The Secret Garden (HarperClassics)
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
List Price:
Our Price: $2.75
You Save: $4.24 (61%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Frances Hodgson BurnettBrand: Harper Collins Publishers
Illustrator: Tasha Tudor
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deluxe Edition
Published: 1998-03-06
ISBN: 006440188X
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780064401883
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Book Reviews of The Secret Garden (HarperClassics)
Book Review: If you must get this book, get the one with the Tasha Tudor illustrations
Summary: 3 Stars
I tried to attach this review to an edition of this book with Tasha Tudor's illustrations, but unfortunately my review somehow ended up in a group of reviews of the DVD of one of the movie adaptations through some glitch. Therefore, I'm reposting my review here so it will actually attach to the book it is meant for.
First, let me say that I am a huge fan of Tasha Tudor's lovely illustrations for both "The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess". To me, the Tudor editions are really the classic evocations of these books, and it's even a bit irksome to see editions with other illustrations when there are so many other wonderful stories for those talented folks to work on. Therefore, if you're going to buy an edition of "The Secret Garden," I'd say the Tudor-illustrated edition, preferably in hardback with the lovely dust jacket, is the one to get.
Having said that, I'll admit I have had mixed feelings about this story both as a child and as an adult. In a nutshell, it's the story of a spoiled, ill-mannered little British girl named Mary who is being raised in India in late Victorian times. After her entire family dies in an epidemic, Mary is shipped off to live in a remote castle-mansion in the English countryside, where the climate (cold) and the accents (such as that of the Scottish maid) are foreign to her, and no one pays any attention to her. Exploring on her own, Mary discovers a "secret" walled garden and works to restore it with the help of a gardener and a local country boy named Dickon, who tames animals as well as being a whiz with growing things. Mary also discovers she has an "invalid" cousin, Colin, around her own age, who sequesters himself in his bedroom. Colin and Mary both have disagreeable personalities at the beginning because they've been ignored and neglected by the adults in their lives, but as time goes by and they spend more time outdoors in the garden, playing with animals and the like, they help each other develop into nicer and more physically healthy children.
If this sounds like a very old-fashioned Victorian story, it more or less is. Each time I've tried to read it (several times from about age 12, when a popular movie version was out, up through adulthood) I find the beginning pretty exciting, what with Mary suddenly losing her family and being shipped off to a strange place, but then it bogs down in the middle. The kids never do much except mess around in the countryside and think introspective thoughts; there are no big "adventures" to speak of. Unlike "A Little Princess," you don't have the hero/ heroine vs. evil villains plot aspect; it's basically a book about some children fighting the demons in themselves. The neglectful adults, such as Mary's uncle, are not particularly demonized nor are they abusive; one gets the impression that they just don't quite know how to handle raising the kids, which again is very Victorian given that the raising of children was often handed off to nannies or servants.
I am sure there are children and adults who would just love this book, especially all the descriptions of cute animal tricks and flowers coming to life, as well as the whole "children thoughtfully overcoming the mistakes of adults in their lives" theme, but I am equally sure there are folks who, like me, would prefer a story with a little more going on in it, such as "A Little Princess" (or even something wackier like "Alice in Wonderland"). The idea that kids who are physically or perhaps mentally/spiritually ill to some degree just need to run around in the sunshine and have pleasant manners and it all goes away is also a bit disturbing. Despite the nice illustrations (in the Tudor edition) and the charming animal antics, it's just not my type of book.
Summary of The Secret Garden (HarperClassics)
"One of th' gardens is locked up. No one has been in it for ten years."
When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of mysterious secrets. There are nearly one hundred rooms, most of which are locked, and the house is filled with creepy old portraits and suits of armor. Mary rarely sees her uncle, and perhaps most unsettling of all is that at night she hears the sound of someone crying down one of the long corridors.
The gardens surrounding the odd property are Mary's escape and she explores every inch of them?all except for the mysterious walled-in, locked garden. Then one day, Mary discovers a key. Could it open the door to the garden?
Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as imperious as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, closed up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors of England, until a locked-up garden captures their imaginations and puts the blush of a wild rose in their cheeks; "It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of roses which were so thick, that they matted together.... 'No wonder it is still,' Mary whispered. 'I am the first person who has spoken here for ten years.'" As new life sprouts from the earth, Mary and Colin's sour natures begin to sweeten. For anyone who has ever felt afraid to live and love, The Secret Garden's portrayal of reawakening spirits will thrill and rejuvenate. Frances Hodgson Burnett creates characters so strong and distinct, young readers continue to identify with them even 85 years after they were conceived. (Ages 9 to 12)
Literature Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature Books
A Beautiful Feast for a Big King Catby John Archambault, Bill, Jr. Martin
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 2000-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.95
Racso and the Rats of NIMHby Jane Leslie Conly
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 1986-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $48.99
Goodnight Moonby Margaret Wise Brown
HarperCollins; Published: 1947-09-03; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $84.72
A Fine, Fine Schoolby Sharon Creech
HarperCollins; Published: 2003-12-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
Listening for Lionsby Gloria Whelan
HarperCollins; Published: 2006-10-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.59
Price in other shops:
Ruby Hollerby Sharon Creech
HarperCollins; Published: 2003-12-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
The Winnie-the-Poohby A.A. Milne
HarperFestival; Published: 2003-09-23; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Christmas in the Barnby Margaret Wise Brown
HarperCollins; Published: 2007-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Whipping Boyby Sid Fleischman
Harper Collins Publishers; Greenwillow Books; Published: 2003-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
FOX IN SOCKS - A Tongue Twister for Super Childrenby DR SEUSS
Collins & Harvill Press; Published: 1966; Hardcover; Book
Similar Books and other products
Little Women (Penguin Classics)by Louisa May Alcott
Penguin Group USA; Penguin Classics Hardcover; Published: 2010-09-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.09
Price in other shops:
The Little Colonelby Annie Fellows Johnston
HardPress Publishing; Published: 2010-01-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.86
Price in other shops:
Little House on the Prairie (Little House, No 2)by Laura Ingalls Wilder
HarperCollins; Published: 1994-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
Harriet the Spyby Louise Fitzhugh
Yearling; Yearling; Published: 2001-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.51
Price in other shops:
Black Beauty (Puffin Classics)by Anna Sewell
Penguin Group USA; Puffin; Published: 2008-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyerby Mark Twain
Simon & Brown; Published: 2010-09-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Emma (Penguin Classics)by Jane Austen
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.42
Price in other shops:
Black Beauty: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)by Anna Sewell
Penguin Classics; Published: 2011-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
A Little Princessby Frances Hodgson Burnett
HarperCollins; Published: 1998-12-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
Pippi Longstocking (Puffin Modern Classics)by Astrid Lindgren
Puffin Books; Puffin; Published: 2005-04-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops: