Wednesday 23 March 2011

Thoughts: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A children's story is a children's story is a children's story. This classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett tells the story of Mary Lennox who comes to live with her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor after her parents died of Cholera. She is a queer and sour young girl, who does not like anybody and is not liked by anybody. One day she finds the key to the secret garden and befriends with nature and a boy named Dickon. She finds that nature does her good and makes her a more amiable little girl and that she wants it to let cure another secret inhabitant of Misselthwaite.

It's a cute story, which at many points I thought to be very repetitive. Like when spring is described and everything gets green and the air is so fresh. It got mentioned over and over again. Like the point of my first sentence. I longed for a faster developing plot during reading. But I certainly did not miss Burnett's main statement: Playin' outasides is very healthy for children, making friends, too.
The book had cute moments though, e.g. when Mary makes friends with a Robin (the bird) and the gardener and the other people talk to her in their Yorkshire dialect.

3 stars out of the hat.

2 comments:

  1. I absolutely adored this as a child, especially because Mary wasn't perfect. And I was a bit bossy too, so I could relate to her :p

    Have you read A Little Princess?

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  2. LOL. No I haven't read A Little Princess. Is it a must read children's classic, too?

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