Classic Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My reading goals this year centered around getting my TBR pile under control and reading a lot more classic novels. This book covered both of those goals. I don’t know how I missed reading this book as a child, but I feel I noticed so much more of the novels nuances reading it as an adult.

This is the story of Mary Lennox, a young girl who has grown up in India with little love or attention by her parents. When disease breaks out Mary finds her self the sole survivor of those who remained in the village. She is shipped off to the moors and the care of a sweet maid named Martha and an Uncle who is rarely home due to personal grief.

Mary lives in a solitude that builds walls of anger and loneliness around her. A conversation with her Uncles gardener and an intelligent bird lead Mary to take a risk. She opens her heart and finds the key to a long closed off garden. Mary decides to keep the garden Secret. Until she realizes she needs help. Enter Dickon, Martha’s younger brother who buys Mary’s gardening supplies and helps the garden bloom.

Mary blooms as well. Her tempers cease and the Yorkshire air and good food turn her into a sturdy young woman. In the midst of her happiest times however Mary uncovers a gothic like secret. The strange crying she has heard down the lonely hallways of her new home are that of a sickly young boy, a boy who is her cousin.

Mary finds herself sharing her secret with Colin and the trio label the connection they feel to the garden magic. It is a magic they breath to life with their hands and hearts. A magic that just may cure Colin and his Father.

I love this book. The descriptions of the moors and the garden weave into the readers heart and  mind and you feel like you are experiencing the magic with the characters. This is a book I will definitely reread in the future.