The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Illustrated by Tasha Tudor

An avid reader as a child, I am surprised that I somehow missed out on the classic children’s tale The Secret Garden written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. For this reading with my book club, I chose an edition with delightful illustrations added to this 1911 book by Tasha Tudor in 1962. The Secret Garden is recommended by the publisher for ages nine and up, but I strongly recommend it for all readers. Please don’t relegate it to the “kiddie lit” genre.

The Secret Garden is the kind of book that instructs the reader in positivity without being preachy. Ten year old Mistress Mary (as in “quite contrary”) is a child who is both spoiled and neglected in her upbringing in India where she does not experience love. Things are not much better for her when her parents die, and she is shipped to Yorkshire to be under the care of her uncle. There she is still not loved as her uncle, Mr. Craven, has not dealt well with the death of his wife ten years prior and the illness of his son Colin who is physically cared for but also is not loved.

When Mary discovers that the mysterious crier in the night is Colin, she gradually creates a bond with her cousin. She is a curious girl who is given little freedom in the house, but almost total freedom in the gardens. She discovers the benefits of fresh air, sunshine, and natural exercise, and she explores the grounds looking for a secret garden that has been hidden away since Colin’s mother died. 

Mary and Colin meet so many interesting people during the spring and summer. Dickon is a twelve year old who can converse with animals and plants. His older sister Martha is a sweet young lady who works at Misselthwaite Manor as a housemaid and helps take care of Mary. She has one day a month off, and she travels home by foot to help her kindly mother with laundry and baking. She gladly gives her mother her earnings to help support her large family of twelve happy siblings. Ben Weatherstaff is an elderly gardener who knew Colin’s mother and is eager to help restore the secret garden. While this tale is not full of goody two-shoes, it does have characters the reader will enjoy getting to know and in the cases of Mary and Colin watching their physical and emotional growth. 

The Secret Garden is a pleasant read that begins with difficulties for the characters but progresses to a magical time in their lives. The author’s descriptions are wonderful to read as spring approaches in the garden. It is a book I would reread for the pleasure of the story and the language of the author. 

Rating: 5/5

Category: Children, Fiction, Classics

Publication:  1911—Harper Collins

Memorable Lines:

The rainstorm had ended and the gray mist and clouds had been swept away in the night by the wind. The wind itself had ceased and a brilliant, deep blue sky arched high over the moorland. Never, never had Mary dreamed of a sky so blue. In India skies were hot and blazing; this was of a deep cool blue which almost seemed to sparkle like the waters of some lovely bottomless lake, and here and there, high, high in the arched blueness floated small clouds of snow-white fleece. The far-reaching world of the moor itself looked softly blue instead of gloomy purple-black or awful dreary gray.

“Half-witted!” said Colin angrily. “Who thought that?” “Lots o’ fools,” said Ben. “Th’ world’s full o’ jackasses brayin’ an’ they never bray nowt but lies.”

He had made himself believe that he was going to get well, which was really more than half the battle, if he had been aware of it.