book review on the secret garden

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The secret garden.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 14 Reviews
Kids Say 35 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Katherine Kearns , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Classic novel inspires love of nature.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 9+?

Racist references to "the blacks" (i.e. natives of India).

Early in the book, Mary drinks a glass of wine that an adult left unfinished; it

Mary recalls that when she lived in India, she slapped her Ayah (nursemaid) when

Any Positive Content?

Like gardens, children need lots of care, fresh air, and sunshine to blossom. Fr

Martha and her mother's easy, down-to-earth ways help Mary develop her love of n

Readers will learn the names of plants and flowers (rose, lilac, daffodil, crocu

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Early in the book, Mary drinks a glass of wine that an adult left unfinished; it puts her to sleep. Ben Weatherstaff tells the children about a man who went to the pub and got "drunk as a lord."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Mary recalls that when she lived in India, she slapped her Ayah (nursemaid) whenever she was angry. Ben Weatherstaff talks about a man who got drunk and beat his wife. Mary's parents die early in the book, leaving her orphaned. Characters argue.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Like gardens, children need lots of care, fresh air, and sunshine to blossom. Friendship and nature are healing, as is learning to take care of yourself.

Positive Role Models

Martha and her mother's easy, down-to-earth ways help Mary develop her love of nature and compassion for other creatures. Dickon (age 12) also sets a nice example, especially for boys, with his love and respect, and almost magical affinity, for all living things. Colin and Mary both grow in significant ways over the course of the story, changing from being selfish and demanding to generous, open, and supportive. Mary's experiences in India reflect the country's history as a place that was unjustly colonized; she speaks about the people there in a patronizing, racist way.

Educational Value

Readers will learn the names of plants and flowers (rose, lilac, daffodil, crocus, etc.), the difference between seeds and bulbs, and how to tell when a dormant plant is coming back to life in spring. They'll also learn a bit about the lifestyle of English aristocrats at the turn of the 20th century and how poorly colonizers treated India and its people.

Parents need to know that Frances Hodgson Burnett 's The Secret Garden is a beautifully written book about two selfish, disagreeable English cousins -- Mary and Colin -- whose lives and dispositions are transformed when they find their way into a locked, walled garden. Friendship and the restorative powers of nature help the children gain good spirits and health. For generations, this 1909 novel has inspired a love of nature and simple pleasures in young readers. That said, it includes some racist ideas about class, colonization, and Indian people. Indians are referred to as "natives" and "blacks," and Mary is angry and insulted when she's compared to them. Mary also takes an unkind, superior attitude toward servants and recalls losing her temper and slapping her Ayah (Indian nursemaid). Early in the novel, Mary's parents and many servants in the household die of cholera, leaving 10-year-old Mary alone. With no one to care for her, Mary becomes thirsty, drinks an abandoned glass of wine from her parents' dining table, and goes to sleep. Alcohol is mentioned again when the groundskeeper at Misselthwaite manor, Ben Weatherstaff, talks about another man being "drunk as a lord" and beating his wife. The Secret Garden has been made into a few different movie versions, including a 2020 adaptation starring Dixie Egerickx as Mary and Colin Firth as her uncle.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

Parents say (14)
Kids say (35)

Based on 14 parent reviews

Classic, but beware is a product of its time

What's the story.

Francis Hodgson Burnett's classic novel THE SECRET GARDEN begins in India, which at the turn of the 20th century was still part of the British Empire. Ten-year-old Mary Lennox has been living there with her parents, though her father is rarely present and her mother is most interested in dinner parties, so Mary's main caretaker has been her Ayah (nursemaid). Mary's parents and many of the servants in their household die of cholera, and the adults who survive flee the house, leaving Mary alone and unaware of what has happened. She's later discovered and sent to live with her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor, where she's rude to the household staff. She's at once spoiled and lost in a world of new customs and expectations. However, she's encouraged to spend time "out of doors," and the fresh air does her good. Her appetite begins to improve, and so does her temperament. She really turns a corner when she meets Dickon, the younger brother of one of the housemaids. Dickon has an innate, almost magical, connection to the natural world, and he inspires in Mary a fascination with plants and animals. Meanwhile, Mary discovers there's another child living in the house: a boy whose foul disposition reminds her of her former self. Mary shares with her new friends the story she's heard about a secret walled garden that was locked 10 years ago, after a tragedy occurred there. When Mary finds the long-buried key to the garden, the children set about bringing it back to life, and they blossom right along with it.

so monstrously spoiled that no one can stand them and they can hardly stand themselves. With the help of a boy of the moors and some natural magic, they discover an abandoned garden and return it to abundance. As the garden grows the children grow -- into their own better selves.

Is It Any Good?

For generations, this wonderful novel has inspired young readers to appreciate simple earthly pleasures like skipping rope, planting seeds and watching plants grow, and coming home to a hot meal. At the same time, The Secret Garden appeals to children's imaginations with its mysteries of cries in the night and the secret walled garden. Readers will also be entertained by Mary and Colin's bratty behavior, and then their growing friendship.

Though some characters express outdated and/or racist attitudes, readers are meant to understand that unkindness and disrespect are wrong. It also makes the novel ripe for discussing colonialist prejudice. And the story intriguingly equates nurturing the neglected garden with restoring the health and vibrancy of the youngsters. This classic has been made into a few film versions , including a 2020 adaptation directed by Marc Munden.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the two cousins in The Secret Garden . Why are Mary and Colin so disagreeable at first? What helps them behave better?

What are some things that Mary and Colin have in common?

What would you grow in your own garden if you had one?

Book Details

Author : Frances Hodgson Burnett
Illustrator : Tasha Tudor
Genre : Fantasy
Topics : Friendship , Science and Nature
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : HarperCollins Children's Books
Publication date : January 1, 1911
Number of pages : 368
Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
Last updated : September 25, 2020

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The Secret Garden: Book Review & Reading Guide

Apr 25, 2024

If you’re here, chances are you’re already familiar with The Secret Garden . This timeless tale has captured the hearts of countless readers and viewers over the years. It’s a story that lingers in your thoughts, prompting reflection and posing intriguing questions. The characters are wonderfully complex—they can be frustrating yet exhilarating in their moments of happiness. Whether you’re rediscovering this story or introducing it to a new generation, I hope this review proves valuable. Share your own first encounter with The Secret Garden in the comments and let me know what this enchanting story has meant to you.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a timeless classic that tells the story of Mary Lennox, a young girl who is sent to live with her uncle in a gloomy English manor after being orphaned. Lonely and neglected, Mary discovers a neglected garden hidden within the estate’s grounds. As she begins to tend to the garden with the help of new friends, including her cousin Colin and a local boy named Dickon, Mary’s spirits are lifted, and the magic of friendship and nature begins to transform her world.

Purchase Now From Amazon

Recommended for ages 8 and up, The Secret Garden is perfect for children and adults, as well. I had the pleasure of revisiting this story with my book club.

For book clubs reading The Secret Garden , discussions can explore themes of personal growth, resilience, and the healing power of nature. Consider examining how each character’s journey parallels the growth of the garden itself.

When I read this book with my own book club, we spent a lot of time talking about the theme of nature. Francis Hodgson Burnett studied Christian Science in the early 1880s and incorporated a lot of the themes from what she was learning into her book. As a group of Christians, our beliefs did not align with the authors, but we still enjoyed talking about how, for us, God’s glory is evident in the beauty of creation.

We often use these questions from Sally Clarkson as part of our discussion:

What beauty is there?
Where do we see courage?
Does anything remind us that we are not alone?

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of The Secret Garden , was a prolific writer known for her children’s literature. Born in England in 1849, her experiences living in both the United States and England influenced her writing style and settings. Burnett had two sons, which inspired her writing, as well as a love for gardening and the English countryside. Each of these important things shine through in the vivid descriptions in The Secret Garden .

Aesthetic of Illustrations and Book Covers

The numerous editions of The Secret Garden boast beautiful illustrations and covers that capture the story’s charm. From intricate line drawings to lush watercolors, these artistic renderings enhance the book’s enchanting aesthetic.

I have shared some of my favorite covers below, but this list is not an exhaustive list.

If you are looking for a print to frame and add to your home, be sure to look through some of the prints from The Journey of Books on Etsy . This is my sister’s shop and she has a great variety of sweet illustrations, many including quotes from the book.

Film Adaptations

There are a number of film adaptations of The Secret Garden , including a silent film that was made in 1919.

The first feature film was completed in 1949,
in 1975 a TV series was filmed,
a made-for-television adaptation was aired in 1987 (winning a Primetime Emmy the following year),
and the version that stands out most to me is the 1993 film.

