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    The Secret Garden
    The Secret Garden
    The Secret Garden
    Ebook332 pages5 hours

    The Secret Garden

    By Frances Hodgson Burnett

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    "The Secret Garden" is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is now one of Burnett's most popular novels, and is considered to be a classic of children's literature.
    The main character of this story is Mary Lennox, a sickly, sallow and sour-faced girl. She has been born to rich British parents that are currently living in India. Her self-interested parents were busy with extravagant parties and neglected Mary, leaving her alone. Orphaned by an outbreak of cholera, she is sent back to England to be cared for by her mother's sister's husband.
    The only person who has any time for the little girl is the chambermaid Martha Sowerby, who tells Mary about a locked up garden. Mary finds the key to the secret garden buried outside with the help of a robin. The same robin shows her where the door is hidden beneath overgrown ivy. Once inside, she discovers that although the roses seem lifeless, some of the other flowers have survived. She decides to tend the garden herself.
    The author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, was a practitioner of Christian Science due to the premature death of her son as well as personal illness. As a result, The Secret Garden espouses the concepts of New Thought and theosophy as well as ideas about the healing powers of the mind.
    The garden is the book's central symbol. The secret garden at Misselthwaite Manor is the site of both the near-destruction and the subsequent regeneration of a family. Using the garden motif, Burnett explores the healing power inherent in living things.

    Illustrator: MB Kork
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClassic eBooks
    Release dateApr 2, 2013
    ISBN9788866611608
    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

