The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is a children’s book written in 1911 by Frances Hodgson Burnett and belongs to one of the many classic books. I won’t go too much in detail what this book is about; I will go to the important parts which will lead me to my opinion of this book.

A young child named Mary Lennox has moved from India to Yorkshire, England and stays with her uncle Archibald Craven. Once, she wandered through the gardens and found out that there is also a secret garden; she was not allowed to go in there. But of course, a curious child does not listen. She found the key, opened the door of the secret garden and never spoke about it to any one besides her newly made friend Dickon and eventually her very ill cousin Colin. The book described the secret garden as something magical and enchanting; so, I was expecting the secret garden to look like that. I was so curious that I kept on reading even after the dragging of Mary finding the key and entering the garden (I was already halfway through the book). It made me also very disappointed when the garden was nothing but magical. There were flowers and a few animals just like in any other garden, it was not special at all.

Colin, the ill son of Craven—he was not really ill, he thought he was, it was all in his mind—began to feel and look better after entering the secret garden. I am happy that the garden made Colin feel alive again, only I don’t see what is so special about that garden? What made that garden so different from other gardens?  

I liked the book until Mary found the secret garden; after that, everything felt so dragging and boring. Besides that, and the missing magical element of the story, I really enjoyed the way the book was written. Definitely my type of writing English too. I would probably rate this book higher if the garden was indeed magical, but it was in my view just not magical at all.