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What happens to a child who is never loved? Mary Lennox arrives as one of literature's most disagreeable protagonists-sallow-skinned, thin as a rail, with a perpetual scowl etched across her face. Born to wealthy British parents in colonial India who regarded her as an inconvenience, Mary spent her first nine years raised by servants instructed to keep her quiet and out of sight. Her beautiful mother cared only for social gatherings; her father disappeared into government work. This profound neglect didn't make Mary grateful for small mercies-it made her tyrannical. She learned early that screaming and stamping brought results, driving away multiple governesses with her impossible demands. When cholera sweeps through the household with devastating swiftness, Mary's parents perish along with most of the servants. In the chaos, everyone forgets the unwanted child until British officers searching the abandoned bungalow discover her, alone and bewildered. Yet this traumatic abandonment barely registers. Mary's primary concern? Whether her next guardians will be "nice people" who'll let her have her own way. After a brief, uncomfortable stay where local children nickname her "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary," she's shipped to her uncle's estate in Yorkshire-Misselthwaite Manor, a place as cold and unwelcoming as her short life has been.