    6,183 ratings206 reviews

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    • 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.
    • 4/5
      Fun audiobook with Fiona Hughes reading it.
    • 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
      This is a sweet story of an orphan settling into her uncle's huge house and making a life for herself on the grounds as well as the house. Although told to stay away from one of the gardens, she can't resist. With encouragement from a new friend, she finds a way into the off limits space and brings the garden back to life and in doing so,healing her uncle's and her own hearts.
    • 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
      This story is very old and well-known, but it took me a while to read. It was a very interesting story and I was very interested in what happened, but the language in which it was written was so unfamiliar to me that sometimes it took me a while to get through the writing. However, I think it was beneficial for me to read a story like this because it shows how language and society has changed over time. It's good to compare life today to life back in the early 1900s.
    • 5/5
      Read this when I was in gradeschool so it was great to read it again. Loved the mystery surrounding the crippled cousin and the birth/growth of the secret garden/uncle. Great story. Surprisingly not just for girls-the title can mislead.
    • 4/5
      As Mary, Dickon, and Colin would say: This book is Magic!
      A very sweet story with cute and unique characters. I only wish I had read it as a child.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful book about Mary's growth. At the beginning of the story she was a much spoiled child and selfish. However after she moved to England, she changed into a very kind girl thanks to the fresh air, grass filled with flowers and a secret gerden.I was moved to read this book because she was actually very pure and changed dramatically. I like this story the best of all English books that I have read before.
    • 4/5
      As a child I loved watching The Secret Garden movie, it was one of my all time favourites. I had not realised it was a book at the time and wish I had of had the opportunity to read it as a child. The story was written so beautifully and I found the imagery to be so vivid in my mind. The illustrations by Robert Ingpen really added to the story and a spent quite a bit of time looking over them. This story was thoroughly enjoyable and heart warming.
    • 5/5
      My favorite kids book.
    • 5/5
      "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett is the story of a young girl from India who befriends Collin, the sickly son of Archibold Craven, lord of Missethwaite Manor, located in England.The girl's name is Mary, who has just left India after becoming orphaned by a terrible plague. She slowly pulls Collin out of his sickbed, and into radiant health. She does so by introducing him to his late mother's once-neglected walled garden.I felt this classic was compelling and poignant. I loved the fact that the protagonist was a misfit. She held her own as a quintessential character, along with Collin and Dickon, the young gardener who helps her rescue the quiescent spirit of the garden itself. Mary has an optimistic viewpoint, contrary to the views held by his physician, Dr. Craven, and Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper. However, Collin is just as complex in his inner character, and his change is just as significant as Mary's.I recommend this book to anyone who has known someone who is ill. It is the story of a child awakening to the power of optimism, friendship, intention, and care.Breton W Kaiser Taylor
    • 4/5
      Finally, a classic I actually enjoyed. I was looking for an easy book that I had on my e-reader while on vacation and this seemed like one that I could easily finish while not taking too much of my attention away from other activities - was I wrong! This story, though slow at the beginning, was totally enchanting and grabbed me until I finished. It's wonderful the way that the author had the children grow and mature as individuals while still keeping their innocence.I was even lucky enough to see the movie right after I finished the book. The book was better!
    • 5/5
      One of the most heart-warming stories ever told.
    • 5/5
      Mary Lenox never saw too much of her parents - they were always too busy. But when they both die she has to move from her home in India to England where her "strange and sour" uncle lives. Will she ever have friends and truly be happy? I was 10 years old when my mother gave me this book for my birthday. We spent more than a week reading it aloud to one another. My Mom is 90 years old now and we still share those precious memories created with a lovely book and an inciting story. Five stars for those memories alone!
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel, however I had a few problems with it. To begin, there was no set narrator. You didn't really get inside any character's head, and none of the character's were really "round." Even Mary, the protagonist, seemed distant to me. One of the things I cherish about books is the connection I have with the characters, and this was certainly a novel lacking in that aspect. Another issue was that the novel was so thoroughly a product of its time period that I found myself overwhelmed, especially by some of the morals. It seems to be a light children's book but the author is pushing Victorian ideals on the reader, on a deeper level. For example, Mary is a disagreeable, stubborn child until she finds the garden and then she does a total 180 and ends up likable. All she needed was something to care about and some love from children her own age. How sweet. Additionally, the Magic deals with power of Christianity and it got a little overwhelmingly religious at times.
      However, overall, this book was certainly beautiful, especially the language when describing the garden. I can see why it remains a childhood classic.
    • 5/5
      This charming children’s classic, written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is worth reading as an adult, even if you read it first as a child. The story vividly and accurately portrays the emotional journey that many third-culture-kids experience, as they confront the reverse-culture-shock of repatriation.Mary Lennox is a nine-year-old, British military brat, born and raised in British Colonial India. The story begins in the midst of a cholera epidemic, which kills both of her parents. When a pair of British officers discover Mary all alone in her parents’ empty bungalow, she is quickly sent “home” to England, to live with an uncle she has never met. Although the “spoilt and sour” demeanor Mary exhibits at the start of the book is certainly in part the result of attachment issues caused by neglectful parents, it is also very clear that many of the things that trouble her about her new home are simply the result of culture shock. And, as is typical for TCKs “returning home” to their passport countries, her ignorance of local customs is perceived as willful insolence, and any mention she makes of “how things were done” in India, is perceived as boastful arrogance.It is only when she begins applying her TCK skills of “foreign” language acquisition (learning to speak the Yorkshire dialect spoken by the local people), studying the details of her new environment (learning to understand an appreciate the strange natural beauty and wildlife of the moor), and working on collaborative projects with local residents (reviving a neglected, secret garden), that she overcomes her grief, and begins to thrive in her passport culture.And the secret to her success? The “magic” of choosing to change her attitude toward the foreign land she now calls home.