Discussion Questions

If you are sharing this story with a group of friends in a book club, or wanting to discuss it as you read with your children, these questions will help guide you:

How does Mary’s character evolve throughout the story?
Discuss the significance of the secret garden as a metaphor for emotional healing.
How does the theme of friendship play out among the main characters?
Explore the role of nature in the story. How does the garden reflect the characters’ emotions?
What impact does the garden have on Colin’s transformation?
Compare and contrast Mary and Colin’s upbringing and their resulting personalities.
How does Dickon’s connection with animals symbolize his character?
Discuss the role of magic and mystery in the narrative.
Analyze the influence of the Yorkshire setting on the story’s mood and themes.
Reflect on the symbolism of the robin in the garden.

Book List: Aesthetic Publications

There are a number of books that have beautiful cover art and many with illustrations throughout the books. Here are some of my favorites:

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Another fantastic book written by the same author. This is one of my personal favorites!

The Secret Garden (Painted Edition)

The Secret Garden (Wordsworth Collection)

The Secret Garden (Puffin’s Clothbound Classics)

The secret garden (wordsworth exclusive collection).

The Secret Garden (Seasons Edition — Spring)

The Secret Garden (Fingerprint! Classics)

The Secret Garden: A Graphic Novel by Mariah Marsden

The Secret Garden: A BabyLit® Flowers Primer

The Secret Garden remains a beautiful tale that celebrates the power of nature and friendship. Its charm continues to inspire readers of all ages to uncover their own secret gardens, both literal and metaphorical. Let the magic of Burnett’s storytelling whisk you away into a realm where hidden wonders await.

Find other book reviews and reading guides in our book review library, and be sure to check out my other resources to help you make the most of your reading time with your kids!

*I use affiliate links to share products with you. If you use the link to make a purchase, the cost of the book doesn’t go up for you. However, I will receive a commission and I do appreciate your support.

Hi, I'm Brittany

I’ve created The Miraculous Journey of Books because I know parents like you want to build a lasting and loving relationship with your children. I have worked with hundreds of children in order to help them envision the books they read. It is now my goal to share my tips and resources with you, so you can experience the magic of books with your child.

REVIEW: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Dear Readers,

As a child, I loved Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. It’s considered a classic novel and is the story of children beginning to blossom as they bring a locked, abandoned garden to life.

Sometime in the past couple of years I revisited Little Lord Fauntleroy and was stunned by how bad it was: quite possibly the most treacly book I have ever read, poorly researched, and racist. Had I reviewed it here, I would have given it a big fat F. My expectations of The Secret Garden , my favorite Burnett novel in childhood, dropped at that time, but I thought that the book could not possibly be as bad as Little Lord Fauntleroy . For one thing, I remembered that the novel’s main character, Mary Lennox, was not an idealized, sugary, Marty Stu figure like Cedric, the eponymous Little Lord Fauntleroy.

The recent pandemic outbreak seemed like a good time to test that theory. The stress and anxiety has made me more amenable to reading something simple and potentially heartwarming. Some of my suppositions were correct; The Secret Garden is considerably better crafted than Little Lord Fauntleroy . But in other ways I was wrong.

The novel begins when nine-year-old Mary Lennox loses her parents to cholera. Mary is a spoiled and surly child living in India (no more specific location is given) when her home is struck with the illness. Mary’s parents and her Ayah (nursery maid) die, other servants desert the house, and the orphaned Mary is discovered utterly alone by two soldiers who come in to see if anyone has been left alive.

After a brief sojourn with a clergyman’s family (the children of the household mock her stubborn, angry demeanor by dubbing her “Mistress Mary, quite contrary,”) she is sent to her uncle’s Yorkshire country house. Mr. Craven, her uncle, is largely absent and his household is run by his housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, who picks up Mary in London and conveys her to her new home.

Mrs. Medlock doesn’t suffer fools gladly; she expects Mary to dress herself and amuse herself on her own (not wholly believable but I went with it), something Mary is unused to. Martha, a young Yorkshire maid, serves Mary a bit, chattering and catching Mary’s reluctant interest.

At first Mary is furious at being treated in such a way; she is arrogant and expects everyone to kowtow to her (we’re told more than once that her Indian servants did her bidding with alacrity).

As the days go on, though, Mary realizes she’ll have to find a way to fill up her time on her own. Martha gives her a jump rope encourages her to seek out the gardens; Mary does, and discovers the location of the “secret garden” Martha has mentioned to her.

The garden has been locked for a decade, Mary learns—ever since Mr. Craven’s late wife was badly injured when she fell off one of the garden’s trees. When she subsequently died, Mr. Craven could not bear the place, once his wife’s favorite spot. He locked the walled garden and buried the key. No one knows where it’s buried. Even more mysteriously, the garden appears to have no door.

Mary becomes acquainted with a handful of people one by one, and very gradually her circle of acquaintances, and not only that, of people she likes, widens. Martha is the first person Mary grows slightly fond of, then Ben Weatherstaff, a grumpy gardener, and a robin he likes. After that Deacon, Martha’s twelve-year-old brother, who can literally charm birds out of trees.

One day, the robin leads Mary to dig around in the soil at a particular spot, and she finds the key to the garden. Later she discovers the door, hidden under a thick cluster of ivy. She wonders if the garden is truly as dead as it appears to be, and begins to weed it, keeping her possession of the key to herself. The garden is a forbidden place, after all.

Mary’s friend Deacon is without a doubt an idealized figure, at times to an eye-rolling degree. He attracts animals and can make any plant thrive. He has tamed a crow and two squirrels (all three take turns sitting on his shoulders), a fox cub and a lamb. He can even speak to the robin in its own chirpy language. Mary lets Deacon in on her secret, and he begins to work in the garden with her.

Working in the garden and skipping with the jump rope strengthens Mary’s muscles. Whereas once she had a sallow complexion and a pinched expression and pecked at her food, now her appetite grows, her skin takes on a healthy glow, her eyes and her cheeks brighten. She loses her sullen demeanor and the people she likes come to like her in return.

On a particularly windy night, Mary hears a childish cry in a distant part of the house. Martha tells Mary that she has mistaken the howling of the wind for a human sound. On another occasion, while exploring the house, Mary hears another such cry and approaches the room it originates from. But Mrs. Medlock catches her and forbids her from encroaching on that part of the house.

Who is the child crying in the night? Can Mary and Deacon bring him or her to life and good health, much as the garden has brought Mary to both? And what will happen when Mr. Craven comes home and discovers the secret garden in bloom?

I can see why The Secret Garden is considered a classic—the concept of the children’s bodies and spirits healing as they awaken a nearly magical garden is not only heartwarming but also has an almost mythical air. There is more than a touch of the fantastical to this book, but most of the magic in it can be explained and viewed as natural rather than supernatural. Much of this is simplistic. Neither the major characters or the natural world have much complexity. But this is a children’s book, so I didn’t necessarily expect complexity.

The one human character who might be said to exist on the other side of the natural / supernatural divide is Deacon—he is a human boy, so we’re told, but he has capacities no boy can possess in reality. No creature, no matter how shy or secretive, can fail to trust him. There were times when I couldn’t suspend my disbelief where he was concerned.

Fortunately, Mary, being a more flawed and therefore more believable character, balances him out, as does the child who cries out in the night. Mary’s transformation is at the core of the novel. It’s easy to want to read more in order to see how she changes, even as she changes the garden. Still, the book approaches sappiness.

The book is also horribly racist. Indians are othered to an extreme degree, from beginning to end. In the very first chapter, the Lennox family’s Indian servants are portrayed as hard to fathom.

At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the servants’ quarters that she [Mary’s mother] clutched the young man’s arm, and Mary stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder. “What is it? What is it?” Mrs. Lennox gasped.

The “natives” (a word that seems pejorative to me) are portrayed without dimension. Multifaceted desires, needs, emotions and skills are absent from their characterizations. They are not given names or personalities, either.

Contrasting the maid Martha and the servants Mary had in India, the novel’s omniscient narrator tells us: “This was plain speaking and Mary Lennox had never heard the truth about herself in her life. Native servants always salaamed and submitted to you, whatever you did.”

Even the climate in India is a monolith in this book, with no distinction from season to season or place to place:

“I can’t help thinking about what it will look like,” he answered. “The garden?” asked Mary. “The springtime,” he said. “I was thinking that I’ve really never seen it before. I scarcely ever went out and when I did go I never looked at it. I didn’t even think about it.” “I never saw it in India because there wasn’t any,” said Mary.

A line drawn is from India’s stifling heat to Mary’s initial ill-health and sallow complexion, and another from Mary’s newfound haleness and well-being to the salutary effects of the crisp Yorkshire air.

