Mary Lennox is brought up by her Ayah, which is a normal practice for children born to English parents in India. She is a thoroughly unpleasant child because everything is done for her and if she doesn’t like it, she will slap the servants. Then one morning, she wakes up alone in the house, and when she is found, they tell her that her parents have died from a terrible illness and the servants have fled.
Mary moves to her recluse uncle’s house in Yorkshire, Misslethwaite Manor, and under the influence of the chatty maid Martha, Mary becomes a more pleasant girl. She likes to go outside and explore, and one day she finds the key to her late aunt’s garden that has been closed since she passed away ten years ago. Mary finds the garden and with Martha’s brother Dickon she starts tending to it.
This book was published in 1911 and it’s lovely. At first I wasn’t too sure because Mary is such a brat, and then she started changing and stopped being so contrary…
Read for the Read Between the Lines Reading Challenge 2024.
Prompt 32: An Illustrated Book.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
