Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden characters

Also known as Ceddie, Lord Fauntleroy

Appears from the start

A warmhearted American boy who has been raised modestly in New York by his widowed mother. He treats adults and children with the same open confidence and assumes the best of people. The discovery that he is heir to an English earldom gives him a new title without immediately changing his generous habits.

Also known as Dearest

Appears from the start

Cedric's young widowed mother. She has raised him with affection and without bitterness after the death of his English father. Cedric calls her Dearest, and her quiet integrity is the standard by which he understands kindness and gentility.

First appears in chapter 3

Cedric's wealthy English grandfather, an irritable and isolated aristocrat who rejected Cedric's parents' marriage. After his other sons die, Cedric becomes his heir. The Earl expects to dislike the American child but is curious about the grandson who now bears his oldest title.

Appears from the start

A New York grocer and one of Cedric's closest adult friends. Strongly republican and suspicious of hereditary titles, he debates politics with Cedric and worries that English aristocracy will spoil the boy he knows.

Appears from the start

A young New York bootblack whom Cedric treats as a friend and helps with characteristic seriousness. Dick responds to the younger boy's respect with gratitude and loyal friendship.

First appears in chapter 2

The Earl of Dorincourt's solicitor, sent to New York to locate Cedric and arrange his move to England. Formal and observant, he is surprised by the boy's manners and by Mrs. Errol's refusal to seek advantage from the family that rejected her.

First appears in chapter 12

An American woman who arrives in England claiming that her son is the true heir to Dorincourt. Her coarse manner and aggressive demand threaten Cedric's position and force the family to investigate her earlier life.

First appears in chapter 16

An imaginative and unusually self-possessed girl brought from India to attend a London boarding school. Her father supplies her with every comfort, but Sara's strongest resources are her courtesy, her gift for stories, and her determination to behave generously toward children with less power than she has.

First appears in chapter 16

Sara's devoted father, a British army officer stationed in India. He reluctantly leaves his only child at Miss Minchin's school and spends freely to make her comfortable, trusting the headmistress to care for her during their separation.

First appears in chapter 16

The proprietor of the London school where Captain Crewe places Sara. She is formal and status-conscious, welcoming Sara as a prized pupil because her father's wealth and the girl's accomplishments enhance the school.

First appears in chapter 18

A shy, struggling pupil who becomes Sara's loyal friend. Ermengarde is considered slow by her teachers and admires Sara's learning, but Sara values her affection and never treats academic difficulty as a measure of character.

First appears in chapter 20

A young servant at Miss Minchin's school who is overworked, hungry, and largely ignored by the pupils. Sara speaks to her as an equal and shares the imaginative stories that make their harsh surroundings easier to endure.

First appears in chapter 25

A sick and guilt-ridden Englishman recently returned from India who takes the house adjoining Miss Minchin's school. He is searching for the child of a dead business associate whose fortune he believes was lost through their shared venture.

First appears in chapter 26

Mr. Carrisford's Indian servant. Quiet, observant, and agile, he notices Sara in the neighboring attic and understands both her familiarity with India and the depth of her deprivation.

First appears in chapter 35

A sour, imperious ten-year-old born in India to British parents. After disease leaves her orphaned, she is sent to an uncle she has never met in Yorkshire. Neglected rather than naturally independent, Mary begins her new life thin, unhealthy, and accustomed to ordering servants about.

First appears in chapter 38

A cheerful young housemaid at Misselthwaite Manor who speaks plainly to Mary and expects her to do things for herself. Martha's stories about her large moorland family, especially her brother Dickon, introduce Mary to a warmer and less rigid way of living.

First appears in chapter 36

Mary's reclusive uncle and the master of Misselthwaite Manor. Crushed by his wife's death, he travels frequently and has closed the garden associated with her, leaving his enormous house governed by grief and avoidance.

First appears in chapter 38

An elderly gardener at Misselthwaite whose rough manner conceals sympathy for lonely creatures. He introduces Mary to the robin that becomes her first companion on the estate and shares her interest in bringing neglected things back to life.

First appears in chapter 44

Martha's younger brother, a moorland boy with a remarkable ease around animals and growing things. Direct, capable, and kind, he brings Mary tools and seeds and treats her secret work as something practical rather than strange.

First appears in chapter 47

Mary's hidden cousin, a sickly and domineering boy who has spent most of his life in bed, convinced that he will become deformed and die young. Servants indulge and conceal him, and his fear and isolation have made him as tyrannical as Mary was when she arrived.