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    The Secret Garden
    The Secret Garden
    The Secret Garden
    Ebook283 pages5 hours

    The Secret Garden

    By Frances Hodgson Burnett

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A beautiful story about friendship, secrets, and the human spirit, The Secret Garden tells the story of the courage of two unhappy and withering children who become determined to make their lives, and the lives of others around them, more joyful. Orphaned Mary Lennox is sent to live in her uncle's house on the Yorkshire moors, and the house is an unhappy one. Miserable and lonely, Mary starts to explore the house's gardens and she discovers a key to the secret garden.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 10, 2015
    ISBN9781627552981
    Author

    Frances Hodgson Burnett

    Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was an English-American author and playwright. She is best known for her incredibly popular novels for children, including Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden.

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    Reviews for The Secret Garden

    4/5

    6,142 ratings206 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Fun audiobook with Fiona Hughes reading it.
    • 4/5
      Having just re-read "Black Beauty" and being disappointed, i was nervous about revisiting this book but, thankfully, my fears were unfounded. "The Secret Garden" was as delightful as the first time I read it many, many years ago.
    • 3/5
      There is a lot to like about this children's classic: the set-up (Mary's family is all killed off during an outbreak of cholera in India - ouch! You don't have cold-hearted openings like that so often these days, and certainly not in this genre), the characterisations, the way that Hodgson Burnett attaches her story to the landscape of the Moors, the way that good life lessons are carefully disseminated without every becoming too cloying... and yet, because the ending was so well sign-posted by the halfway stage of the book, some sections did tend towards the tedious. Add to that the generally poor treatment meted out to the underclass (the poor, the gardeners, the household staff) and you end up with a book that it's easy to like and easy to be put off by. I'm glad I read it, and I would have no difficulty in recommending it to others, but there is a part of me that thinks that this book's time has been and gone.
    • 4/5
      The Secret Garden tells the story of Mary, a young girl of privilege growing up in India who, after her parents' death of cholera, is swept away to live in her estranged uncle's Yorkshire manor house in England. Spoiled and disagreeable, with no history of any true friendships, she must adapt to a new environment and learn to entertain herself.I'm one of probably a very few who have not previously read or seen the movie adaptation of The Secret Garden. I've had a copy of the book on my shelf for quite a while, but it wasn't until just recently that I decided to delve into an audio copy available on Hoopla, which I devoured pretty quickly while doing various work & household activities. This book is definitely a product of its era (published in 1911), but that's part of its charm. The most enjoyable aspect for me was reading about the true pleasure of the discovery of a garden and the effects that discovery can have on a child's imagination and outlook on life. Sometimes it's the simple things which can bring us such pleasure, and it's nice to be able to look at that through a child's eye.
    • 5/5
      Why did I wait so long to read this classic? The plot of this book centers around Mary Lennox, who came to England to live with a brooding uncle who she has never met as her parents both died of Cholera. She was a most disagreeable child. While there, she discovers her most disagreeable cousin who has been told he is an invalid from birth. She also meets Dicken, a Yorkshire lad who introduces the moor to Mary and her cousin. Just delightful!
    • 5/5
      Mary, a spoiled girl, is sent to live with her uncle after the death of her parents in India. Encouraged to get outside, Mary discovers a secret garden, waiting to be brought back to life. With the help of her new friend Dickon, she transforms the garden and the garden transforms everyone who enters. This is another one of my favorite books. This book describes the garden in such detail that it can help students imagine what the garden looks like. The students could write about what they would do if they found a secret garden of their own. They could also compare and contrast this book with the movie version as well.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite childhood books, about a young girl named Mary who is sent to live with her recluse Uncle in England after her parents die in India. She befriends her spoiled cousin and a local common boy, and together they discover an abandoned garden.
    • 4/5
      I loved this as a child and reading it as an adult was a treat. A must read.
    • 4/5
      A very sweet, and well written book. A perfect read for February/March/April, and fits the transition from winter to summer. I just disliked Colin so much, that it weighed down my opinion of the book. In the middle of the book you find colin and, after that the focus on Mary disappears almost completely. I was very displeased with that, because she was in sort the main character. That said it is a book that makes you very happy, and makes you think about being outside more.
    • 5/5
      “The Secret Garden” passed me by during childhood. Don’t know why, as I read a lot during my primary school years.Having read and enjoyed it as an adult, however, I’m certain I would’ve loved it as a child. It has that charming quality that you find in Louis May Alcott's children's books.The descriptive parts are vivid. I’m no gardening fanatic, but loved every minute of following little Mary around the huge gardens, especial the secret one. I like how the robin is used as a character, and how he helps to change Mary from a selfish brat into a precious child.My only disappointment – a slight one at that – is the two closing chapters. Without giving anything away, the narrative switches gears in that it changes focus from Mary to Colin and his father. Yes, this is important, and it should be worked through to a satisfactory closure, but Mary is sidelined, pushed right of the limelight, when this – in my mind at least – is her story. In other words, I felt disappointed that the main character doesn’t get the last word in or have the same level of closure as the supporting cast.Despite the above criticism, it’s not so disappointing that it detracts from the story overall. Therefore, I feel this charming little tale deserves five stars.
    • 3/5
      A really good read, and a classic, but not really my thing.
    • 5/5
      I've probably read this book more than a dozen times -- it's such a comfort book!
    • 5/5
      Very very close to the movie version that I fell in love with as a child. For a classic it is very easy to read and easy to follow. The story is full of magic and a child's wonder. Very entertaining and captivating. Highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      This was the first book I read in school and I loved it then. I love it now. I would definitely recommend it.
    • 4/5
      lovely story about the power of nature and nurture to restore and teach young and old
    • 4/5
      I love this book! I think the author would have had a slightly stronger message if she hadn't gone into exposition on the power of focusing on the positive; the narrative carried that message very strongly all by itself. I cried at the end. I will be re-reading this one; it's like therapy in book form.
    • 5/5
      An "children's book" adults should read or reread

