In The Closed Room

By Frances Hodgson Burnett

This classic book is Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1904 short story, “In the closed room”. It is a gothic ghost story about a family that moves into a large house abandoned by the previous owners. A surprisingly chilling and eerie story from the author of “The Secret Garden” (1911), “In The Closed Room” is highly recommended for fans of gothic literature, and is not to be missed by those who have read and enjoyed other works by this author. Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was an American-English writer and dramatist. Many classic books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473372559

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) grew up in England, but she began writing what was to become The Secret Garden in 1909, when she was creating a garden for a new home in Long Island, New York. Frances was a born storyteller. Even as a young child, her greatest pleasure was making up stories and acting them out, using her dolls as characters. She wrote over forty books in her lifetime.

Book preview

In the Closed Room

By

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents

In the Closed Room

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Manchester, England in 1849. After her father’s death, her mother moved the family to America, settling near Knoxville, Tennessee in 1865. In order to assist her family financially, in her teens, Burnett began to write stories. ‘Miss Carruthers’ Engagement’ and ‘Hearts and Diamonds’ were published in Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1868. She was soon earning a regular income from her writing.

From the mid-1870s onwards, Burnett published work in St. Nicholas Magazine, Scribner’s Monthly and Harper’s Bazaar. She then began to publish novels, including The Lass O’Lowries (1876), Haworth (1879), A Fair Barbarian (1881) Esmeralda (1881), Through One Administration (1883), and Sara Crewe (1888). Her 1886 work Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) was a bestseller which cemented her reputation on both sides of the Atlanic.

During the 1890s, Burnett – a lifelong sufferer from depression and other mental illnesses – turned to Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Christian Science. After a divorce in 1898, she ensconced herself at her country home in England. Barnett pursued her love of gardening and wrote a number of works, including Emily Fox-Seton (1901), A Little Princess, and The Shuttle (1906). However, it was The Secret Garden, published in 1911, that remains her best-known work, and a classic of English children’s literature.

In 1909 Burnett moved back to America and continued to write. She continued to publish a number of works, including The Dawn of Tomorrow (1909), T. Tembarom (1913), The Lost Prince (1915), Robin (1922), and The Head of the House of Coombe (1922). Burnett died in 1924, aged 74.

PART ONE

In the fierce airless heat of the small square room the child Judith panted as she lay on her bed. Her father and mother slept near her, drowned in the heavy slumber of workers after their day’s labour. Some people in the next flat were quarrelling, irritated probably by the appalling heat and their miserable helplessness against it. All the hot emanations of the sun-baked city streets seemed to combine with their clamour and unrest, and rise to the flat in which the child lay gazing at the darkness. It was situated but a few feet from the track of the Elevated Railroad and existence seemed to pulsate to the rush and roar of the demon which swept past the windows every few minutes. No one knew that Judith held the thing in horror, but it was a truth that she did. She was only seven years old, and at that age it is not easy to explain one’s self so that older people can understand.

She could only have said, I hate it. It comes so fast. It is always coming. It makes a sound as if thunder was quite close. I can never get away from it. The children in the other flats rather liked it. They hung out of the window perilously to watch it thunder past and to see the people who crowded it pressed close together in the

Reviews for In The Closed Room

[jalenv_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fair Warning: one of those stars is for the physical beauty of my copy, of which I'll write more later. Frances Hodgson Burnett was the topic of my term paper for my History of Children's Literature Class, so I was allowed to read my library school's copies of her books. It was my introduction to Ms. Burnett's works besides Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden. Our heroine is seven year-old Judith Foster, who lives in a small flat (apartment) in a workingmen's building near the elevated railroad in New York City. Her hearty and healthy parents are Jem Foster, mechanic, and his wife, Jane. Jane has a sewing machine in the flat and makes men's coats on it. Judith loves her parents and they love her, but she's not like them. Jane had an older sister who died before she was born. From what she heard about Hester, Jane suspects her frail daughter takes after her late aunt. Judith hasn't told her parents that she dreams about the aunt she never met, just as she doesn't tell them that she dreamed about a rich little girl she saw in the Park [Central Park?] months ago. The girl wants Judith to play with her.This story takes place before electric fans were available for the masses, let alone air-conditioners. Poor Mrs. Foster is having to fan herself with a newspaper as the summer gets hotter. Then Jem gets a lucky break: a summer job as a caretaker for a mansion near the Park. The house is beautiful. It'll be Mrs. Foster's job to keep it tidy -- except for one fourth-floor room that's been locked. The owners, the Haldons, left so suddenly that the house hasn't been prepared for a summer closing. How Judith manages to enter the closed room isn't explained, but the girl who wanted to play with her is there. They play together daily. Judith can't understand why the beautiful flowers from the roof garden that she made into a wreath died as soon as she left. It is a mystery, like the reason her playmate musn't be touched.Although the reader will probably have figured things out long before the mystery is solved, it's still a dear little story. I had to have this edition for the Jessie Wilcox Smith illustrations. The pages, except for the backs of the illos, are decorated with a green line border with green leaves in the corners and blossoms like the gold stamped border around the title on the cover. The decoration is extended to the title and under the page numbers on the pages. If you've seen an e-copy and are wondering how the publisher managed to stretch the story to cover pp.3-130, the answer is wide margins. Not counting the title and page numbers, the text takes up only a little over 3 & 1/2 by 2 & 1/2 inches per page.If my description of the original edition makes you wish you had a copy like it, there is a print-on-demand reprint of this edition available. I hope it's as beautiful as my copy because I don't want other Burnett fans to miss out.

[belana-990668 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a weird story. sweet, somehow, but weird, and sad, too.