The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Tasha Tudor
List Price:
Our Price: $12.82
You Save: $4.13 (24%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.69 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett, Tasha TudorEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 1998-04-30
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 368
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Book Reviews of The Secret Garden
Book Review: A Strong Story, But a Lame Ending
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is one I've returned to annually since I was ten years old. It's almost embarrassing to admit, because everyone knows The Secret Garden is a "girl's book" -- the book's locked, walled garden and girl's coming-of-age are so good as Freudian symbols they're impossible to ignore. The book's even marketed as a "girl's book," always with a pretty pastel cover illustration of a pretty girl in a pretty dress in a pretty flower garden. But the book features many more male characters than female ones. Reading this as a boy, I looked to the different masculine archetypes presented by Hodgson Burnett as models. Although Mary dominates the beginning of the book, it was Dickon with whom I identified.
To my young-adult mind, Dickon was the same boy as Almanzo Wilder in Farmer Boy or Twain's Huckleberry Finn -- tough but not mean, sensitive but not weak, his moral authority derived directly from his relationship with the natural world. There are two adult men in the book -- Craven, who derives his power from violence and Ben Weatherstaff, who derives his power from gentleness. One man locks the garden in grief, the other climbs over the wall to tend the garden's roses for the same reason.
Reading this as an adult, the book's conclusion seems rushed and cliche -- especially in light of the strong beginning. What starts off as fairly dark, complex, and nuanced ends as moralistic bedtime story.
Until the last quarter of the narrative, about the time when Weatherstaff finds out the children have been letting themselves into the garden, the children have been like real children -- neither totally good nor totally bad, but wholly innocent in spite of the illness, abuse, and parental death they've experienced.
But then, Hodgson Burnett inexplicably changes the story's tone. Dickon and Weatherstaff -- who until now have been the earthy souls of the book -- get pushed into the background. Sick, spoiled Colin suddenly is healthy and suave, contrary Mary goes from strong to meek and docile, and cold, miserable Craven steps back into story transformed into Dear Old Dad willing to love his son -- at least now that his son's not a crippled hunchback after all.
Happy ending and fade out.
One is left with the impression that Dickon now is somewhere on the moor dumbly digging for peat and potatoes like a good peasant, Mary's been shipped off to finishing school now that she's pretty enough to land a husband, and Colin installed as the rightful Lord of the Manor.
We can only hope the garden was left to The National Trust
Summary of The Secret Garden
When orphaned Mary Lennox, lonely and sad, comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire moors, she finds it full of secrets. At night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors. Outside, she meets Dickon, a magical boy who can charm and talk to animals. Then, one day, with the help of a friendly robin, Mary discovers the most mysterious wonder of all--a secret garden, walled and locked, which has been completely forgotten for years and years. Is everything in the graden dead, or can Mary bring it back to life?
Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as imperious as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, closed up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors of England, until a locked-up garden captures their imaginations and puts the blush of a wild rose in their cheeks; "It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of roses which were so thick, that they matted together.... 'No wonder it is still,' Mary whispered. 'I am the first person who has spoken here for ten years.'" As new life sprouts from the earth, Mary and Colin's sour natures begin to sweeten. For anyone who has ever felt afraid to live and love, The Secret Garden's portrayal of reawakening spirits will thrill and rejuvenate. Frances Hodgson Burnett creates characters so strong and distinct, young readers continue to identify with them even 85 years after they were conceived. (Ages 9 to 12)
Burnett, Frances Hodgson Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in MY FAVORITE BOOKS!
El Lectorby William Durbin
Yearling; Published: 2007-07-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.48
Price in other shops:
The Dark Is Rising (Boxed Set): The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, Over Sea, Under Stone, Silver on the Tree, The Grey Kingby Susan Cooper
Aladdin; Published: 2007-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.57
Price in other shops:
Mythology (Ologies)by Lady Hestia Evans
Candlewick; Published: 2007-08-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.90
Price in other shops:
Ripley's Search for the Shrunken Heads and Other Curiosities (Ripleys Believe It Or Not)by Robert Ripley
Ripley Publishing; Published: 2007-10-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.06
Price in other shops:
Fairyopolis: A Flower Fairies Journalby Cicely Mary Barker
Warne; Published: 2005-10-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.48
Price in other shops:
Return to Fairyopolis (Flower Fairies)by Cicely Mary Barker
Warne; Published: 2008-03-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.41
Price in other shops:
Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter's Companion (Ologies)by Captain William Lubber
Candlewick; Published: 2006-07-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops:
Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin (Ologies)by Master Merlin, Dugald Steer
Candlewick; Published: 2005-09-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.90
Price in other shops:
Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons (Ologies)by Ernest Drake, Dugald Steer
Candlewick; Published: 2003-10-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.42
Price in other shops:
Egyptologyby Ian Andrew, Dugald Steer
Candlewick; Published: 2004-11-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.29
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
James and the Giant Peachby Roald Dahl
Puffin; Published: 2000-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.15
Price in other shops:
Little Women (Illustrated Junior Library)by Louisa May Alcott
Grosset & Dunlap; Published: 1947-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Heidi (Puffin Classics)by Johanna Spyri
Puffin; Published: 1995-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.32
Price in other shops:
The Wind in the Willows (Signet Classics)by Kenneth Grahame
Signet Classics; Published: 2006-04-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.77
Price in other shops:
Black Beautyby Anna Sewell
Scholastic Paperbacks; Published: 2003-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.65
Price in other shops:
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweilerby E.L. Konigsburg
INGRAM BOOK & DISTRIBUTOR; Aladdin; Published: 1998-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.94
Price in other shops:
Charlotte's Webby E. B. White
HarperCollins; Published: 2001-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops:
Anne of Green Gablesby L.M. Montgomery
Yearling; Published: 1984-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.62
Price in other shops:
Island of the Blue Dolphinsby Scott O'Dell
Yearling; Published: 1987-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
A Little Princess (Puffin Classics)by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Puffin; Published: 2008-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Price in other shops: