Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Published: 1911
Publisher: HarperTrophy
358 pages (paperback)
Summary: Mary Lennox is a little English girl living in India when her neglectful parents died and she was sent to live with her uncle in Yorkshire. She is self-absorbed, sickly looking and used to ordering servants around but when she arrives at her uncle’s manor, she realizes that her behaviour will not be tolerated quite as well. Mary never sees her uncle, and she has no one but herself. One day, playing by herself, she discovers a secret walled garden that apparently no one has entered in ten years. The plants inside are nearly dead, and Mary decides she must bring it back to life. She enlists the help of Dickon, the 12 year old brother of one of Mary’s servants. But there are more mysterious and secret things around the manor other than the garden and the uncle she never sees — late at night, Mary always hears a boy wailing, crying and screaming but everyone insists she is just hearing things.
My Thoughts: I saw the movie version of this when I was quite young, though I don’t remember a thing from the film. When I saw this book at the bookstore, I bought it because even though I don’t remember the film, I thought it was a good way to relive a bit of my childhood. People tend to be wary of books published in the early 1900s (and earlier) for the ‘difficult English’ but The Secret Garden is very easy to read even by today’s standards. I guess that’s what made it easy for me to immerse myself into the story. It really is a gorgeous story, a classic that I think not only children should read, but adults as well. The themes in this novel are quite touching, and actually quite relevant to today’s world. The power of friendship and embracing happy thoughts can change even the most disagreeable little children and learn how to love and appreciate. I couldn’t put this book down at all when I started. Towards the end, the story lags a bit; there’s a few chapters that I think are unnecessary but the ending of the story is so touching and magical, I just felt so happy for all the characters.
My Rating: 4/5
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