The Secret Garden
Written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1911 with the English version illustrated by M.L. Kirk & the British version by Charles Robinson, The Secret Garden is a classic children's book beloved by kids and adults all throughout the years since publishment. First serialized in The American Magazine, it became one of the first children's books read by a widespread adult audience, especially among women.
Selling well during the 1911 Holiday season with critics giving it generally pleasant reviews, a second printing was announced just a month after the first release. Being heralded in adult magazines set it apart from other children's fiction as being more mature and a novel anyone could read. The book stayed under the radar for a while, not getting too much attention from critics or literary folk until the 1950's when Marghanita Laski named Burnett's novels A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden as the best of Burnett's books and the latter the best of them all.
The novel brought a perspective from children not often seen in literature before, one more self-reflective and thoughtful. Others felt it was an honest depiction of unruly children that didn't hold back and showed that children and adults are not too disimilar. In the 1980's, children's literature was of more educational interest and the novel was accepted into the scholarly canon of children's books.
Numerous adaptations have been made of the text starting with a film made in 1918 that is now lost to the old movie void.
MGM Studios made a movie in 1949 in black and white, with the novelty of the film being that the scenes in the garden were in technicolor.
In 1975 the BBC produced a 7 episode mini series of the novel.
From 1991-1992 an anime tv series version of the novel aired in Japan. It was titled Anime Himitsu no Hanazono and ran for 39 episodes.
A made for tv special produced by the Hallmark Channel was made in 1987 starring Colin Firth & Derek Jacobi.
Additionally, Derek Jacobi would reprise his role, this time in an animated feature, in 1994 for ABC.
Perhaps most memorable of the adaptations is the 1993 film produced by Frances Ford Coppola and staring Dame Maggie Smith.
A Victorian streampunk version of the story was imagined in a 2017 film by Dogwood Motion Picture Company.
2020 brought a fresh reimagining from HeyDay Films with Colin Firth returning.
A 2024 telenovela version combined the stories of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, another of Burnett's works.
Two graphic novels were released in 2021. The Secret Garden: A Graphic Novel, and a modern retelling The Secret Garden on 81st Street.
Various stage adaptations have been made in the years, most notably the 1991 musical which was nominated for seven Tony awards and won Best Music Version of a Book and Best Actress. There was also a 2021 opera produced as well as a modern day Scottish retelling in 2020.
"In each century since the beginning of the world wonderful things have been discovered. In the last century more amazing things were found out than in any century before. In this new century hundreds of things still more astounding will be brought to light. At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done, then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago."
"Where you tend a rose my lad, a thistle cannot grow."
"Of course there must be lots of magic in the world," he said wisely one day, "but people don't know what it is like or how to make it. Perhaps the beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen until you make them happen. I am going to try and experiment."
"And they both began to laugh over nothings as children will when they are happy together. And they laughed so that in the end they were making as much noise as if they had been two ordinary healthy natural ten-year-old creatures instead of a hard, little, unloving girl and a sickly boy who believed that he was going to die."
"To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live."
"She made herself stronger by fighting with the wind."
"It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before."
"Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable, determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place."
"I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us."
"Everything is made out of Magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us."
"In secret places we can think and imagine, we can feel angry or sad in peace. There is something to be said for just being, without worrying about offending anyone."
Before I read The Secret Garden my favorite thing in the world was the movie. I was obsessed with it as a child and I think I checked the VHS out of the library too many times to count. I remember feeling a lot like Mary when I was a kid. I was quiet and odd, a little rude sometimes. I didn't have friends and it seemed like adults were another species altogether. The movie captured that cold isolating feeling and when Mary's heart begins to open it becomes such a cozy, happy little film I always come back to. I read the novel later as an adult and I think it stuck with me more than if I had read it as a child since I could read the subtext and could see clearly what Mary was going through.
I spent a lot of time alone when I was young, being an only child with a mother who didn't always pay the best attention to me, I had to figure out ways to amuse myself. I did silly things for sure, making up stories in my head about places that scared me, haunted buildings at my school and teachers with eyes in the back of their head. I found solace in tiny moments sitting under a tree at recess to get away from all the loud kids. I was told I didn't try hard enough and I had a bad attitude but really I just never found anyone who seemed to match my standards of friendship. I was timid and needed someone who would hold my hand and show me the world.
I found that in Mary Lennox and her friends. I related to Mary but I also thought of her as a hero, someone who would fight for what was right and for her friends. I felt like Colin, stuck inside and with a parent who hovered over me and didn't let me do anything deemed too dangerous for my fragile heart. I was kept away from people because I was told they were scary and bad, so I never got to learn how to really socialize. I saw such adventure from Dickon, and wished for a friend like him, who knew so much about the world and the Earth.
I was never much of an outdoorsy kid but of course I was in love with the garden and dreamed of finding my own one day. Now I can read and understand the metaphor that the dying but still "wick" garden represents, as a child I just wanted that sort of peace and beauty that I could share with close friends who loved me for who I was.
Now as an adult I read the book over and over, and I've fallen asleep to the audiobook too many times to count. The Secret Garden is one of my comfort places, but it's also a dark novel about self-hatred and denial, about repression and grief. Everyone in it is lonely, child and adult alike, and I think ultimately it's a book about finding the child in you and taking care of them. It's about finding a common ground between adults and kids and finding that we're not so disimilar, and that children should be better respected and given more agency over their lives.
Hopefully, it continues to teach and its captivating story keeps growing vines far deep into the future of literature.
Disclaimer: None of the images on this site are owned by me (except my pixel art), I am not affiliated with the author's estate. This is purely a fanpage run by someone with a deep admiration for the book & adaptations, please do not sue me. If there is an image on this site that belongs to you and you would like it taken down, please let me know!
