এত্তো সুন্দর!!

পুরো বইতে কোনো খারাপ মানুষ নেই, নেই টানটান উত্তেজনা। কিন্তু আমি গোগ্রাসে বইটা পড়ে ফেললাম। পড়া শুরুর একটু পর মুখে যে হাসি ফুটে উঠেছিলো, তা শুধু চওড়া হয়েছে ক্রমাগত। আজকের এই বৃষ্টিস্নাত বিষণ্ণ দিনে "দ্য সিক্রেট গার্ডেন" এর সাথে অদ্ভুত এক আনন্দে, অদ্ভুত এক সারল্যে ডুবে রইলাম। মন ভালো করার জন্য আদর্শ একটা বই।

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

‘Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And marigolds all in a row.’

Reading this book brings back so many memories. It was the first book we read as a class when I entered Grammar school about 16 years ago and I haven’t picked the book up since. I have always loved the story and it has always held a special place in my heart. I don’t know whether it is because my English teacher told it in such a beautiful and captivating manner or whether it is just of beautiful content; I suspect it is maybe both.

One of the things I love about this book is the obvious transform Mary Lennox goes through from beginning to end. She is definitely a much more likeable and interesting character by the end of the story but not only that, I enjoy watching her journey from beginning to end, as she slowly transforms from cocoon into butterfly

****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.

She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived. (PG 4)

It was an adventure reading this as an adult. It was beautiful to read about kids having an imagination especially in the type of world and environment we live in. I personally know of parents and children (older and young) who only speak in reference to TikTok or YouTube. I don't want to criticize anyone's choices because they don't affect me personally or my journey in life but it's disturbing to see a baby or toddler fiddling with the phone next to their parents.

This book was a great reminder of nature needing children and children needing nature. The possibilities are endless. Nature and spirituality (what they call Magic) are great for the soul as we see here. The kid's personalities evolve from spoiled little jerks to kind and happy beings.

I just loved the simpleness of the story. The wholehearted message. The illustrations by Tasha Tudor added an extra layer of enjoyment.

Questo era uno dei miei libri preferiti da bambino, non ho idea di quante volte me lo sia letto nell'edizione dei Fratelli Melita. Erano passati almeno una venticinquina di anni quindi da quando me lo ero letto l'ultima volta, e solo ora mi ci sono dedicato nuovamente, spinto da questa bella edizione Ippocampo.

La storia mi ha sorpreso: la ricordavo, ma la ricordavo come la storia letta dal me stesso al tempo delle elementari. Ricordavo molto bene il difficile inizio di Mary (e stranamente ho sempre ricordato con inquietante precisione la filastrocca che gli altri bambini le cantavano chiamandola Bastian Contrario. Come mai mi è rimasta così marchiata a fuoco nella mente? Boh!), ricordavo la grande avventura del giardino segreto, il cugino malato e dispotico sepolto in un'ala del palazzo.
Comprensibile che all'epoca fossi stato più attratto dalla scoperta del giardino, dalla rinascita di Colin, dal passato indiano di Mary, anche se visto quanto in quel periodo fossi interessato al giardinaggio, probabilmente anche la parte della cura delle piante e dei fiori mi aveva colpito più di quanto non avessi realizzato.

Adesso invece, pur apprezzando sempre questi stessi elementi, ho avuto modo di coglierne gli altri aspetti. La lezione su come i bambini vadano lasciati crescere in adeguata libertà, all'aria aperta, giocando con altri bambini, e come questo tendenzialmente possa renderli molto più sani e vigorosi che non lo starsene rinchiusi in una camera (e immagino che all'epoca, soprattutto in determinati ambienti, fosse proprio quello che invece i medici consigliavano: in questo abbiamo infatti la netta contrapposizione tra il dottor Craven e la signora Sowerby), la lezione sui danni che può fare il viziare i bambini e, soprattutto, il privarli dell'affetto ignorandoli e affidandoli sempre e solo alle cure di altri (sia Mary che Colin sono cresciuti in questo modo, ed è bello poter valutare i progressi fatti da Mary leggendo le sue impressioni su Colin, che altro non è che una Mary nel suo stato naturale, senza ancora aver subito lo scossone che l'aveva spinta al cambiamento), l'inno di amore per il mondo naturale.
E chiaramente, l'amicizia (quasi istintiva, tra bambini) che aiuta a superare ogni ostacolo. Specie se c'è un Dickon semi-leggendario, che incanta gli animali, conosce ogni cosa relativa alla brughiera e alla natura, è conosciuto da ogni abitante della zona e rispettato come fosse un adulto.


Per quanto riguarda questa edizione, che dire?
Belle illustrazioni anticipano ogni capitolo, altre illustrazioni ne arricchiscono le pagine.
I capolettere, i motivi floreali intorno ai numeri delle pagine -diversi a ogni capitolo!-, e poi gli inserti "interattivi": la mappa di Misselthwaite Manor, le lettere richiudibili, il disco con l'evoluzione della rosa.

Un'ottima edizione per un classico, penso proprio che recupererò anche gli altri volumi di questa collana.

Another childhood book close to my heart. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

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.

I can't believe how long it has taken me to read this book. The film as a childhood favourite, but for some reason or another I had never read the book.
This book is not just for children, but also for those, who need reminding about the power of positive thought. It doesn’t matter what gender, age or religion you follow, it is so easy to succumb to negative thoughts.
It is a true classic that should be on everyone’s shelf.

I can't believe this is a classic..it's filled with discrimination and inimical remarks about Indians. It was mentioned that the girl slaps and abuses her caretaker (who was Indian by the way). She calls her a pig. Out of the blue, some unnecessary negative comments about India would appear like how the weather in India is so unpleasant all the time. I finished the book just to find out if someone tells that little girl that you are supposed to respect your elders, after all, it is a children’s book. But NOPE!
What we read is food for our brain. Bad food and bad books are equally toxic for health.
horrible..blehh !! two thumbs down.

I've read and re-read this book so many times, I've lost count.

Still it brings joy to me every single time, still it reminds me of the magic my heart felt when first I read it, that unlimited fountain of happiness that can't stop bubbling.

This is a real treasure, it always brightens up my life, it always reminds me of the power of positive thought and how easy it is to succumb to negativity in this world, no matter your age or gender or religion.

May the magic brighten up your life!

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