Worst of all is the dehumanizing of Indians. In one scene, after Martha tells Mary that she’d expected her to be an Indian child, we get this:

Mary sat up in bed furious. “What!” she said. “What! You thought I was a native. You—you daughter of a pig!” Martha stared and looked hot. “Who are you callin’ names?” she said. “You needn’t be so vexed. That’s not th’ way for a young lady to talk. I’ve nothin’ against th’ blacks. When you read about ’em in tracts they’re always very religious. You always read as a black’s a man an’ a brother. I’ve never seen a black an’ I was fair pleased to think I was goin’ to see one close. When I come in to light your fire this mornin’ I crep’ up to your bed an’ pulled th’ cover back careful to look at you. An’ there you was,” disappointedly, “no more black than me—for all you’re so yeller.” Mary did not even try to control her rage and humiliation. “You thought I was a native! You dared! You don’t know anything about natives! They are not people—they’re servants who must salaam to you. You know nothing about India. You know nothing about anything!”

If not for the racism, I might have been swept up in the quiet magic worked by the secret garden and the Yorkshire moors. I was able to not only read to the end but to turn pages pretty well, considering that the book has a leisurely pace. I was able to compartmentalize and enjoy the story to a degree. But not entirely–my mind ping-ponged from the comforting calm of the garden to the awful bigotry.

This is a hard book to grade because I can see why it’s a classic to some and why others will find it offensive. To an extent I felt nostalgic due to my childhood enchantment with it. Splicing these factors together brings me to a grade of D/C-.

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Literary Ladies Guide

An archive dedicated to classic women authors and their work, the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett (1911), by taylor jasmine | on december 18, 2022 | updated august 15, 2024 | comments (2).

Though Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849 – 1924) wrote more than forty novels, The Secret Garden (1911) remains one of her most enduring works, along with A Little Princess (1905).

Burnett was a poet and playwright in addition to her prolific output of novels and short stories for adults and children. Quite successful professionally, she had a difficult, sometimes tragic life.

The Secret Garden was published in 1911 after an original version was first serialized in The American Magazine in 1910. The story follows the journey of Mary Lennox, a sickly and unloved ten-year-old girl born to wealthy British parents in India.

After a cholera epidemic kills her parents, Mary is sent to England to live with her Uncle Archibald in an isolated, mysterious house. The tale follows the spoiled and sulky young girl as she slowly sheds her sour demeanor after discovering a secret, locked garden on the grounds of her uncle’s manor.

Mary befriends Dickon, one of the servant’s brother, a free spirit who was able to communicate with animals, and Colin, her uncle’s son, a neglected invalid. The Secret Garden has remained a timeless classic for its themes of friendship and the power of nature to heal the body and spirit.

. . . . . . . . . .

See also: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

. . . . . . . . .

An original 1911 review of The Secret Garden

From the original review of The Secret Garden in The Times Dispatch, Richmond, VA, October 29, 1911:

Readers of all the many charming books that Frances Hodgson Burnett has written to delight the world and make it better will find The Secret Garden full of sweet and unexpected pleasures.

It’s a portrayal of the joyous laughter of childhood, the scents and sounds of fragrant growing things, and the bloom of roses, and the magic that heals and comforts and makes the weak and sick strong.

The titled garden was secret because the door to it had been locked and the key buried — along with its secrets. A long time before the book’s story began, the lady of the manor — a wife and mother — bent above its borders and tended its flowers. But because her life ended tragically early, it was barred, and the flowers were left untended and forsaken.

Introducing the contrary Mary Lennox

After years had passed, a little girl named Mary Lennox, whose parents had died in India from cholera, cat to Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire, England, the place were the secret garden stood.

Archibald Craven, the owner of the manor, was Mary’s uncle. She was a thin, sallow child, with thin light hair and a sour expression. She had never enjoyed any affection from her thoughtless, carefree young mother, and became a disagreeable child even before the untimely death of her parents.

Before Mary came to Misselthwaite Manor, she had had none of the amusements of a healthy childhood.

. . . . . . . . . .

Secret Garden Quote by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Quotes from The Secret Garden

Discovering the secret garden and meeting Dickon

Soon after coming under the care of her uncle, Mary discovered the secret garden. She picked up the key, pushed aside an overhanging curtain of ivy, and went inside the ancient walls.

Once she had been working in the garden for a time, her little peaked face began to grow round and rosy.

Mary found a playmate, a boy named Dickon, who was a brother of the housemaid. Dickon was the son of a kind, motherly woman named Susan Sowerby and was versed in all the nature lore of the Yorkshire moors.

Dickon had made friends with many of the wild things and taught Mary a great deal about the ways of birds and squirrels and lambs. He taught her how to plant and tend flowers, too.

Fronticepiece from The Secret Garden by Charles Robinson, 1911 edition

Charles Robinson illustration from The Secret Garden, 1911 edition . . . . . . . . . .

Everyone finds their own contentment

Mary had begun to feel the good effects of her changed surroundings, thriving and growing in a natural, healthy way. Then, she happened upon her cousin Colin Craven, who was the son of her Uncle Archibald. An invalid, he was over-doctored, over-nursed, and over-indulged.

Colin was brought to the point of believing that he couldn’t walk, run, or participate in any of the games that children love. Instead, he had a highly developed set of nerves and an undeveloped spine due to lack of exercise and fresh air.

As to what the garden did for these two unhappy children, Mary and Colin, readers of the book will discover. Perhaps it did more for Colin’s father than for anyone else.

But it might not have done so much had it not been for Dickon and Susan Sowerby and the encouragement they gave in making the weak grow strong, and the unhappy to find contentment.

The Secret Garden will have a place in the affections of the world along with Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess .

More about The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

An analysis of a classic children’s book
Full text on Project Gutenberg
Audio recording on Librivox
Various film adaptations listed on IMDB

… and read about more Literary Orphan Girls .

Categories: Book Reviews

2 responses to “the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett (1911)”.

One of my all time favorite books. I’ve listened to the audio version many times which is a treat to hear the different accents of the characters.

“May I have a bit of earth?” Any gardener will understand the magic that is about to begin in the lives of these characters. It all starts in the garden.

I think it’s time to listen to this treasure again. Thanks for the reminder!

Thank you, Brenda — it is a timeless and magical book!

The Secret Garden | Book Review

Book Review of The Secret Garden The Children’s Book Review

The Secret Garden

Written by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Ages: 8+ | 352 Pages

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions | ISBN-13: 9781840227796

What to Expect: Classic Literature, Mystery, Adventure, Nature, Friendship, and Self-Discovery

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a timeless classic that weaves a tale of transformation and renewal, capturing the essence of growth both in nature and within the human spirit. Originally titled “Mistress Mary,” the book draws inspiration from a well-known English nursery rhyme, setting the tone for a story that mirrors the rhyme’s themes of change and enchantment.

The narrative follows Mary Lennox, a sour-faced and spoiled orphan, as she is sent to live with her reclusive uncle at the gloomy Misselthwaite Manor. The mansion, with its multitude of locked rooms, serves as a metaphor for the characters’ emotional barriers. Mary’s exploration of the surrounding gardens becomes a metaphorical journey of self-discovery, leading her to the mysterious and long-forgotten secret garden.

As Mary unearths the key to the secret garden, Burnett masterfully unfolds a captivating tale of friendship and the healing powers of nature. The garden becomes a symbol of rebirth, both for the land and the characters. The vivid descriptions of the garden’s transformation are a testament to Burnett’s skill in portraying the enchanting beauty of nature’s cyclical renewal.

The characters, including the sickly cousin Colin, undergo profound changes, mirroring the growth of the garden itself. The narrative skillfully explores themes of resilience, friendship, and the transformative power of love. Mary’s personal growth, from a spoiled child to a compassionate friend, is beautifully portrayed, emphasizing the idea that, like the garden, individuals have the potential for renewal and positive change.

To fully appreciate the magic within “The Secret Garden,” it is recommended to read the book during the transition from winter to spring. The symbolism of the changing seasons aligns with the story’s themes of growth and renewal, making the reading experience all the more enchanting. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic continues to resonate with readers of all ages, reminding us that, much like Mistress Mary’s garden, there is always room for growth and beauty in our own lives.

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What to read next if you love the secret garden.

A Little Princess , by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Ballet Shoes , by Noel Streatfeild
Heidi , by Johanna Spyri
Anne of Green Gables , by L. M. Montgomery

Bianca Schulze reviewed The Secret Garden . Discover more books like The Secret Garden by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Classics .

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Mary Lennox was horrid. Selfish and spoilt, she was sent to stay with her hunchback uncle in Yorkshire. She hated it. But when she finds the way into a secret garden and begins to tend to it, a change comes over her and her life. She meets and befriends a local boy, the talented Dickon, and comes across her sickly cousin Colin who had been kept hidden from her. Between them, the three children work astonishing magic in themselves and those around them.

I’m so glad I finally picked up this book as recommended to me by Alex , as it is her favourite book! Thank you Alex for all of your encouragement when it came to finally getting me to pick this one up, I really enjoyed it.

As you’ve probably picked up by now, I didn’t read many children’s classics when I was an actual child, and I’m only getting around to reading them now. I find this to be hit and miss, but The Secret Garden has been one of my favourites so far in this little experiment. I really enjoyed so much about this book! All I knew is that there was a garden (I wonder how I figured that out?) and that this book followed a little girl. Who knew how much more this book had to offer?

