THE SECRET GARDEN
BY
FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT
There's something strange about The Secret Garden. The classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, published 100 years ago this summer, takes the traditional children's literature trope of the orphan protagonist and twists it. Mary Lennox is not a good-hearted, put-upon creature, cut from the cloth of Oliver Twist or Cinderella (or Anne Shirley, Pip, Jane Eyre or Heidi). Rather she is spoiled, homely, mean and sometimes violent…
This unusual story, then, has proved to be the most lasting element of Burnett's literary legacy. Perhaps that shouldn't surprise us, given how ahead of its time it was. In The Secret Garden, the orphan Mary's rightful inheritance is ultimately herself and the natural world, the ability to speak truth to others and to have it spoken back to her – to live a full life of both the body and the imagination.
In 1898, Burnett rented Great Maytham Hall in Kent, a Downton Abbey-style manor with a walled kitchen garden. When Burnett moved in, the ivy on the walls was so overgrown that she couldn’t find the door to the garden. Finally, like Mary in The Secret Garden, a robin sitting on a nearby branch showed her where it was. After that, Burnett threw herself into fixing up the neglected grounds, planting flower gardens, putting in rose bushes, and improving the views. She wrote In Connection with the DeWilloughby Claim in the gazebo. Henry James was a neighbor.
Then, in 1908, the hall was sold and Burnett moved back to America. While there, her beloved English garden came back to her. Both it, and the robin, inspired The Secret Garden.
This tale of transformation is an exaltation of nature and its effects on the human spirit. It reflects the basic human need for companionship and the importance of allowing children the time to be children.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECRET GARDEN
How to cure a little girl – yellow, thin and not good-looking of a bad temper and hatred of people? How to make a mean hypochondriac, whose whims are indulged by everyone, go outside and make his first steps without a wheelchair?
The answer to these questions is in the pages ofThe Secret Garden.
This book by Frances Burnett will fascinate its readers with a wonderful Victorian style of narration, a warm atmosphere, wonderfully described steppe wides, marvellous gardens and meaningful dialogues.
The Victorians believed it was not good for small children to sit at home and be depressed, especially with such wides outside where they could run, jump, play and get to know nature. Probably, this ingenuous paradigm is still true.
The main characters are an orphan girl Mary, who moved from India to live with her uncle, and a boy Colin, a son of this uncle. They are united by two things: death and mean temper. Mary’s parents were killed by a cholera epidemic in India, but even before their death, she was growing without love because she was inconvenient for her beautiful mother. Colin’s mother died after an accident in the garden, and because of it his father withdrew from the world, and above all from his son, who resembled his wife too much, but at the same time was too weak and sick.
No wonder the children grew up reserved and selfish, they did not tolerate a refusal.
But Frances Burnett underlines the idea that there no bad children, but a bad upbringing.
A work therapy in the garden, outside games, meetings with birds and animals as well as serious talks wit
