Chiltern creates the most beautiful editions of the World's finest
literature.
Your favourite classic titles in a way you have never seen them
before; the tactile layers, fine details and beautiful colours of
these remarkable covers make these titles feel extra special and will
look striking on any shelf.
The Secret Garden opens by introducing us to Mary Lennox, a sickly,
foul-tempered, unsightly little girl who loves no one and whom no one
loves. At the outset of the story, she is living in India with her
parents. A dashing army captain and his frivolous, beautiful wife, but
is rarely permitted to see them. They have placed her under the constant
care of a number of native servants, as they find her too hideous and
tiresome to look after. Mary's circumstances are cast into complete
upheaval when an outbreak of cholera devastates the Lennox household,
leaving no one alive but herself.
She is found by a group of soldiers and, after briefly living with an
English clergyman and his family, Mary is sent to live in Yorkshire with
her maternal uncle, Archibald Craven. Misselthwaite Manor is a sprawling
old estate with over one hundred rooms, all of which have been shut up
by Archibald Craven. A man whom everyone describes as "a miserable
hunchback," Master Craven has been in a state of inconsolable grief ever
since the death of his wife ten years before the novel begins. Shortly
after arriving at Misselthwaite, Mary hears about a secret garden from
Martha Sowerby, her good-natured Yorkshire maidservant. This garden
belonged to the late Mistress Craven; after her death, Archibald locked
the garden door and buried the key beneath the earth.
Mary becomes intensely curious about the secret garden, and determines
to find it. This curiosity, along with the vigorous exercise she takes
on the moor, begins to have an extremely positive effect upon Mary. She
almost immediately becomes less sickly, more engaged with the world, and
less foul-tempered. This change is aided by Ben Weatherstaff, a brusque
but kindly old gardener, and a robin redbreast who lives in the secret
garden. She begins to count these two "people," along with Martha,
Dickon Sowerby, and Susan Sowerby, as the friends she has had in her
life. Her curiosity is whetted when she hears strange, far-off cries
coming from one of the manor's distant rooms.