It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled.

Firstly, I loved the character of Mary. She moves to Yorkshire from India at the start of this story to live in her Uncle’s house. She is rude to everyone, very spoilt and arrogant to all those she meets. However, she learns so much about people and herself throughout this story, which I loved. She has a genuine redemption arc which was a joy to read about, and she’s not the only character who does. Many of the characters throughout this story grew and learned about how to treat other people. It was beautiful, and I loved their friendships with each other and the adults around them.

The garden itself was also a delight, and I could visualise the beautiful plants and flowers. I loved the symbolisation of the growth of the garden reflected in the characters, and watching the garden grow with them was so lovely. I read this book over a few days, and I read 300 pages of it in a day as part of a readathon. I actually found my enjoyment of the book grew the longer I was reading it, as it just felt like the perfect amount of time to immerse myself in the story. It was so easy to carry on reading as there was so many hints and mysteries dropped throughout the book, and I just wanted to find out what was going to be revealed next.

She had not thought of it before.

Although this book wasn’t perfect, and I sadly felt a little disconnected in the last few pages, there is so much to love about this book. It had the most beautiful, immersive surroundings and lovable characters. I think I would have really loved it as a child!

★★★★ 4 out of 5 stars

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/thebooksareverywhere

3 thoughts on “ Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett ”

This is one of my favourite books–the magic of the garden and the transformation in the children is wonderful. Enjoyed reading your review–makes me want to revisit the book again.

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It really is! Thank you 🙂

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The Secret Garden

Devra newberger speregen ( adapted by ).

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born and Britain and immigrated to Tennessee as a teenager. One of the most popular writers of her time, The Secret Garden is her best-known work.

191 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1995

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Devra Newberger Speregen

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The secret garden by frances hodgson burnett [a review].

Mary Lennox is a young English girl growing up in India where her father has a position in the Raj government and her mother is a somewhat vain socialite. Ignored by her parents, Mary is a spoiled child, ‘ugly’ in appearance and manners, who bosses her Indian servants like a tyrant. When a cholera epidemic leaves her an orphan, she is sent back to England to live with an uncle, Mr Craven, in Misselthwaite Manor.

She receives no more attention here than she did in India as her uncle is a widower and a loner who spends long periods away from the Manor. The servants in her uncle’s home are not as easy to intimidate as her previous ones in India and soon Mary finds herself forced to do a little self-reflection about her manners and her temperament.

Since she had been living in other people’s houses and had had no Ayah, she had begun to feel lonely and to think queer thoughts which were new to her. She had begun to wonder why she had never seemed to belong to anyone even when her father and mother had been alive. Other children seemed to belong to their fathers and mothers, but she had never seemed to really be any one’s little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice of her. She did not know that this was because she was a disagreeable child; but then of course, she did know that she was disagreeable. She often thought that other people were, but she did not know that she was so herself.

As soon as she realises that she is perhaps quite lonely, Mary makes her first friend. Dickon is the younger brother of Martha, Mary’s maid. Outdoorsy and resourceful, Dickon has a love of animals and nature that soon appeals to Mary. Freed from the confinements of privilege, Mary begins to rapidly grow and mature.

[…] she had run in the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily hungry for the first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for some one. She was getting on.

But Mary is also intrigued by the mysteries that surround her at the Manor. Secrets that Martha and the gardener, Ben, avoid talking about. She is certain she can hear the sound of a child crying, echoing through the huge mansion. She is also curious about the story of her uncle’s dead wife and the garden she tended, said to have been locked away, its location now forgotten.

The Secret Garden is, of course, a children’s book, but I had never read it as a child. One of the pleasures of reading it as an adult is to enjoy the simple, easy-to-read, style of it. The simple style, though, hides an intricate story with more than one mystery, characters with complex psychology and concealed themes. Burnett, I felt, shows considerable storytelling skill in choosing when to say very little and when to let the story bloom with details. I also appreciated her grasp of the speech and mannerisms of the child characters.

Already a fan of them, I loved the gothic elements in the story. The eerie early chapters, where Mary is largely alone in a large dark mansion; forbidden from exploring its long corridors and unvisited rooms full of collections of eccentric objects, mysteries and secrets; where the eyes of the portraits and murals seem to follow you as you wander and where strange haunting sounds echo throughout.

If the early plot – an unloved girl orphaned after an epidemic, living in a dark and empty mansion whose master is absent and where someone is secretly confined – reminds you of another favourite gothic classic, Alison Laurie, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, suggests in her introduction to this Penguin Classics edition that these clear similarities to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre are no coincidence but she also cites Juliana Horatia Ewing’s Six to Sixteen as influential as well.

I felt one of the strong themes of the novel was of the need to have space of one’s own. Mary has lived surrounded by carers and servants with little privacy, no space, no need or ability to keep secrets and no awareness of her own personal failings and how they might be related. The garden allows her room to develop unguided, unhindered and unaided.

[…] If she liked it she could go into it every day and shut the door behind her, and she could make up some play of her own and play it quite alone, because nobody would ever know where she was, but would think the door was still locked and the key buried in the earth. The thought of that pleased her very much.

There is the sense here that to have wealth and class are not only privileges but are also confining. Character, like the mind, the body or a garden needs to be worked, nurtured and maintained in order to develop and grow. Combining these, the healing power of nature and of rebirth is also one of the main themes of the story.

“That’s fresh air,” she said. “lie on your back and draw in long breaths of it. That’s what Dickon does when he’s lying on the moor. He says he feels it in his veins and it makes him strong and he feels as if he could live forever and ever. Breathe it and breathe it.”

The Secret Garden did start to lose me at the end. Towards the end of the book the children begin indulging a fancy for magic, natural healing, positivity and New Age spiritualism, much of it under the guise of being ‘scientific’. It was something I found at times silly, at times cringe-worthy, at others misguided. If you don’t find it adorable you have to try and remind yourself that these characters are children, though this aspect does reflect the views of the author.

For moderns American readers in the 1970’s, The Secret Garden became something of a cult book among high school and college students. And it isn’t hard to see why, considering that The Secret Garden is the story of two unhappy, sickly, overcivilised children who achieve health and happiness through a combination of remedies that were popular at the time: moving to the country, communal gardening, mystical faith, daily exercise, encounter-group-type confrontation and a health-food diet. – From the Introduction.

Lately The Secret Garden has attracted other criticisms for its portrayals or ideas about gender roles, social classes and race. It is another example of applying todays moral standard to works from the past, unfairly. Though, child readers won’t know to consider the historical context, so an abridged version may be preferable to the original. Laurie defends the novel by pointing out the ways in which The Secret Garden was ahead of its time and that it was never intended as a ‘realistic’ story.

“I dare say it’s because there’s such a lot o’ blacks there instead o’ respectable white people. When I heard you was comin’ from India I thought you was a black too.”

Laurie also discusses the legacy of The Secret Garden in her introduction. Though Burnett was already as successful writer when she wrote it, The Secret Garden became her most enduring work. Several adaptations in multiple forms have been produced. Laurie mentions its influence on TS Eliot’s Four Quartets and DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover . The latter is a comparison I never thought of when reading The Secret Garden but is plain to see in hindsight.

Maybe if I had read The Secret Garden as a child I might have gained a greater affection for it. Instead, while I did enjoy much of it, I don’t think it will be a favourite of mine but one of many classics that I can at least enjoy saying that I have now read it.

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

I love this book, it’s one of my favourites as it is so comforting and beautiful to read. And I adore the robin!

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett available on Amazon Kindle Hardback Paperback

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Mary Lennox is brought to England from India to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven, after her parents die. Her uncle is away travelling, however, and Mary is left to amuse herself in the big rambling Misselthwaite Manor and its grounds on the Yorkshire Moors. She gradually becomes friends with the servant, Martha, who introduces her to her family, and in particular her brother, Dickon, who has an affinity with animals. Mary discovers, guided by the lovely robin who is a major character of the book, a neglected and secret garden in the grounds of the house, and determines, with Dickon’s help, to restore it. The garden was locked up by Craven when his wife had an accident and died in it. Mary also discovers a child living in the house, Colin, the son of Craven, who has been told and firmly believes he is a hunchback and cannot walk. They become friends and Mary takes Colin to the garden in his wheelchair and he helps Mary and Colin restore it, and also tries walking in the garden and discovers he can actually walk and gradually builds up strength and health, though they keep this a secret from the servants. Craven then arrives home and finds the garden full of flowers and Colin healthy and happy.

