloomy manor on the Yorkshire moors. Left alone, she wanders the grounds and hears of a garden that has been locked for ten years, since her aunt's death; a friendly robin shows her where the key is buried. With Dickon, a moorland boy who charms animals, she brings the garden back to life, and one night, following a sound of crying, she finds her cousin Colin, an invalid hidden away and convinced that he will die young.
Context and significance
Frances Hodgson Burnett published the novel in 1911. Its belief in fresh air, work, friendship and the 'Magic' of growing things has made it a favourite for over a century, and part of its charm is the Yorkshire speech of the servant Martha and her brother Dickon. Burnett's other story of a lonely girl who changes her world is A Little Princess.
About the author
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was born in Manchester. After her father's death the family emigrated to Tennessee, where as a teenager she began selling stories to magazines to support them. She became one of the most successful writers of her day, and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) started a fashion for velvet suits for boys.
She lived between America and England, and the walled garden of the house she rented in Kent inspired The Secret Garden (1911). Together with A Little Princess, it remains one of the best-loved children's books ever written.