The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden Summary | Plot Summary

Mary Lennox has lived all her nine years with her parents in India, in the care of an ayah, ignored by her parents, and left to become a miserable little tyrant. She appears to be very thin and weak; her skin is yellow and her hair limp. She is orphaned by an epidemic of cholera. She goes to live at the home of her uncle, Archibald Craven, whose very large and old estate is at the edge of a moor in Yorkshire, England. Its grounds include many walled gardens, including one that has been locked for ten years.

Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper, travels to London to bring Mary to her uncle's estate. Her uncle is home when she arrives, but does not wish to see her that evening. He departs the next morning to resume the travel that has occupied him for ten years. Mary awakens her first morning and meets Martha, the maid who will look after her needs. Martha is quite unlike any servant that Mary has known. She speaks to Mary as to an equal and will not indulge Mary's demanding behavior. Mary is first cold and disapproving, but Martha's chattiness is warm and friendly anther stories about her family engaging. Mary soon responds to Martha's kindness.

Martha tells Mary to go outside to play and explore when Mary asks what she is to do, but first Martha tells her a story about a locked garden. Mr. Craven had been an unhappy man until a sweet, lovely woman married him. She loved to garden, and Mr. Craven had given her one of the gardens for her own, which they tended together. She died very young, breaking Mr. Craven's heart. He locked the garden, buried the key, and decreed that no one was to enter.

Mary's interest and imagination are captured by this locked garden. Mary plays outside every day, running about to stay warm in the unaccustomed cold of a Yorkshire winter. She befriends a robin as well as one of the gardeners, Ben Weatherstaff, a curmudgeon with a kind heart. The robin leads her to the locked garden by singing from a tree behind the very end of the long, garden wall, in a place to which Mary can find no access. Another day he leads her to a hole in the dirt, at the bottom of which she finds the key. Finally, he brings her to the wall just as some wind blows the ivy out of the way, revealing the garden door. The key fits the lock, and Mary has found "The Secret Garden."

During this time Mary starts to bloom, much like the flowers in her garden. She connects with the robin, her very first friend, then with Martha and Ben, in a way that is new to her. She gets exercise and eats to satisfy the appetite it gives her, growing less thin, weak and waxy looking. Dickon Sowerby, Martha's twelve- year old brother, is let in on her secret and helps in the garden. Everyone on the moor knows Dickon, a boy who can charm animals and make anything grow.

Mary has heard crying coming from inside the house ever since she arrived, but she is told it is only the wind. Very late one night, she sets out to find the source of the crying, and in this way she meets her cousin, Colin Craven, son of her uncle. Colin has been sickly and bedridden and expects to die. He is so spoiled that even Mary can see it. Mary and Dickon hatch a plan to rescue him and bring him to "The Secret Garden." Colin is enraptured by the stories about the garden. He decides he will come with them every day, he will exercise, he will invoke the magic of the garden with Mary, Dickon and Ben Weatherstaff to assist, and he will grow strong. He and Mary, ten years old each, have been left unloved for ten years, just like the garden. Now they have fresh air, good and plentiful nutrition, sympathy and affection from each other, and from Dickon and Ben. The garden has started to bloom just like Colin and Mary.

The garden has one more soul to heal, however. Mr. Craven has been a stranger to his son ever since his wife died; unable to bear Colin's resemblance to her or that Colin's sickliness could end. Mr. Craven is in Switzerland when a feeling overtakes him; an almost-forgotten pleasure in being alive, and the mourning of ten years starts to lift. Like the children, Mr. Craven spends his days outside, sleeping well and growing strong. He awakes from a vivid dream of his wife calling him from their garden to find a letter from Susan Sowerby, Dickon and Martha's mother, asking him to return home. He returns home, and he sets out towards the garden. He is just at the door when it is opened, and a tall, handsome boy runs out and almost knocks him down. Miraculously, it is Colin, and the reader knows that Mr. Craven is now home to stay.