I am surprised at how Mary was represented at the start of this book, being described as disagreeable and unfriendly and demanding, when she had been through some terrible traumas. She was neglected and ignored as a child, she knew she was unwanted by her parents and hadn’t been shown any affection from them and had barely seen them, then her parents died and she had to move from India and everything she knew and go to England where everything was strange and unfamiliar and she had to live with a stranger, her uncle, who didn’t even greet her on her arrival. My heart just bled for her and how scared and alone she must have felt. I know this was written in a different time when children and their problems were dealt with differently, but I can’t help being surprised that the author wasn’t more sympathetic towards Mary, or tried to explain her behaviours as being due to these traumas. I imagine if the book was written today, then the first few chapters describing Mary would be much more sympathetic towards her. Poor poor Mary, bless her.

And I loved Mary’s relationship with the servant, Martha, and how their trust grew with each other and how they both gained from each other, their backgrounds being so different and the contrast that Martha’s family lacked money but had much affection and love, and Mary had much money but had always lacked affection and love. It was so touching when Martha’s mother used their little bit of money to buy a skipping rope for Mary. And also Mary’s excitement at the prospect of meeting Martha’s family, which must have seemed like a dream life for Mary who had never really had a family or people who care for her, it was so touching to read.

I think my favourite bit of the book though was the lovely exchanges with the robin and the descriptions of his inquisitive and cheeky behaviour, ‘the robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite so adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off – and they are nearly always doing it’. This just warmed my heart and cheered me, it was so beautifully written and so charming, and whenever I see a robin it always makes me smile.

And another favourite bit is obviously the excitement of Mary finally finding the door to the secret garden, this was also so beautifully written with the description of the breeze blowing back the ivy and her seeing the door handle and taking it in both hands and turning the stiff key, then actually entering the garden and seeing all the draping mystical-like branches, and her joy at seeing green shoots in the ground and knowing that the garden is actually still alive. This is one of my all-time favourite passages in a book, I think. And I’m sure this section stayed with me when I read it as a child and gave me that hope that I’d stumble across a secret garden myself, and I’m also sure is the cause of me always gazing wistfully and speculatively at lovely little unusual doors I see in garden walls! It is such a wonderful book. I’ve not read any other books by this author but have been looking at a few that sound worth reading, particular A Lady of Quality which sounds like more of an adults book than a children’s book, and Little Lord Fauntleroy which sounds interesting with the mix of English and New York life.

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The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Book Review

Initial thoughts on the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett.

The natural order of life is for people to grow, evolve, and have the ability to adapt to change. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is really about the transformative power of finding “passion” which gives meaning to life. The author’s writing is very vivid, and the words jump off the pages and transport readers into the story where they become a participant versus a passive observer.

What is The Secret Garden By Frances Hodgson Burnett About?

The Secret Garden, secret garden summary, secret garden frances hodgson,frances hodgson, frances hodgson books, summary secret garden, secret garden,becoming a better person, image of beautiful flowers in a garden

First published in 1911, The Secret Garden is a story about 10-year old Mary Lennox, a self-absorbed, sour and sickly girl who becomes an orphan when a cholera epidemic kills her parents and the staff at their home in India. Mary is sent to Misselthwaite Manor in the United Kingdom to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven who is still grieving 10 years after his wife’s death. Shortly after Mary’s arrival, Archibald leaves on a journey to heal his aching and grieving heart.

At the Manor, chambermaid Martha is the only one who has time for Mary, and she regales the child with tales about living on the moor. Martha also talks about her brother Dickon Sowerby , a spirited lad with a kind disposition, who has a “green thumb” and the unique ability to charm animals. After hearing about Dickon, Mary is fascinated and wants to meet him.

One day while exploring the grounds at the Manor, Mary finds the key to the Secret Garden which she has heard about. Everyone is banned from entering the garden, but Mary who has always been accustomed to getting her own way, enters the garden. Her transformation begins immediately. Later, she meets Dickon and shares her secret with him. Together they sneak into the Garden each day and work hard at restoration by pruning and planting new flowers. Doing something that she cares about, Mary gets stronger and her sickness starts to disappear. Because her life now has meaning, she becomes a nicer person and her sourly nature starts to fade.

One night while in her bedroom, she hears weeping and decides to investigate. She discovers her 10 year cousin Colin Craven who is confined to his bedroom because he refuses to go outside. Colin is convinced that he has a disability and is going to die very soon.

“Mary stood near the door with her candle in her hand, holding her breath. Then she crept across the room, and as she drew nearer the light attracted the boy’s attention and he turned his head on his pillow and stared at her, his grey eyes opening so wide that they seemed immense. ‘Who are you?” he said at last in a half-frightened whisper. ‘Are you a ghost?’ ‘No, I am not,” Mary answered, her own whisper sounding half-frightened. ‘Are you One?’… ‘No,’ he replied after waiting a moment or so. ‘I am Colin.’ ‘Who is Colin?’ she faltered. ‘I am Colin Craven. Who are you?’ ‘I am Mary Lennox. Mr. Craven is my uncle.’ ‘He is my father,’ said the boy. ‘Your father!’ gasped Mary. ‘No one ever told me he had a boy! Why didn’t they?’”

Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book

Like any other relationship, this one has its ups and downs, but the two cousins develop a bond. When Mary feels that she can trust Colin she tells him about the Garden. Together Mary, Colin and Dickon go to the Garden each day to work.

As the story unfolds, the transformative power of the Garden spreads to Mary and Colin, and, as the Garden comes to life, so do Mary and Colin. Both regain their strength and health and Colin no longer needs his wheelchair. Not only is their health restored through the transformation, but they learn the importance of appreciation and showing consideration for others. What seemed impossible now becomes possible.

Five Great Ideas from The Secret Garden By Frances Hodgson Burnett

“You learn things by saying them over and over and thinking about them until they stay in your mind forever…”
“The beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen until you make them happen.”
Make life meaningful by doing work that you are passionate about. Live each day as if it were your last
Everyone wants to be liked, appreciated and wanted. People also want to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves
To receive compassion you have to be compassionate and to earn respect you have to respect others

Final Thoughts on The Secret Garden By Frances Hodgson Burnett

If you are a fan of Frances Hodgson Burnett, below you will find some biographies and more books by her.

Frances Hodgson Burnett Biography

Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life of the Author of The Secret Garden

Books by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Book Review

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Book Review

The secret garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Coming-of-Age , Historical

Readability Age Range

Frederick A. Stokes (Heinemann)
NEA Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children, 2007; SLJ Top 100 Children’s Novels for the 21st Century, 2012

Year Published

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

Ten-year-old Mary Lennox is a sour, spoiled child raised mainly by servants. Her father holds a position with the English Government in India, and her beautiful mother loves people and parties. When a cholera outbreak kills everyone in her house, Mary is sent to temporarily live with an English clergyman and his family. Then she sails to England to live with an uncle she’s never met named Archibald Craven.

Mr. Craven’s home, as old as it is enormous, is called Misselthwaite Manor. It sits on the edge of a moor. Mr. Craven’s housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, tells Mary most of the gloomy manor has been locked up since Mr. Craven’s wife died 10 years earlier. She warns the girl not to go poking around. The next day, Mary meets a friendly housemaid named Martha. Martha doesn’t coddle her as Mary’s maids did in India, which makes her confused and angry.

Mary hates the bleak moor out her window. She becomes intrigued, however, when Martha mentions a garden once belonging to Mrs. Craven. It has been locked since her death, and Mr. Craven has buried the key. When Mary goes outside to explore, she searches for the mysterious walled garden. She meets an old gardener named Ben Weatherstaff and an attentive robin she soon considers a friend. When Mary asks about Mrs. Craven’s garden, Ben tells her there is no door to the garden and hasn’t been for 10 years. He echoes Mrs. Medlock’s warning not to poke around.

Mary asks Martha more questions about the garden. The maid reveals Mrs. Craven died there after a tree branch she was sitting on fell. Mary also inquires about a noise she’s been hearing in the halls. It sounds like the crying of a child. Martha insists it’s just the wind.

Mary begins to eat more and gains some color in her cheeks. She enjoys hearing Martha talk about her large, poor family. Mary is particularly interested in Martha’s 12-year-old brother, Dickon. He seems to have a special gift for tending plants and animals. Mary explores the house, passing old artwork and dusty rooms. Again, she hears the crying sound. Mrs. Medlock finds Mary in a forbidden part of the mansion and ushers her out, warning that she may get herself locked up if she doesn’t stop poking her nose where it doesn’t belong.

Martha’s mother, Susan, buys Mary a jump rope. While Mary is out jumping one day, the robin guides her to a buried key and the door to Mrs. Craven’s walled garden. Mary walks in and wonders if anything there is still alive. Without mentioning the garden, she later asks Martha to send Dickon to buy her gardening tools and flower seeds. Dickon brings the things to Mary himself. She likes him right away and shows him the secret garden. He says many flowers are still alive, and the two spend long days pruning and planting.

Mr. Craven calls Mary to his study for the first time. She realizes he is not ugly or horrible, as she’d expected, just very sad. She asks him for some earth on which to grow flowers, and he tells her she may take any unwanted piece of land she finds. He leaves on a long trip.

