Secret Garden, The, is a popular children’s novel by the British-born author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It first appeared in serial form in The American Magazine in 1910. It was published in book form in 1911.
The novel tells the story of 10-year-old Mary Lennox. The child was born in India to wealthy English parents who neglect her and give her to servants to raise. Mary grows up stubborn, angry, and self-centered. After her parents die in a cholera epidemic, Mary is sent to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven. The uncle lives on an estate in Yorkshire in northern England. Craven broods over the death of his wife, who had been killed in an accident. The wife had spent much of her time tending a walled garden, which the mourning uncle locked up after her death.
Having little to do on her uncle’s estate, Mary warms to the company of Martha Sowerby, the maidservant, and Ben Weatherstaff, the gardener. She explores the grounds and discovers the secret garden. She also wonders about crying she hears inside the house. Mary starts to cultivate the secret garden with the assistance of a 12-year old local boy, Dickon Sowerby, the younger brother of Martha. Mary discovers that the crying comes from a bedroom where a boy her age lives as an invalid. The boy, named Colin, is her uncle’s son and thus Mary’s cousin. He is kept in the bedroom because his uncle feels he is too ill to go outdoors, and Colin believes fresh air would kill him.
Mary and Colin become friends, and they spend much time in the garden without Craven’s knowledge. Mary’s personality blossoms as she tends the garden. She becomes less selfish, less angry, and less willful. Meanwhile, Colin grows stronger with the fresh air and exercise. At the end of the story, Colin is strong enough to run to his father. The garden is a symbol of nature’s healing power.
The Secret Garden has been made into film and television productions. The novel was also adapted into an award-winning Broadway musical in 1991.
See also Burnett, Frances Hodgson.
