The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Summary: 
Mary Lennox, is a young girl of a wealthy white family living in India. Her family is a bit unorthodox as she is rarely cared for by her parents. She is followed around and waited on hand and foot by Indian native servants. The entire household, including her parents as well as the staff fall sick with Cholera, and pass away. Mary remains forgotten, until she is at last found alone on the grounds of the home. She is sent to live with her uncle, Mr. Craven, outside of London. At her arrival she is warned to stick to the outdoors and her room. Although the estate is large with "a hundred rooms" she is not to explore or attempt to go to them. She creates a disposition for Mr. Craven (who she meets for the first time half way through the novel) of being ill, mean, and mysterious. Thus her arrival and start of her stay at the estate leaves her in a sour mood. Soon things begin to change. She hears of a secret garden that has not been entered for years. Apparently it was locked 10 years ago when Mr. Craven's wife died, and the key was buried. Mary becomes intrigued by the mysterious garden and goes to investigate. She kinds the key and makes several friends along the way. More important than the garden are the other secrets she uncovers along her journey. Her experiences change her from the self-centered, sickly, child she one was to becoming a cheerful, helpful, and caring young lady.

Text Features:
The Secret Garden is 278 pages and 27 chapters long. Although the grade level equivalent (6.8) is similar to several of the other books examined for this study, it is a bit more difficult to get through. This copy of The Secret garden had no illustrations, big or small. Text was only single spaced, and dialogue was less frequent than in other novel examined, but the margins were fairly big.

Timelessness:
An immediate feature that dates this book is the representation of life in India (the natives, slang for natives, and other references to the culture). For example she calls her Indian servant Pigs, showing a divide of race and socioeconomic class. Finally the reference to Cholera, an uncommon disease in the present day society, is mentioned without much description of what the disease is. A young reader would most likely have limited background knowledge of this disease.  Otherwise, the novel is simple enough to still be relevant today. Most of the setting of the novel take place outside in the gardens, a timeless setting. More so, these setting could be problematic. Teacher supports for understand this novel might have to include an understanding of flower types. What do these flowers look like? How big are they? What climate supports them? What is the growing season? Some of these details of the novel are overlooked. It was surprising to me as a reader that Mary suddenly understood the names of the flowers and how to take care of them despite having no previous experience with gardens or taking care of anything (including herself).

This book is a worthwhile addition to a childhood classics collection today, but I would consider it to be not as strong as the other texts I have looked at in this study.