In the night, Mary continues to hear crying. She finally stumbles upon a bedroom where a boy her age lies. Once they each determine the other is not a ghost, they discover they are cousins. Colin is Mr. Craven’s son. He cries and throws horrible fits because he’s been led to believe he’s dying or becoming a hunchback. Mary tells him wonderful things about the moor and India, and her company delights Colin.

The servants are grieved to know Mary has discovered the boy. They quickly change their minds, however, when they see how Mary can scold and sway him in a way no one else can. People have always given him whatever he has wanted. Since Mary herself used to be spoiled and sullen, she fearlessly tells him to stop whining and start living.

Mary arranges for Dickon to come to Colin’s room and bring the various animals he’s charmed. Mary and Dickon convince Colin to come with them to the secret garden. Colin hasn’t been out of the house in years, but he loves the idea. He demands all of the servants stay away from the gardens so no one will see where they go. The three spend many days in the beautiful, blooming walled garden. Mary’s and Colin’s appetites continue to increase, and they grow stronger.

Ben, the gardener, is angry at first to discover them there. In time, he becomes their helper and ally, especially after he sees how Colin is improving. Not only does Colin grow healthier, but he secretly learns to stand and then walk. He keeps these new abilities a secret from all but his friends in the garden, as he wants to surprise his father when Mr. Craven returns from his trip. Mary and Colin are convinced there is Magic surrounding them and within them that is causing all of the change and beauty in nature and in their hearts. Dickon has told his mother about the garden, so Susan comes to visit as well. Colin exercises daily and proclaims he will live forever.

Far away, Mr. Craven feels a sudden sense of hope that has long eluded him. When he receives a letter from Susan urging him to come home, he prepares at once. Upon his return, he feels he is being led to the secret garden. He arrives to find his son healthy and walking. They walk back to the manor together, in full view of the awe-struck servants.

Christian Beliefs

Ben says Mrs. Craven is in heaven. Ben and the children sing the Doxology in a moment of joy and celebration. Mrs. Medlock refers to the sneaky Mary and Colin as a pair of young Satans.

Other Belief Systems

Mary and Colin believe in and speak a great deal about Magic. The word is capitalized throughout the book. Mary hears many stories about Magic from her servants in India. The kids believe it is the life force in nature, what makes the garden grow. Dickon is able to charm animals.

Colin decides to grow up to be a scientist who studies the essence of this Magic. He sits everyone in a circle and has them chant to call forth the Magic so he can walk. Mary clarifies she’s certain this is good, or white, Magic. After they all sing the Doxology, Colin says the lyrics are expressing the same thing he means when he says he’s thankful to the Magic. When he asks Dickon’s mother if she believes in Magic, she says yes. She says she never heard it called that before, but she supposes there are different names for it everywhere. She also suggests it doesn’t matter what you call it since it made Colin well. She refers to it as the Big Good Thing and the Joy Maker. (Notes in the book explain author Frances Hodgson Burnett was a Christian Scientist, which informed her worldview and the worldview of her characters.)

Authority Roles

While not an unkind soul, the grief-stricken Mr. Craven distances himself from everyone. Stern Mrs. Medlock warms to Mary once she sees the girl’s impact on Colin. Martha speaks kindly and honestly to Mary, sharing stories of her family. Mrs. Medlock, Martha and the other servants are required to pander to the every command of the spoiled, 10-year-old Colin. Susan Sowerby is a well-respected mother of 10 who offers wise advice. Ben seems surly at first but becomes a friend and helper when he sees what the garden has done for the children’s health.

Profanity & Violence

The phrase Good Lord appears a few times. Ben calls the people spreading rumors about Colin’s condition jacka–es .

Sexual Content

Discussion topics.

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

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Book Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

by Becca Wierwille | Dec 28, 2022 | Book Reviews

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett book cover

*Please note: This post contains affiliate links.

Classic children’s books have a special place in our hearts, don’t they?

It’s amazing that a book first published in 1910 could still be relevant to and loved by kids today. And yet, that’s exactly what Frances Hodgson Burnett accomplished with her beloved story, The Secret Garden ( Amazon Affiliate Link ).

I wish I could say I experienced this classic as a child, but instead, I’m almost embarrassed to say that I read it for the first time this year. I found a beautiful hardback edition at a book sale and enjoyed diving into the beauty and charm of the story.

If you’re like me and didn’t grow up reading The Secret Garden , let’s take a step back.

The Secret Garden is the story of an orphan named Mary who is sent to live in her uncle’s magnificent, mysterious mansion on the Yorkshire Moors. Mary discovers a love for the gardens outside the mansion—specifically, a secret walled garden with a missing key.

When Mary finds a way into the secret garden and vows to bring it back to life, her own life also begins to transform. Can new, unexpected friendships and a lot of fresh air change everything?

The cast of The Secret Garden shows us the “Magic” around us—the beauty that we might miss if we don’t stop to see it.

As the characters talked about the “Magic” of the garden and of the outdoors and of all the other things I don’t want to spoil, I couldn’t help thinking that the “Magic” has a different, truer name. The reason we can step outside and feel awestruck by creation is that we have a magnificent Creator. He fills our world and our lives with beauty, even in the midst of all the brokenness and the hard things that are also going on. He gives us life.

And because of our Creator, sometimes the whole world feels like a garden.

So, all that to say … don’t be like me and put off reading this story any longer! If you haven’t read The Secret Garden , pick up your own copy today.

The link below is an affiliate link for Amazon, which helps support me in creating more posts like this one!

And never forget … you are wonderfully created.

Love, Becca

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The Secret Garden

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Table Of Contents

The Secret Garden , novel for children written by American author Frances Hodgson Burnett and published in book form in 1911 (having previously been serialized in The American Magazine ). The pastoral story of self-healing became a classic of children’s literature and is considered to be among Burnett’s best work.

The novel centres on Mary Lennox, who is living in India with her wealthy British family. She is a selfish and disagreeable 10-year-old girl who has been spoiled by her servants and neglected by her unloving parents. When a cholera epidemic kills her parents and the servants, Mary is orphaned. After a brief stay with the family of an English clergyman, she is sent to England to live with a widowed uncle, Archibald Craven , at his huge Yorkshire estate, Misselthwaite Manor. Her uncle is rarely at Misselthwaite, however. Mary is brought to the estate by the head housekeeper, the fastidious Mrs. Medlock, who shuts her into a room and tells her not to explore the house.

Book Jacket of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by American children's author illustrator Eric Carle (born 1929)

Mary is put off when she finds that the chambermaid, Martha, is not as servile as the servants in India. But she is intrigued by Martha’s stories about her own family, particularly those about her 12-year-old brother, Dickon, who has a nearly magical way with animals. When Martha mentions the late Mrs. Craven’s walled garden, which was locked 10 years earlier by the uncle upon his wife’s death, Mary is determined to find it. She spends the next few weeks wandering the grounds and talking to the elderly gardener, Ben Weatherstaff. One day, while following a friendly robin, Mary discovers an old key that she thinks may open the locked garden. Shortly thereafter, she spots the door in the garden wall, and she lets herself into the secret garden. She finds that it is overgrown with dormant rose bushes and vines (it is winter), but she spots some green shoots, and she begins clearing and weeding in that area.

Mary continues to tend the garden. Her interaction with nature spurs a transformation: she becomes kinder, more considerate, and outgoing. One day she encounters Dickon, and he begins helping her in the secret garden. Mary later uncovers the source of the strange sounds she has been hearing in the mansion: they are the cries of her supposedly sick and crippled 10-year-old cousin, her uncle’s son Colin, who has been confined to the house and tended to by servants. He and Mary become friends, and she discovers that Colin does not have a spinal deformation, as he has believed. Dickon and Mary take Colin to see the garden, and there he discovers that he is able to stand. The three children explore the garden together and plant seeds to revitalize it, and through their friendship and interactions with nature they grow healthier and happier. When her uncle returns and sees the amazing transformation that has occurred to his son and his formerly abandoned garden now in bloom, he embraces his family, as well as their rejuvenated outlook on life.

This tale of transformation is an exaltation of nature and its effects on the human spirit. The physical and spiritual healing that Mary and Colin experience in the garden is mirrored in the seasons: it is winter when Mary discovers the garden; they begin working in spring and fully recover in summer; and Archibald Craven returns to find his son and the garden both healthy in the fall. In addition, Burnett’s interest in the theories of Christian Science and theosophy are reflected in the way that the children are healed, not only through contact with nature and with each other but also through positive thinking.

The Secret Garden was adapted for screen, television, and stage. The British Broadcasting Corporation aired three popular television adaptations (1952, 1960, and 1975). Notable film versions were produced in 1949 and in 1993 (with Maggie Smith as Mrs. Medlock), and the story was performed as a Broadway musical (1991–93).

The Secret Garden

By frances hodgson burnett.

'The Secret Garden' has a simple, uncomplicated plot that begins from the darkest points in each of the character's lives.

