April 15th, 2009
I finally got around to reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I don’t know why it took me so long to read this book. Although it is completely out of my normal genre (although, I may have to change what I consider that to be, considering the wide array of literature I’ve delved into lately), it is a fantastically written book!
It is about a little girl, Mary, who, though spoiled completely rotten, has no relationship with her mother, who would rather frolic amongst her social gatherings than deal with a little girl. When the cholera wipes out her household in India, she is sent to live with her uncle in England. Her uncle is a hermetic, cranky old man, who lives in a vast mansion with hundreds of rooms that are not even used. The estate is surrounded by gardens- one of which has been sealed off and the key buried in the soils. This forbidden garden is where his late wife spent all her time, and her love, and died in.
While Mary is wandering through the gardens one day, she happens upon the buried key, and then finds the hidden doorway to the garden. It becomes her secret, that she eventually shares with Dickon- a free spirited boy who befriends wild animals. After one of her investigations of the house in the middle of the night, she happens upon another young boy, Colin, who she discovers is her uncle’s son, hidden away thinking himself crippled, sick, and fearful of looming death. Mary brings Colin into her secret, and the three of them transform not only the neglected garden, but the neglected childhood within them, and watch with amazement at the life that blooms not only within the garden walls, but within themselves as well.
A beautiful story that made me want to run outside and dance in the fresh air, soak up the sun, and dig in the dirt! Fabulously created characters that jump to life off the page and linger in your imagination. A sweet way to rediscover the child within yourself.
A must-read!