Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house.
There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens - and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden... which has been locked for ten years.
And no one has the key.
After losing her parents, young Mary Lennox is sent from India to live in her uncle's mansion on wild English moors. She is lonely and has no one to play with, but one day she learns of a secret garden somewhere in the grounds. Then Mary uncovers a key in a flowerbed - and a gust of magic leads her to the hidden door.
Alone in a new country, wealthy Sara Crewe tries to make friends at boarding school and settle in. But when she learns that she'll never see her beloved father again, her life is turned upside down. Transformed from princess to pauper, she must swap dancing lessons and luxury for drudgery and a room in the attic.
"The Secret Garden", Frances Hodgson Burnett's story of an orphan girl who moves from India to the Yorkshire countryside, has become a favourite book of various generations. This title brings out aspects of Burnett's life that led her to write the book, details of Victorian England, attitudes towards children and Burnett's spiritual leanings.
When newly orphaned Mary Lennox arrives from India to live with her uncle, everyone at Misselthwaite Manor thinks her a most disagreeable child. Then one day she discovers a garden - a secret garden. With the help of Dickon and her spoilt, invalid cousin, Mary brings the garden back to life; and as she does, the mystery behind it is revealed.