The Secret Garden (Penguin Popular Classics)

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Customer reviews

review by: dizzyshelly date: 2007-04-11 rating:
lovely
This is a lovely little story. I find it quite uplifting reading about the children developing their personallites and becoming quite different people. I have always loved this story, and also the film. Would recomend as a classic, a childrens story and for adults reading!

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review by: loglife man date: 2006-11-23 rating:
A little manual for self-growth

Delightful children's tale - for adults too. An unhappy and miserable little girl Mary starts to transform when she moves to England and lives on the Yorkshire moors, and when - within the grounds of the huge mansion she occupies - she discovers and begins to care for a secret garden. Her growth affects the son and heir Colin who is also puny and weak initially. The son's father is also transformed. The novel is quite weird, somehow frozen in time, with bizarre fantasy ideas of endless corridors in an endless mansion, a fantasy boy figure Dickon who communes perfectly with nature and is followed by animals (at one stage he and his entourage all ludicrously troop into the house); Dickon's mother is over-worshipped. Words and ideas are repeated endlessly - thus Mary is described over and over again as getting 'fatter' (meaning healthier actually). Burnett also dangerously moves the focus gradually from Mary to Dickon and finally to Colin; the gradual abandoning of Mary as Burnett moves on is somewhat disconcerting to the reader. Servants figure everywhere in this novel rooted in the early 1900's. The opening chapter taking place in India contains a scene of horror that, like the awful scene in Jude the Obscure, shocks and distresses the adult reader. There are strengths and weaknesses, but overall it's a great book, trying and succeeding in showing how adversity can be turned to understanding and growth.

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review by: date: 2003-10-08 rating:
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
The secret garden is a brillant book as I felt in some ways sorry for Mary and Colin, but the way that the garden brings them to life again and the way the book makes you feel when you read about them coming to life is absolutely amazing. I have read this book plenty of times and seen both movies but the book doesn't even compare to either movies. A most for anyone who has ever wished they could go find a secret garden to go to when they were a child.


review by: date: 2001-07-16 rating:
one of the best books ever written
The secret garden is a brillant book as I felt in some ways sorry for Mary and Colin, but the way that the garden brings them to life again and the way the book makes you feel when you read about them coming to life is absolutely amazing. I have read this book plenty of times and seen both movies but the book doesn't even compare to either movies. A most for anyone who has ever wished they could go find a secret garden to go to when they were a child.

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Similar categories

Books . Special Features . Regular Stores . 4 for 3 on hundreds of Books
Books . Subjects . Children's Books . Classics
Books . Subjects . Children's Books . Fiction . General AAS
Books . Subjects . Children's Books . General AAS
Books . Subjects . Fiction . Authors, A-Z . B . Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Books . Subjects . Fiction . General
Books . Refinements . Language (feature_browse-bin) . English
Books . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . Paperback
Books . Refinements . Font Size (format_browse-bin) . Regular Size

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