    • 5/5
      great book
    • 3/5
      Mary's wealthy, indulgent, but completely unloving parents are killed in an epidemic in India, and she is shipped off to an uncle, who will provide for her every need except love and attention. The spoiled girl soon comes under the spell of Yorkshire, the young maid who attends to her, and it softens her obnoxious, self indulgent ways. When she meets the maid's brother, Dickon, he softens her further. Then she learns that her absent guardian has a son of his own, about her age, who believes he is dying - though he is not. She and Dickon manage to convince Colin that he is fine, and he grows healthy. Oh yes - and there's a secret garden involved in all of this.This nice tale has two distinct weaknesses. One is that the plot only develops for about two thirds of the book. The final third just plods along to the 100% predictable conclusion with no further development or plot twists. The second and more serious weakness is that the protagonist totally changes halfway through the book. As we start reading - this is a book about Mary Lennox. She is absolutely who this book is about. We root for her as she softens to become a likable child. Then, suddenly Colin shows up - as hateful as Mary was at the beginning, and he becomes the main character. Mary fades further and further into the background until she is merely an incidental character in Colin's story. OK, but definitely not up to par with other children's classics of the same era.
    • 5/5
      A childhood classic!
    • 5/5
      The Secret Garden is a book I have enjoyed again and again since childhood because of its themes and exciting plot. The story follows a young girl, Mary Lennox, and her journey from India after the death of her parents to her Uncle Archibald Craven’s estate in Yorkshire. Mary is an unhappy and unwell girl who finds solstice in search of a “secret garden” that once belonged to her uncle’s wife, Mistress Craven. She befriends the servants, gardeners and Dickon who assist her in nurturing the garden that has gone untouched but once a year since Mistress Craven’s passing. Mary also becomes interested in Master Craven’s son, Colin, whose cries she hears one night and is forbidden to seek out their source by the head servant, Mrs. Medlock. Mary finds the boy anyway and quickly realizes that his sadness stems from the belief that he will become a hunchback like his father and he will die young. Mary brings him to the garden with Dickon where Colin stands on his own for the first time. The author leads the reader to believe that the secret garden is responsible for Colin’s miraculous recovery, as well as Mary’s revival from her parents’ death. Themes include “mind over matter” and health having a direct relationship with outlook, as well as the importance of faith and human relationships.
    • 4/5
      I almost didn't write a review of this, but then I figured.... eh, just because I'm not sure I'll take the trick, doesn't mean I can't put my card on the table. Anyway, my brother was in a stage piece of this, (as Mr. Craven) when I was in middle school, I think, {not quite ten years ago, come to think of it-- back when I was a gosling!}, and so I watched every performance they gave-- three, I think-- and I obsessed over the soundtrack for awhile.... I found it all to be wonderfully depressing, which was a sort of grey blessing, since I was absolutely depressed myself at the time.... Anyway, I know that that sort of reflection might be seen as a bit amateurish or something, but theatre can be illuminating.... I saw a stage piece of a Sherlock Holmes a few weeks ago, which helped me realize how much I detest that stupid....Anyway. It can be a bit more grey than green.... And there's an obvious thrust at 'magic', I guess, but it just manages to shy away from total cynicism and doesn't quite.... sometimes it just doesn't.... sometimes you just can't quite feel the magic in the cards, you know.... sometimes children have flowers in their cups, and other times.... they're just a bunch of little.... Six and one, you know.... It might seem a little odd to compare this to 'Pride & Prejudice', (and I care not to know precisely what some of the 1911 crowd thought of dearest Jane), but that is easily explained-- I obsess about P&P, and compare all manner of phenomenon to it. And.... the thing is.... 'tisn't as good, is it.... I mean, I read that once Jane joked that she ought to have written a chapter about Napoleon, you see what I mean, some things are just better avoided.... And while it's certainly easy enough to see the sort of.... craven, application of the ethic of avoidance-- lock up the garden! Never go back in!-- still.... still.... I mean, this book itself isn't quite needing of avoidance, it's like *that*.... but almost, almost, at times..... I mean, to be rather cruel about it-- Kitty and Lydia die in a flood, Mary hates everyone, and Lizzie goes off and jumps in the mud with the goats and kids from the.... from the lanes, almost! I mean, I hate to be brusque about it-- since it's almost become my cardinal sin!