      When I was young, I skipped from Golden Books and comic books to adult reading and missed many of the classics for children. Reading The Secret Garden now as an older adult opens the gate to remembering the Magic when I was young enough to know that everything and everyone was constantly new and fresh and rich with living.
    • 4/5
      Another old favorite. My mom read this to me when I was little, I read it to myself, then to my kids. This reading was aloud to my mom. My favorite part of the story has always been the locked garden, filled with beautiful fruit trees, massive climbing roses, and riotously mixed beds of flowers, all just waiting for a child, even one with no special gardening skills, to find the hidden key and bring the little paradise back to glorious life. The spoiled wealthy children, with their trials and triumphs, were of lesser interest. Still, many scenes – the British soldier finding little Mary alone and furious in her cholera decimated home; Mary exploring the great house, with its hundred closed up rooms; Mary's first entrance into the garden; Ben Weatherstaff and his robin; Dickon and his animals, etc. – are irresistibly charming and unforgettable. This reading, to my mother, who is dying of cancer and frontotemporal dementia, I did find myself annoyed towards the end by the “power of positive thinking” stuff, which suggests that illness is due to negative thoughts and a lack of gumption, but I suppose that is just part and parcel of the tendency towards general preachiness typical of children's books from this period. Still, while I'm sniping at a classic I might as well also say that I found the business of Dickon's mother, with fourteen hungry people to feed on a miniscule income, sending buckets of food to the rich kids so they could waste their meals and maintain their “invalid” charade, completely outrageous, and Colin's boring on and on about “Magic,” to be irritating. Otherwise, though, this is a lovely book, and deserves its classic status. Really. And Mom clearly enjoyed the Tasha Tudor illustrations, which are perfect.
    • 3/5
      I'd probably give this a 3.5 star rating if that was an option. I enjoyed the book. I did. But it didn't really resonate with me the way it might have had I read it when I was younger.
    • 3/5
      The story overall was a good one and I really enjoyed Mary as a character however I did feel as though there were something missing. There was no real climax in the story which made it a bit boring and slow at times. Also feel like some key characters were underdeveloped when they should have been further explored.
    • 5/5
      An old story that is well deserving of classic status. Timeless story of friendship, change, hope, motivation, and working together. Ends as expected, but makes you feel good all the way.
    • 5/5
      I cherished this book as a child, and I still adore it as an adult. Not all books hold up well into adulthood, I am thrilled that this one did.