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

‘The Secret Garden ‘ by Frances Hodgson Burnett tells the story of a young orphan who was born into luxury, but loneliness. When she finds herself in another part of the world, she navigates through life with friends and nature. She eventually learns to see life in a better and happier light.

‘ The Secret Garden ‘ is a coming-of-age children’s literature that emphasizes the importance of positive thinking and hope. Friendship, love for nature, and curiosity are themes also written about .

‘Spoiler-Free’ Summary of The Secret Garden

The first four pages of this book talk about the character of Mary Lennox; a rich but badly mannered child . She is born to a mother who didn’t want a female child, hence has her kept away as much as possible. Perhaps, if Mary had known what parental love and affection were like, she wouldn’t have been so haughty and disagreeable to the maids who attended to her. Mary always wanted to have her way, and anything short of that made her fall into a fit of rage. When her parents are killed by a cholera pandemic, she is abandoned, then finally sent to live with her uncle.

It does not take Mary a long time to realize that the experience at her uncle’s gigantic Manor is going to be totally different from what she has known all her life. First, the native dialect is different. Also, she has no personal maid to wait upon her all day. The maidservant who attends to her occasionally has a life outside her orders and had blankly told her she was spoiled. Mary slowly learns to be independent.

A while goes by, and she comes in contact with interesting other people who include; Ben Weatherstaff, Dickon, and Colin Craven. Mary’s inquisitiveness and lack of a supervising guardian lead her to a secret garden that has been shut for years. She and her newly made friends tend to this garden, which in turn heals their broken hearts.

The Secret Garden Plot Summary

Spoiler alert: important details of the novel are revealed below.

The book opens by talking about the sour look that Mary Lennox constantly wears. She is described as an ugly child who looked the opposite of her beautiful mother. At six, she has grown into an extremely selfish and tyrannical child. Her stubbornness and defiance made it impossible to secure for her a steady governess as they always resigned early. One day, Mary wakes up in a sour mood and when she realizes it is a servant, not her Ayah that stood beside her, she throws a tantrum. The servant tries to explain why this is so, but Mary refuses to listen to the voice of reason. She becomes pissed and sour.

After a while, she’s left alone and was wondering why until some officers come to confirm her parents are dead. They are astounded to find out that she’s the only one in the whole house. After the confirmation, she is taken to live with an English clergyman. He is poor and Mary concludes within her that she wouldn’t be comfortable living there. It is at the clergyman’s house she gets the nickname “Miss Mary quite contrary”.

She is finally moved to her uncle’s house in Yorkshire England. The mansion she is taken to is usually quiet, with most of the doors locked. She meets a young maid who she thinks will be at her back and call but is surprised to be denied that privilege.

Since Mary is mostly alone, she has time to explore. During one of her adventures, she meets the gardener who she is able to impress when a bird he is fond of catches her fancy. She is quite drawn to the bird and follows it around until she comes across a key to the garden that was shut for years. She is immediately interested in this garden and seeks to secretly nurse it back to good health.

As the days roll by, Mary meets her cousin, Colin, who is quite as badly behaved and lonely as her. They strike a friendship. When Colin hears about the garden, he is also attracted, and plans are made to take him into it. He is a sick child who has lived being attended to.

When Mary and another friend of theirs, Dickon, take Colin into the secret garden, he is wowed and impressed. They secretly work on restoring the garden. When the trio are caught by the gardener, Colin gets so annoyed at being referred to as a cripple, that he rises from his wheelchair to prove a point. This marks the beginning of a new view for the young lad. The once pessimistic, sad, and ungrateful young boy comes into the garden to train his kegs and enjoy the wonder of nature. This was done in secret as the boy planned to surprise his father who he barely saw.

The story climaxes when Colin’s father; Archibald Craven returns from a trip to see the garden that had been on his mind all the while, and Colin Craven unknowingly runs into his arms to his shock and happiness.

How does the secret garden affect Mary?

The garden rouses Mary’s curiosity at first. She determines to find it, and when she does, she gets affectionate toward it and works to revive it. The garden has an extremely positive effect on the sour girl, and she soon becomes less sickly and more friendly.

What are the different emotions that the secret garden sparks from the characters?

To Mary Lennox and Dickon Sowerby, the garden is a source of joy and responsibility. They aim to nurture it back to life. Archibald Craven, on the other hand, saw the garden as a source of unhappiness. His wife had died in it, and it was a constant source of sorrow.

What is the most important message of ‘ The Secret Garden ?’

The most important message of Frances Burnett’s ‘ The Secret Garden ‘ was that happiness came from unselfishness. That is, true joy comes when you think less about yourself and more about others.

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About Israel Njoku

Israel loves to delve into rigorous analysis of themes with broader implications. As a passionate book lover and reviewer, Israel aims to contribute meaningful insights into broader discussions.

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Book Review: The Secret Garden

Posted October 31, 2012 by Whitney in Review / 3 Comments

Though Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote more than forty books, none remains so popular as her miraculous and magical masterpiece, The Secret Garden. Has any story ever dared to begin by calling its heroine, “the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen” and, just a few sentences later, “as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived?” Mary Lennox is the “little pig,” sent to Misselthwaite Manor, on the Yorkshire moors, to live with her uncle after her parents die of cholera. There she discovers her sickly cousin Colin, who is equally obnoxious and imperious. Both love no one because they have never been loved. They are the book’s spiritual secret gardens, needing only the right kind of care to bloom into lovely children. Mary also discovers a literal secret garden, hidden behind a locked gate on her uncle’s estate, neglected for the ten years since Colin’s birth and his mother’s death. Together with a local child named Dickon, Mary and Colin transform the garden into a paradise bursting with life and color. Through their newfound mutual love of nature, they nurture each other, until they are brought back to health and happiness.

The Secret Garden is a novel of Mary Mary quite contrary, whose parents die due to cholera and is sent off to live with an uncle. The house is old, dusty and filled with secrets. At first we all learn to hate the little brat.

Anywhose, a little bird tells Mary of a secret garden planted by her late aunt being “shut down” after her death. Of course Mary begins to revive it along with her disposition. Lonely Mary also acquires friends, a boy Dicken, brother of a maid at the manor and can “speak” to animals; Mary’s second friend is Colin her invalid cousin, a supposed hunchback and even more obnoxious than Mary, but of course the garden fixes that too, along with his ailment. It was all very Heidiesque

I’m not sure what I was expecting upon downloading it to my Kindle, maybe a childlike Midsummer Night’s Dream? Anyway, I should have known considering the title is the Secret Garden, but it was mostly about flowers and finding one’s inner beauty. I have no green thumb and think “inner beauty” should be left to Oprah and The Hallmark Chanel. I did like the book, it just wasn’t my taste (but hey it was free). I can understand why this is a childhood classic and I probably would have loved it but as an adult I got annoyed with touching definitions for each variation of flower Mary was planting. A small complaint I know, but there it is.

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3 responses to “ Book Review: The Secret Garden ”

Kind of ironic–I'm reading The Secret Garden for the first time right now! BTW, I'm a long-time follower of your blog, and I'd like to ask for a little favor. I've created a reading challenge in which other book bloggers get to pick what I then have to read in 2013; I'd really appreciate it if you came over and left me some recommendations . Thanks so much! JNCL

I found The Secret Garden surprisingly New-Age-y. I liked Sara Crewe much better.

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your review of the garden fire pit. As someone who loves spending time outdoors, especially during the cooler months, I found your tips and insights to be incredibly valuable.

Your review was very detailed and covered everything from the size and design of the fire pit to the materials used and the practicalities of setting it up. I appreciated your honesty in sharing both the pros and cons of the product, as it gave me a realistic idea of what to expect should I decide to purchase a garden fire pit myself.

I also loved the photos you included in your post, which really brought the fire pit to life and helped me visualize how it would look in my own outdoor space. Your tips on safety were also very important, and I appreciated the reminder to take necessary precautions when using any kind of fire-related product.

Overall, your review has definitely convinced me to seriously consider investing in a garden fire pit for myself. Thank you for sharing your expertise and experiences with us, and for providing such an informative and well-written review. Keep up the great work!

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lives changed by the healing power of beauty. Little Mary Lennox is brought up in India, a spoilt, sullen brat, whom her wealthy parents are more than happy to leave entirely in the care of their nanny. But when a cholera epidemic claims the lives of her mother and father, Mary is sent to live in her uncle’s mysterious old house on the rambling Yorkshire moors. Left to her own devices, talking only the the chambermaid Martha, she swiftly becomes even more disagreeable. But then Martha tells her a story about a secret garden hidden in the grounds, locked for ten years, ever since Mary’s aunt passed away. Her grieving uncle hid the key and forbade anyone to enter, ever again. But he hadn’t reckoned on the curiosity of the lonely little girl. Mary finds a key, and tries it in the lock of the ivy-covered door, which swings open onto a new, secret world. And though she doesn’t know it yet, Mary’s discovery will change her life for good…

The Secret Garden was first published in 1909. Its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, was a believer in Christian Science, which provided her with great spiritual comfort after the death of her son Lionel. These beliefs colour The Secret Garden, in particular the understanding that the imagination, together with positive thinking, have a real and tangible power to transform lives. Since publication The Secret Garden has become a favourite children’s classic, and influenced numerous modern writers. Author Susan Moody wrote an unofficial sequel to The Secret Garden in 1995, published as Return to The Secret Garden and also Misselthwaite: the Sequel to the Secret Garden. It follows Mary and her cousin Colin and friend Dickon into adulthood.

