“Oh, my dear, relations are like drugs, – useful sometimes, and even pleasant, if taken in small quantities and seldom, but dreadfully pernicious on the whole, and the truly wise avoid them.”

Taking respite from the Man of Wrath, her children and her stifling household, Elizabeth discovers that the path to joy lies in having a garden, rather than a room, of one’s own. This enchanting semi-autobiographical novel delighted readers when it first appeared in 1898 and has never been out of print since.

The Penguin English Library collectable general readers’ editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.