The Secret Garden
First published in 1911, The Secret Garden has become a children’s classic, and rightly so. The story of the unloved child whom nobody wants and who is rude and self-centred as a result has a timeless resonance. Mary Lennox, newly orphaned in India, arrives at the bleak Misslethwaite Manor in the Yorkshire moors, determined to hate everything. Gradually, with the help of the Yorkshire maid Martha and Martha’s brother Dickon, who understands the ways of plants and animals, she begins to change. When she accidentally discovers the secret garden, she is determined, with Dickon’s help, to bring it back to life.
But there are more secrets to be uncovered. Where does the mysterious crying in the night come from? And why is she forbidden to explore the house?
When I was eight, this book was read to me, and I’ve loved it ever since. Frances Hodgson Burnett has the capacity to get inside the mind of a lonely, prickly child and to get the reader to identify with Mary. She understands that, for children, adults are frequently unreasonable and untrustworthy, and she’s always on the side of the child.
This book operates on a number of levels which explains its continuing appeal. Mary might be plain and awkward but, at some level, she knows what she needs. She becomes the agent of her own emotional recovery when she discovers the secret garden. The garden, so long neglected, like Mary herself, responds to her careful pruning, planting and nurturing. It teaches her to be interested in something outside herself. Mary has been failed all her short life, firstly by her emotionally-distant parents and then by her new Guardian’s neglect. She must learn to recognize that some adults at least are loving and trustworthy. Highly recommended for girls of eight plus.
