A favourite from many years ago, fantastic to reconnect with it in 2020! Wonderful.

Why I chose to read this book:
1. I remember seeing this lovely story reenacted as a musical play by some middle-school students several years ago and was impressed by their performance; and,
2. I wanted to end my "Classics Month" with this book that my GR friend, Isabel, recommended!

Positives:
1. I appreciated the believable growth of various characters, going from sour dispositions and downright rudeness to being filled with hope, joy and empathy. After just reading a book about another orphan (Heidi), I was introduced to the polar opposite of that loveable character to this book's main character, Mary Lennox. With parents like hers, it's no wonder that Mary (and later, we learn, also Colin), have such disagreeable personalities! Luckily for these two children, fortunate circumstances, such as understanding adults, good friends, especially Dickon, at first, I thought that he was an angel or ghost! and exposure to nature, changed and enhanced Mary and Colin's lives;
2. speaking of which, I couldn't get over the similarities between the "sickly" children, Colin (The Secret Garden) and Clara (Heidi). Both have a deceased mother and an absentee father who travels extensively, leaving his/their child(ren) behind for long periods of time, both cannot walk, and both have friends (Mary and Heidi, respectively) who help them recover by believing in themselves;
3. since I had also recently read The Wind in the Willows, I was amused/pleased at how the animals featured in that story also make appearances in The Secret Garden!; and,
4. as a flower gardener myself, I could highly relate to Mary and her friends' happiness while gardening, from weeding and pruning to experiencing the ecstasy of all the sensory delights emanating from such a sanctuary.

I FINALLYYYY found a classic that i actually like and understand! most likely because its a children’s book but we’re not going to talk about that.

This is a book I have read over and over again. With the lovely characters that grow in stature, strength, and wisdom through the book, it is a wonderful progression. From the moment you meet pinched faced Mary, you come to love the little girl that has lost so much. Her sadness has become a part of her and one that she struggles to throw off. Her curiosity is lovely and brings Colin and Dicken into the picture. What a lovely lively trio they are. Each one overcoming great sadness, pain and solitude. This book gave my heart wings. I was a sad child until I read The Secret Garden. Then I began to search for happiness just as Mary had taught.

This book was life changing for me as a small child and continues to raise the bar in my search for happiness.

****SPOILERS****

OK, I must have read and loved this book 40 or so years ago. (Yikes!) I liked it a lot this time round, but it was troubling to me in several ways. It starts off as the story of Mary, a girl suffering from epic neglect. (Her entire household in Colonial India, parents, servants, everyone, die from cholera or flee the house with no-one bothering to think about her, leaving her alone, not knowing what's happening, if anyone is there, scavenging for food from unfinished meals on the table. How's that for a brutal opening of a (children's) novel?) The description of her neglect is so clear and strong that one cannot help but feel that the author must feel some sympathy for her character, but amazingly, she dwells on her unpleasantness to such an extent that one can't be sure she isn't censuring her strongly.

Well, it starts off as Mary's story, and one is prepared for the 'coming alive' she is going to experience, when.... the damn thing gets hijacked by Colin, a little boy at her uncle's house in Yorkshire (where she is sent) who is her male counterpart, his mother dead at or near his birth, shunned by his self-absorbed father, loathed by the army of nurses and doctors over whom he rules tyrannically by virtue of their desire to prevent his tantrums.

Well, it's hijacked by Colin, but it's hijacked again, right at the very end, by Colin's father whose own unpleasantness, though less obvious than Colin's and Mary's, is certainly more culpable in that his began in adulthood and led him simply to forget the existence of his son. But, happily, through Mary's work on Colin, and Colin's own working of what he calls Magic, the paterfamilias and his male heir are finally restored to happiness, Mary entirely forgotten.

And there's Dickon, the young peasant boy who is the symbol of the healing powers of nature. He absolves the function of the Magic Negro here, an oppressed outsider (by virtue of class here, not race) whose wisdom and power is harnessed by, and makes his (and his family's) poverty somehow less awful to, the ruling class. His fate, after the novel, was almost certainly to be killed in the trenches of Flanders, probably as Colin's batman. (Colin's right to order everyone around, Dickon, Mary, the old gardener Ben Weatherstaff, the doctor, is never questioned.)