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Review by Floresiensis

10 positive reader review(s) for The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett biography

Rose from Australia

This book was a heart warming classic that taught so many life lessons which I will cherish forever. A must-read for everybody.

Caydence from USA

It's so interesting! This is definitely the best book I have ever read. You have to read this book. It teaches you so many life lessons.

Neelu from India

It's very good book everyone must read,

Reet from USA

The Secret Garden is an amazing book that teaches us many life lessons as we read along. One major one is how one incident can change your life and you drastically which happened with Mary who from a stuck-up brat came to be a beautiful girl with a good heart.

Khushi from India

I think that this book is the most interesting book I have ever read.

Muhammad Irfan from Pakistan

The secret garden is the best book I have ever read.It is a historical book.It tell us about history.I like it very much.

Anon from UK

This book really teach us a moral lessons in life. It's really amazing!

Aisha Tarik from United Arab Emirates

This novel is a great novel for kids because it makes common sense and also the vocabulary used is really good. It takes time for little readers to find a book which is as amazing as this book, it's honestly the best book I have ever read it also teaches us many lessons.

R.A. from Canada

This book is a wonderful book.

It is a really good book and tells u about history.

Farya from Pakistan

The Secret Garden is the best book I have ever read and it has given me many lessons.

Safa from UK

It is the best book indeed ...

Landin from UK

The Secret Garden is truly the best book I have ever read, that is why I rated it a ten out of ten. I have never felt so caught up into a book as I did when I was reading The Secret Garden. It kept me wondering what was going to happen on the next page and no matter what, it always surprised me. Although I found this book very challenging to read, I got through it and learned a very valuable lesson, do not ever stop because something is too challenging because at the end of every challenge, there is always a reward. Ever since I finished reading The Secret Garden, I feel as if I am a more caring and thoughtful person. It showed me that you should spend your time being happy with what you do have, than being sad about what you don’t. The main character of this book, Mary, did not have anything. Her parents both died when she was before the age of ten and beyond that, neither one of them had ever wanted her from the start and made that very clear to her. She had never had any friends because she was such an irrigant and rude girl, but who could blame her when she had never been shown true love. The book is all about a girl and a boy, who meet while the girl was living with her uncle, who try to figure out how to get into the secret garden. The secret garden is a garden that belonged to the uncle’s passed wife. After his wife died he had not wanted anyone to enter the garden. The kids though, were so curious of what the garden held that they could not contain themselves from figuring out a way to get in. This book is packed with love, hatred, lies, friendship, and mysteries. It holds many lessons that can be useful in the world for forever. One lesson is, never lose faith, because you never know what is held for you in the future. This is proved when Colin, who has not walked since the day that he was born, learns to walk in the secret garden. Everyone thought that he would never be able to walk and gave up on figuring out cures. They were all wrong though, all he needed was people to have faith in him. In all, The Secret Garden has taught me many valuable lessons about two young and selfish children becoming kinder from the power of nature. The lessons learned from this fascinating story will definitely stay with me throughout my entire life!

Nafea from India

9.2 /10 from 15 reviews

All Frances Hodgson Burnett Reviews

The Secret Garden

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Book Review: "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden
Children's book review: The Secret Garden Illustrated Gift Edition
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COMMENTS

The Secret Garden Review
The book makes use of interesting characters who undergo changes throughout the duration of the book. With harmless simplicity and a potent lesson about life, ' The Secret Garden' manages to appeal to both the old and young alike. Pros. A children's book that manages to be also suitable for adults. Realistic dialogues.
The Secret Garden Book Review
Our review: Parents say ( 14 ): Kids say ( 35 ): For generations, this wonderful novel has inspired young readers to appreciate simple earthly pleasures like skipping rope, planting seeds and watching plants grow, and coming home to a hot meal. At the same time, The Secret Garden appeals to children's imaginations with its mysteries of cries in ...
Book Review: "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett
"The Secret Garden" is a children's classic that submerges us in a world of plants and sunshine. Here's why everyone, especially young people, should read it.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Discover the magic of a hidden garden and a lonely girl's transformation in this classic children's novel. Join the world's largest community of readers on Goodreads.
The Secret Garden: Book Review & Reading Guide
A book review and reading guide for The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. A story of transformation and beauty.
REVIEW: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
REVIEW: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Dear Readers, As a child, I loved Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. It's considered a classic novel and is the story of children beginning to blossom as they bring a locked, abandoned garden to life. I was introduced to Burnett via a serialized reading of Little Lord ...
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
An original 1911 review of The Secret Garden From the original review of The Secret Garden in The Times Dispatch, Richmond, VA, October 29, 1911: Readers of all the many charming books that Frances Hodgson Burnett has written to delight the world and make it better will find The Secret Garden full of sweet and unexpected pleasures.
The Secret Garden
3 min. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a timeless classic that weaves a tale of transformation and renewal, capturing the essence of growth both in nature and within the human spirit. Originally titled "Mistress Mary," the book draws inspiration from a well-known English nursery rhyme, setting the tone for a story that ...
Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Goodreads | Waterstones. Mary Lennox was horrid. Selfish and spoilt, she was sent to stay with her hunchback uncle in Yorkshire. She hated it. But when she finds the way into a secret garden and begins to tend to it, a change comes over her and her life. She meets and befriends a local boy ...
The Secret Garden (Illustrated Classics)
In this beloved children's book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, orphan Mary Lennox is sent to live with her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor. Bored and lonely, Mary befriends Dickon, a local boy who talks with animals. Together they discover a secret garden that has been locked and forgotten for ten years and as they begin to bring the garden back to life, its secrets are revealed and the lives of ...
The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Secret Garden. 'The Secret Garden' is one of three children's novels Frances Burnett is best known for. The British novelist and playwright, who lived in America after her family fell apart, returned to England and got engrossed in gardening. The eventful childhood of the lead character, Mary Lennox ...
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett [A Review]
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett [A Review] The Secret Garden is a children's book but its deceptive simplicity hides complex themes, characters and skilled writing. It slowly achieved classic status before finding new resonance in more recent times for those who enjoy its message of natural healing and spiritualism.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mary discovers, guided by the lovely robin who is a major character of the book, a neglected and secret garden in the grounds of the house, and determines, with Dickon's help, to restore it. The garden was locked up by Craven when his wife had an accident and died in it. Mary also discovers a child living in the house, Colin, the son of ...
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Book Review
What is The Secret Garden By Frances Hodgson Burnett About? First published in 1911, The Secret Garden is a story about 10-year old Mary Lennox, a self-absorbed, sour and sickly girl who becomes an orphan when a cholera epidemic kills her parents and the staff at their home in India. Mary is sent to Misselthwaite Manor in the United Kingdom to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven who is still ...
The Secret Garden
Book Review The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett has been reviewed by Focus on the Family's marriage and parenting magazine.
Book Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a classic children's book with great quotable lines and a warm-and-fuzzy satisfying ending.
The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden, novel for children written by American author Frances Hodgson Burnett and published in book form in 1911. The pastoral story of self-healing through nature and companionship became a classic of children's literature and is considered to be among Burnett's best work.
The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden at Wikisource. The Secret Garden is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in The American Magazine (November 1910 - August 1911). Set in England, it is seen as a classic of English children's literature.
The Secret Garden Summary
'The Secret Garden ' by Frances Hodgson Burnett tells the story of a young orphan who was born into luxury, but loneliness. When she finds herself in another part of the world, she navigates through life with friends and nature. She eventually learns to see life in a better and happier light.
Book Review: The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden is a novel of Mary Mary quite contrary, whose parents die due to cholera and is sent off to live with an uncle. The house is old, dusty and filled with secrets. At first we all learn to hate the little brat. Anywhose, a little bird tells Mary of a secret garden planted by her late aunt being "shut down" after her death.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden is an amazing book that teaches us many life lessons as we read along. One major one is how one incident can change your life and you drastically which happened with Mary who from a stuck-up brat came to be a beautiful girl with a good heart. 10/10 ( 2018-10-30) Khushi from India.
The Secret Garden (HarperClassics): Burnett, Frances Hodgson, Tudor
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 - 29 October 1924) was an American-English novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885-1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

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The Secret Garden: Book Review & Reading Guide

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Frances Hodgson Burnett

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REVIEW: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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