The Secret Garden (Puffin Classics)

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Summary: The Secret Garden
Review: I read The Secret Garden when I was in the fifth grade. The book was a combination of realistic fiction and mystery. I was always looking for clues to explain the next chapter .I was so engrossed in the book that I read 30 pages every half an hour!
The whole plot of The Secret Garden was about a girl named Mary Lennox, an orphaned, disagreeable looking, girl, who needed some action in her life. And she reached her goal. She was ten when she moved to her Uncle's house on a moor in Yorkshire. One of the housemaids, Martha, showed her around, and told Mary stories about her family that Mary enjoyed. On of Martha's brothers, Dickon, was an animal charmer and a nice, perfect boy who Mary fancyed that Mary finally met. He helped her uncover and bring to life a huge secret.This secret can not be shared with you, you'll have to find out yourself.Mean while, when Mary was sleeping at night, a childs cry woke her up. On day she investigated the noise. She found another secret on her way, a secret corrider. Will Mary find out who is screaming? If so, what should she do about it? Will Dickon and Mary succeed in bringing the secret alive?
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading exciting adventures. My opinion on The Secret Garden is that out of five stars I would give it 5 stars, because it was so fun to read, and I didn't want to stop! And those are the results of the good book The Secret Garden!

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Summary: A Classic
Review: I think that this is FHB's best book. Although I certainly enjoy the romatic ideas of diamond mines, life-size dolls, and (completly platonic) secret admirers (as all appear in "A Little Princess") nothing beats the spunky nature and burgeonng independance of Mary, Colin and Dickon.

After her parents die of Cholera, spoiled brat Mary is sent to live with her uncle in Yorshire. She is shocked, absolutely shocked, to find a world that is the complete opposite of India. Not just the weather: gone is the fully staffed nursery which completely revolved around her every whim (and she had a lot of them) and in its place is a local maid who brings her breakfast and that's about it. Mary doesn't even know how to dress herself.

Appalled at first by the notion of having to look after herself, Mary discovers that it's really not so bad. Especially when she discovers a secret garden that has been locked for ten years. Together with her cousin, a boy as bratty and obnoxious as she is, and Dickon, a local boy with a way with living things, she sets about to bring the garden back to life. Mary and Colin, who have been raised with fairly good intentions and plenty of material possesions but no real love, learn what love is as they care for and nurture the garden.

Burnett really has an ear for children's dialogue, and she brings a real sympathy to Colin and Mary even when they are at their most obnoxious. In addition, their transformation is believable, complete with little relapses into their self-absorbed natures.

This is a book that is perfect for people of all ages.

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Summary: A Secret Garden and a not-so-secret theological philosophy
Review: One question may pop up when thinking about Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden". How much of it is literature and how much is religion philosophy in disguise? This novel contains both of them, and while it can be annoying for some adults, the religion approach, kids may never realize that the book is trying to talk them into `a new form of religion'.

Many of the events of Mary Lennox's childhood depicted in the novel mirror those in Burnett's days as a child. However, "The Secret Garden" isn't only an autobiographical novel. When writing the book, this author was under the influence of the the influence of the ideas of the New Thought, theosophy, and Christian Science movements -- which were very popular in the turn of the 20 Century.

What Colin and Mary call "Magic" in the novel is much related to the idea that the spirit known as God held to be present everywhere, and especially in nature. These Christian Science and New Thoughts also believe in positive thinking changing people's lives, curing oneself of illness through this kind of magical thinking, or changing the character of one's fortunes. Bearing this in mind, it is clear that the characters search for a divine cure -- which might be found in the Garden.

While most of the novel is told in an almost magical tone, near the end, the real motifs are revealed, when the children gather to sing religious songs and prayers. Much of the Christian Science is explicitly present in this last part of the novel. When one character says that "say things over and over and think about them until they stay in your mind forever" it is related to the emphasis upon the power and necessity of positive thinking.

While "The Secret Garden" is not a bad novel, its religious content may bother many readers. It is not very preachy, but at some point, the writer abandons the shyness and spread her religion beliefs everywhere. It is her right of doing it, but it is also a reader's right to know that and decide if he/she wants to read about a group of kids finding religion and having their lives changed.


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Summary: The Secret Garden-A Treasure to Cherish
Review: The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett is about a girl, Mary Lennox, who has spent her entire life in India. When her parents encounter a strange and mysterious illness that leads to death, Mary must move to England and stay there with her uncle, whom she's never seen or met before. Strange things are going on at Misselthwait Manor, like a garden that's locked up for an unknown reason, and a strange crying sound in the middle of the night. I enjoyed this book a lot because Ms. Burnett made the characters seem real, the plot exciting, and the ordinary seem unordinary.
Francis Hodgson Burnett made the characters in The Secret Garden seem real to me because of the description. For example, this is what she has to say about Mary, first thing on the first page, right after you open the book. "When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwait Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another." Can't you just picture Mary in your head? Ms. Burnett describes all her characters so well you can see them, and are positive that you have met that person before, no matter if they are mentioned just once, or on every page.
The plot of The Secret Garden is exciting because there are lots of different things going on at once. To illustrate, Mary is trying to get into the locked garden. She's also trying to make friends with Colin, her disabled cousin, and to adjust to life in England with her uncle and no parents. If I had that many things going on in my life, it certainly wouldn't be boring!
In The Secret Garden, Ms. Burnett makes the ordinary seem unordinary in many ways. One way is that everything is seen through the eyes of a disagreeable, spoiled, ten-year-old girl. I'm not very much older than ten myself, but I don't think that wandering around in a huge old house on a rainy day is exciting, but through Mary's eyes it is. In addition to that, Ms. Burnett makes the ordinary seem unordinary by combining unusual character traits. Take Mary's uncle for example. He's a mean old man with a crooked back, and he's married. Alone, those two things are perfectly normal seen every day, but you don't expect to see those two things together when someone's being described.
An exciting plot, the unordinary turned ordinary, and very realistic characters are my favorite things about The Secret Garden. In reality, the whole book is a treasure to cherish. If you've never read this book, you really should. If you've only read it once, read The Secret Garden again and again. I know I will.