And the Magic! Obviously there's a lot of good sense in Burnett's views about health and happiness - nature, care for animals and plants, eating well, fresh air and exercise, but there's a new-agey self-help side to it that gets a bit nauseous: repeating over and over to yourself "yes, I can," having one good thought a day, etc. etc.

I am so pissed off with this racist author. The story is good and interesting but I cannot read another page about the so-called "natives" and "blacks".
I initially thought Mary spoke ill about India since she is a disagreeable child but even Martha says this -
"Does tha' mean that they've not got skipping ropes in India, for all they've got elephants and tigers and camels! No wonder most of 'em's black"

"In India she had always been too hot and languid and weak to care much about anything."

"When I heard you was comin' from India I thought you was a black too."

"Indian servants are commanded to do things, not asked."

For the umpteenth time, India is not hot. It has different seasons just like any other country has and it is not always hot.

I am surprised to see 5 stars for this book and to see that nobody had any objections to all the India bashing done in this book. I am sure the author never visited India and hence this horrible portrayal of the country. This book was written at a time when India was under British rule but still even in those days, there were authors who liked the good things about India and never did such bashing. This author is prejudiced and does not have a good opinion about the country.

Read this novel and you will start dreaming about your very own secret garden.

"If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden."

This is one of my favorite quotes that makes me see colors in the world again.

I couldn't resist reading it after watching the lovely movie "The Secret Garden (1993)" that was completely different .. But you need to watch it after all because it will simply make you happy and you will smile.


I just had to think a lot about what to write and eventually it is just one word to say about it .. "Beautiful".

The characters (Mistress Mary, Dickon, and Master Colin) They were described beautifully and precisely .. I found out that I'm somehow like Mary and Colin .. Just in desperate need of a garden and moor to spend my days there and be happy and healthy again. All those lovely creatures that are used to be with Dickon all the time .. I really wish to have them all with their animal charmer "Dickon".

The way Frances describes the places, the characters and all the details made everything seem so real.

You have to read this one and forget everything about the problems of the grown ups and difficulties in the books we read .. Have a good time reading it :))

رواية تستحق أكثر من مجرد قراءة .. إنها تستحق أن نحياها بكل تفاصيلها

أخذتني من عالمنا المزعج لعالم جميل آخر كله ورود وسعادة وابتسامة
حياة جديدة أحتاج أن اعثر عليها لأعيشها بكل تفاصيلها مثل الشخصيات

أثناء قرائتها كنت احلم كثيرا بحديقتي الخاصة السرية والورد والفراشات .. وبعد إنتهائها اشعر بالخوف من أن تتوقف تلك الأحلام
إنها إحدي تلك الروايات التي تشعرنا بأننا فقدنا صديق عزيز عند إنتهائها

كم التفاصيل الموجود فيها عن كل الشخصيات والأماكن لشئ مبهر حقا
تجعلك تتخيل كل تفصيله ولو صغيره عن كل شئ قد تم ذكرة في الرواية

شاهدت الفيلم قبل الرواية وأعتقد أنه السبب في أنني قررت البدأ في الرواية ولم أندم علي هذا القرار
فالفيلم شئ والرواية شئ آخر .. تشابة الأسماء وبعض الصفات فقط لكن مع وجود شخصيات أكثر وأحداث مختلفه وتفاصيل غريبة كثيرة في الرواية

كل ما يقال عنها انها في منتهي الروعة وتستحق بالطبع القراءة

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a lovely book. I had a jolly time reading it, and so will you.

The best part about this book is the detailed description of the childish nature of the protagonists, which is bound to bring a smile on the lips of the readers. No matter how sad you're feeling, or how depressed you are, The Secret Garden is sure to lift your mood. The way the author has described the garden, the creatures, and the nature in general, is heartwarming.

It is a perfect book for any age group - the child in me would have equally enjoyed it had I read it in my teens. Combined with the message the book provides, it has joined the list of my all-time best books.

It is a book worth having in your collection. Worth a re-read.

Verdict: Highly recommended.

I got the beautiful MinaLima Edition!

This book is so magical! I love it so much!!

Mary Lennox, a spoiled, ill-tempered, and unhealthy child, comes to live with her reclusive uncle in Misselthwaite Manor on England’s Yorkshire moors after the death of her parents. There she meets a hearty housekeeper and her spirited brother, a dour gardener, a cheerful robin, and her wilful, hysterical, and sickly cousin, Master Colin, whose wails she hears echoing through the house at night. With the help of the robin, Mary finds the door to a secret garden, neglected and hidden for years. When she decides to restore the garden in secret, the story becomes a charming journey into the places of the heart, where faith restores health, flowers refresh the spirit, and the magic of the garden, coming to life anew, brings health to Colin and happiness to Mary. In a house full of sadness and secrets, can young, orphaned Mary find happiness?

