The Secret Garden

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Title The Secret Garden

Image:The Secret Garden book cover - Project Gutenberg eText 17396.jpg 1911 edition cover
Author	Frances Hodgson Burnett
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's novel
Publisher	William Heinemann
Released	1909
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA

The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in 1909. It is one of Burnett's most popular novels, and is now considered a classic of children's literature.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations 3 Trivia 4 External links

Plot summary

The book begins with the story of Mary Lennox, a sickly, sour-faced little girl born in India whose wealthy parents mostly ignore her, leaving her in the care of a subservient Ayah. When a cholera epidemic makes her an orphan, she is sent to Misselthwaite Manor, an isolated country house in Yorkshire. There, she is again left mostly to her own devices - this time by her mother's brother-in-law, Archibald Craven, who travels constantly in hopes of escaping painful memories of his beautiful young wife, now dead, and has left the house in the charge of the stern Mrs. Medlock. The only person who has any time for Mary is the chambermaid Martha. It is Martha who tells Mary about the walled garden, Mrs. Craven's favourite garden, which nobody has entered since she died 10 years previously; Mr. Craven locked it and buried the key.

While exploring the grounds, Mary discovers the key to the secret garden, which has been turned up by a robin digging for worms; soon after, she finds the door. Once inside, she discovers that although the roses seem lifeless some of the other flowers have survived. She resolves to tend the garden herself, but to keep it a secret, in case her uncle should find out and fit another lock for it. Through Martha, she recruits the assistance of Martha's brother Dickon, who is known for being good with plants and wild animals. Dickon begins by providing gardening implements, bought with money Mary gives him, and demonstrating that the roses, though neglected, are not dead. When Mary's uncle visits the house briefly (for the first time since she arrived), Mary asks him for a bit of earth to make a flower garden, and he agrees. Thanks to the invigorating Yorkshire air and her new-found fascination with the garden, Mary herself begins to blossom, and loses her sickly look and unpleasant manner.

At this point, Burnett begins shifting the novel's focus to a new character - a character introduced by the sound of someone weeping by night in another part of the house. When Mary asks questions, the servants put her off, saying they can't hear anything. Shortly after her uncle's visit, she goes exploring and discovers her uncle's son, Colin, a lonely boy as petulant and disagreeable as Mary used to be. His father shuns him because he closely resembles his mother, who died while tendng her garden. Also, since Archibald Craven suffers from mild hunchback, he is morbidly convinced that Colin will develop the same condition. This fear has communicated itself to Colin, who, for purely psychological reasons, is a bedridden invalid who has never learned to walk. The servants have been keeping Mary and Colin a secret from one another because Colin doesn't like strange people staring at him, and is prone to terrible tantrums. Colin, however, decides he likes Mary, and insists on her visiting him often. During these visits, Mary tells him about the secret garden.

As spring approaches, Colin becomes jealous because Mary is spending more time out in the garden with Dickon than indoors with him. One day, he voices his resentment and, when Mary resists, he flies into a tantrum. To the horror of the servants, Mary continues to stand her ground. When Colin calms down he asks if he could go out into the garden with her. Mary agrees, as she and Dickon had been planning to suggest it themselves, feeling that it would do Colin good and that in the secret garden, he would not have to worry about anyone staring at him.

Dickon comes to visit Colin in his room, bringing various moorland animals with him, and the three children make plans for taking Colin to see the secret garden. Colin's doctor, (Archibald's brother and Colin's uncle) agrees that it might do him good to have Dickon and Mary taking him around the grounds in a wheelchair, and Colin gives instructions that the gardeners are to keep out of the way while they are outside. Colin is delighted with the garden, and goes out to it with Mary and Dickon whenever the weather allows. As the garden revives and flourishes, so does he.

The first person to find out what the children are up to is the old gardener Ben Weatherstaff, who was a favourite of Colin's mother, and has been secretly visiting her garden once or twice a year since it was locked up by scaling the wall with a ladder. When he visits the garden for the first time since Mary's arrival (having had to miss several visits because his rheumatism wouldn't let him go up and down ladders as easily as he used to), he is initially angry with the children until he sees what good they've done the garden, and what good they've done Colin. Colin orders him not to tell anybody, and he agrees.

Colin becomes determined that by the next time his father returns from abroad he will be able to walk and run like a normal boy. He accomplishes this through a combination of simple physical exercise and positive thinking. He refuses to think of himself as crippled, and he invents a kind of mantra to keep himself in the right, or "magic", frame of mind. He makes great progress, but keeps it hidden from everyone but Mary, Dickon, and Ben, wanting it to be a surprise.

Archibald has been traveling throughout Europe but hurries home after seeing a vision of his dead wife, imploring him to come to her "in the garden!" Dickon's mother, who has been let into the secret, has also written him, saying "I think your lady would ask you to come if she was here." He returns home and arrives while the children are outdoors. He goes out to see Colin for himself, and finds himself drawn to the secret garden, where he is astonished first to hear children's voices and then to find Colin not only racing Mary and Dickon around the garden, but winning. They take Mr. Craven into the secret garden to tell him what has been going on, then walk back to the house, where the servants are astonished to see two apparent miracles: Colin is walking and his father looks happy again.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The Secret Garden has been adapted many times for stage and screen. The first filmed version was filmed in 1919 by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation with 17 year old Lila Lee as Mary. This film is considered lost. MGM filmed it in 1949, with Margaret O'Brien. This version was mostly in black-and-white, but the picture would turn into color whenever the restored garden was shown. It was also adapted by Dorothea Brooking into a six-part BBC television serial starring Colin Spaull as Dickon in 1959. Brooking was also responsible for adaptions in 1952 and 1975 also for the BBC.

One notable stage adaptation is a musical with music by Lucy Simon and book and lyrics by Marsha Norman, which opened on Broadway in 1991. The production was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Daisy Eagan as Mary, at eleven years old the youngest person ever to win a Tony).

Another notable production is the 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV adaptation. It starred Gennie James as Mary, Barret Oliver as Dickon, and Jadrien Steele as Colin. A young Colin Firth also made a brief appearance as an adult version of Colin Craven.

In 1991, a Japanese Animation, version of The Secret Garden (Himitsu no Hanazono[1]) was made.

In 1993 American Zoetrope made The Secret Garden, another film version of the book, this one directed by Agnieszka Holland.

In 2000, a movie entitled Return to the Secret Garden was produced. It was directed by Scott Featherstone and won the Director's Gold Award at the 2001 Santa Clarita International Film Festival.

In 2001, Back to the Secret Garden starring Camilla Belle as the American orphan, Lizzie, was directed by Michael Tuchner. It is set when Mary and Colin have married and turned the Craven Manor into a shelter for orphans.

The 2006 anime Sōkō no Strain, based on A Little Princess, draws some elements from this book as well, most notably the names of Colin, Mary, Martha and Dickon.

Trivia

Is cited as Lisa Simpson's favorite book in The Dad Who Knew Too Little.

Wikipedia information about The Secret Garden This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Secret Garden". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.