      I just finished reading this together with my daughter, who loves The Secret Garden as much as I do. We read a beautifully illustrated (unabridged) edition, by the talented illustrator Inga Moore.
    • 4/5
      Not an exciting adventure, but a sweet story. I enjoyed the story probably as much as I did when I read it as a child. An ignored, lonely, spoiled child unites with another ignored, lonely, spoiled child and they have childish "adventures" together. I enjoyed seeing the children grow together.
    • 4/5
      What a sweet story this was. I can't wait to have the opportunity to sit with both my granddaughters and read this out loud with them.
    • 3/5
       Read this book aloud as a bedtime storybook for my seven-year-old. Did I read this book as a child? I'm really not sure, even though this copy is from my childhood library.Worked very well as a read-aloud book, as books from this era usually do. I had a lot of fun doing he accents this time around, though whether my accent sounded anything like a real Yorkshire is unlikely. But fun anyway.The story itself is a bit odd. It starts out as the most gothic of any children's story I've ever heard of -- little orphan girl living in an enormous manor with billions of unoccupied rooms she's not allowed to go into, mysterious crying sounds in the night, an absent and emotionally unavailable uncle, and, of course, the moor. But then there's the secret garden, and a boy with a mysterious power over wild creatures, and then the childish and sheltered Colin, who springs into sudden optimism and belief in "magic" that is 1/3 fresh air and exercise, 1/3 "The Secret"TM, (the law of attraction and other magical thinking, and 1/3 a child's oversimplification of religion.It does get a little weird in the end, but overall we enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      After Mary Lennox's parent die, she is sent from India to Yorkshire, where, ignored by the adults, she finds a secret garden and a few other of the manor's secrets as well. I never read this as a child for some reason, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected, to be honest. I think I had expected a more simplistic story, but it's quite complex (for a children's story) and the characters are well-developed as well (even if one of them tends slightly toward caricature). Very feel-good read.
    • 5/5
      This is a childhood classic that should be on every young girl's to-read list.
    • 5/5
      This is an illustrated version and it is a treasure. It also contains the complete story, not just an abbreviated version, which is bonus.
    • 4/5
      Now many may be surprised to learn that I never read this book as a child. I have heard of it but wan never one to read books just because everyone said they were good or that I should read them. I could be very defiant when it came to reading.I am glad that I did finally read this book. I have seen parts of the movie but never from the beginning. This is a very nice story of a girl, two boys and a secret garden. The names of the children are Mary, Dickon and Colon.Mary is quite contrary is what children from India called her when she lived there with her parents. When her parents and everyone she knew had died she was sent to live with her uncle. At first she was not happy to be in England. She is very thin and looks ill but once she starts venturing outside and getting exercise and fresh air everyone notices how she grows and changes.She meets Dickon and those two start taking care of the Secret Garden. One night Mary hears some one crying and is determined to find out who it is. She finds a boy in his room crying. This is her cousin Colon that she did not know existed. The bonds that are formed between all three children is quite remarkable and believable.
    • 5/5
      This has always been one of my favorite books. I love the vivid images of a sallow, angry girl brought from India and dumped into a bleak English manor where no one cares that she thinks she should be fawned over like a lap dog. I always admired the caring of the people who take on her upbringing when they didn't have to and who help her figure out that she can be a strong, joyful, interesting person with just a little effort. The whole twisted element of her unexpected cousin makes it even more intriguing.

    Book preview

    The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

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