All my reviews have the possibility of spoilers, be warned!

This was one of my favourite childhood books, I've read the same version by three different authors. If you didn't read this as a kid did you even live? After all these years, I still remember my obsession with secret fairy gardens.

One of my favourite things in this book was the character development of Colin. He went from being sick and depressed to a loveable happy character and it was so heartwarming to see. Marry Lennox has huge character development too as she finally sets into the person she's supposed to be.

Long live the secret garden holding a special place in my heart.

Two sickly, arrogant, lonely neglected little children from wealthy families both ten, cousins, live continents apart Mary Lennox in hot, steamy colonial India and Colin Craven, he in rainy, cold, Yorkshire northern England a cripple just before the start of the First World War, they don't even known the other exists but will soon both like to show contempt to servants by yelling at them, while giving orders . Mary is spoiled unhappy and angry her beautiful mother loves parties, doesn't look kindly at the plain offspring , father too busy also helping govern the enormous colony, truth be told they dislike the unlovable girl. Cholera strikes and both parents fall, the little orphan child, is not emotionally attached to either one, and never a single drop of tears is shed...Shipped off as quickly as possible by the authorities, to her uncle Archibald Craven in England, Colin's father owner of an ancient family mansion, ( 600 year- old) Misselthwaite Manor with a hundred mostly unused rooms a decade previously, Mr. Craven lost his wife (Mary and Colin mothers were sisters ) he adored in an accident and never recovered emotionally his face always sad and mournful. The lord of the manor is a frequent traveler abroad, he must get away from his bedridden weak boy, it pains him to look at the pitiful sight and mostly does when Colin is asleep....Mary after a long, boring, escorted sea voyage arrives eventually and lives alone in an isolated part of the mansion, Martha a teenager her servant, the only person she talks to gives information about a secret garden, Mrs. Medlock the housekeeper, like everyone else ignores the unattractive girl and hides her far from others just the hired hands are there, after a quick visit to see her strange uncle he leaves for foreign lands. Poor little Mary, nothing to do but stare at the furniture... exploring the the grounds of the estate the nearby unnatural moors, outside and somehow finds the secret garden... later after hearing again weird wailing sounds, coming through the walls in her room the rather frightened Mary gets up in the middle of the night, down the dark, long , sinister corridors enters an unknown room and discovers a pathetic, depressed boy in bed her cousin Colin that no one mentioned....They become close friends after a few minor disagreements life begins in reality, for the two children at Mary's urging, she gets Colin outside for fresh air, with the help of a third Martha's younger brother Dickon, 12, who animals love, a hidden door , opened showing the eerie, gloomy, mysterious, dying secret garden locked for ten years by Mr. Craven, something dreadful occurred there brave Mary is delighted though, she wants a beautiful garden with colorful roses, live trees, growing plants birds singing and flying bees humming, butterflies floating, rabbits jumping, squirrels climbing, crows cawing brilliant flowers springing up in all sections of the Secret Garden.. and people lying on the green grass, sightseeing looking at the bluest of the blue the sky above. They have hoes the children, let the plowing and weeding begin...A children's classic that can be read and enjoyed by adults, rejuvenation of the human spirit with a simple act of planting a few seeds in the ground, yet more than just exotic flowers coming above the dirt the most precious commodity on the Earth may also spring into existence, life for the soul.

An endearing heart-warming story creating a palpable nature-laden reality, edifying the magical powers of nature and gratefulness for being alive!

It professes the power of living and embracing the beauty around us.

I don't want to limit it as only-children's read, but a must-read for everyone in order to be permeated with positivity and leave all the negativity behind. Many of us delve into negative feelings in different stages of life and end up losing hope. This book should be marked as a must-read whenever hopelessness or hard-hitting times hit us.

"The Secret Garden" is a capsule for keeping negative feelings and toxins at bay! :)

A definite 5-star

NB- I found ther ending abrupt, I wish it was a little bit more beautifully described (wanted it to be hauled around the plush garden) :)

Indeed nature is magical and can make even dead to walk and sing :)