-- but you can do that with anything, I mean, with girls.... I mean, I've sorta come to think that there are only five girls in the world, although unfortunately there are just too many times when it's like, Where's Jane? What did you *do* with her? (I mean, and.... I *hesitate* to call Mrs. Bennet a 'girl'; she's the Queen of Spades!) So, there's that. I mean, you can see, obviously, how it's not quite as bad, well, not nearly as bad, as it obviously could have been, so there's that.... I mean, thank merciful Juno that there are no bloody suffragette riots, and no Irish thugs {and my family comes from, Suffolk, by and by, just like all of the Keatings} to crack Sybil's head against the pavement-- that, I suppose, would be one of the cardinal benefits of living in what might be loosely denominated as 'the middle of nowhere', a sort of English Appalachia, where people still (1911) are to be heard uttering variations of "thou", such as "tha'" and so on-- but I mean.... "You come along back to your own nursery or I'll box your ears." I mean, I haven't read all of the novels, but I'd imitate my Irish ancestors and 'bet the dole', so to speak, that *nothing* like that, ever, ever, *ever*.... I mean, I don't think you could get Lady Austen to put a sentence like that in print, if you offered to pay her all the muslin in India.... Not if offered to celebrate *her* birthday, the way that we celebrate that of *Dickens*.... and I suppose, that that's why we *don't*. "I am just a poor boy and my story's seldom told." Shut, up! Wow, I really wasn't going to do that. You follow it though, don't you?.... Do you knit, no, Do you sew, no, Do you read, Yes, why..... "Vanity and pride are different things...." You know, *sometimes*, they are pretty much the same.... I mean, I honestly didn't want to snap my fingers like this.... It's feelings about magic aren't as obnoxiously and nauseatingly and stupidly insincere as something like C.S. Lewis ("Mere Christianity"-- yes, *mere*, christianity, indeed!), or Lewis Carroll ("Euclid and his Modern Rivals"-- damn Anglophones! *Teach them in Greek!*) might write.... or something that *Wickham* might say.... And, yes, I do hiss, I hiss at the very name, at very *shadow* of that name.... I am a little mean sometimes, though.... the girl is the one who stands out, hahaha..... Although not here.... I mean, at least it's England, not Narnia.... or Kandahar.... .... Just because you dine at Pemberley, doesn't mean that you're stupid.... Just because you're not in one of those real Clint Eastwood movies, you know, looking the gritty truth of the world in eye, just like.... (Look the cold truth in the eye! Stare into the abyss!) I mean, like, it's not that hard to figure out what the orphans of the British Army are like, is it? It's not as though you've got to read "The River War", do you.... *or even this book*! I mean, if Mr. Bennet, *acting as though he wouldn't* go call on Bingely is bad, very bad, even, then how bad is it, if he *never* does, because.... he's not, *anywhere*? Very Bad Indeed, I should say.... Say, what would happen, were I to drink from that poisoned well? ~Well, that would be, Very Bad Indeed. ~Ah. I see. What more? What more is there? I mean, I do hope that my manner hasn't gone ill with anyone, and I am sure that just because I have alot to say-- more than I really meant to-- doesn't mean that I've balanced every word just so, the way that I might like.... But, anyway, it could surely have been worse-- and that is something, that is surely something....Although Mary could have played cribbage with Martha, and I'm sure they both could have gotten something out of that.... not that I dislike Martha, not at all.(It's just that she's not a girl; she's a servant. Did you ever read "And Then There Were None"? Another one of these lovely post-Victorian pieces-- see, I told you it could be *worse*! Anyway, "the women" always meant the two women, not the two women and the servant's wife.... Such bitter business, though-- better not to think on it....) Anyway. It need not really be marked for avoidance, though it does have a little grey in it. There's just better and worse, that's all. (8/10)
    • 5/5
      Despite some flaws, namely Dickon, little brother of servant Martha, being absolutely flawless, and his mother (Mrs. Sowerby) being a bit too preachy about how having the right attitude solves your troubles, I think this is a great read for adults as well as kids. Two very troubled, but spoiled and bossy, children work out their own problems with only minor assistance from adults, and they make their own creative use of the small bits of help given by adults. For example, Mrs. Sowerby sends a skip rope for little Mary Lennox, who was recently orphaned in India and new to her uncle's large and lonely estate on the moors of England. A sour and demanding girl of seven, she has been accustomed to having every little thing done for, even being dressed, her by Indian servants, and slapping their faces whenever she's displeased. That won't fly in England. The skip rope gets Mary outside, exploring. She explores the house and discovers Colin, the hidden-away, invalid son of her uncle, a widower and world traveler who avoids his problems and his son simply by staying away. Little Dickon, an earthy boy at one with plants and animals, befriends Mary and Colin. The two miserable children not only learn to use their own brains to find their way, but they don't need magic, special powers, weapons, or spectacular external events to move the plot along. It is a story of inner transformation of these children, discovering and working with the quiet "magic" of Nature, using the stuff that they are made of as ordinary humans. Mary and Colin are also transformed by having met their match (each other) as nasty, demanding, spoiled, yet deeply wounded, kids. Mary is not about to be ordered around the way Colin orders his servants and nurse around, and if Colin likes having the company of another child for a change, he'll have to change. Very good writing as well as a good story.
    • 4/5
      Mini Book Review: I was disappointed when I first started the book as I heard so many fabulous things about this classic. I almost gave up after about 30 pages as it was hard to read about a child who was just utterly unlikeable (and yes I can see how she bacame that way) But than something happened about 45 pages in I started falling in love with her and wanted to know more. Such a charming, beautiful story and I now know why so many people list this as one of their favorite stories. Since I have to get 3 reviews done by New Years Eve (Tomorrow) this is going to be a quickie review. Fabulous character development and wonderful use of setting. You felt like you knew these characters and let me tell you the whole time I was reading, I also imagined that I was on the moors with the children. As a child this would be a truly marvelous read. As an adult my only negative comments would be that some might stop reading because at the beginning Mary is so unlikeable. Also the ending is a tad saccharine and predictable - but I really didn't mind that as I am a big softie. To put it simply it is a lovely sweet innocent tale of the importance of play, good fresh air and the power of imagination.4.5 Dewey'sI purchased this at the Indigo at the Eaton Centre for my BBC 100 Top Books Challenge (Yeah I totally failed I only finished 2 of the 5 I was going to review - but hey I moved across the country and became at stay at home mom)
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed it very much...a touching story from one of my favorite time periods with a very positive timeless message regarding the power of positive thinking...contrast with more adult current books...The Secret and Ayn Rand's Fountainhead...a must for every young persons reading list...and some older folk like me....:-)

    Book preview

    The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

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