A Writers View

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgens Burnett follows the tale of little Mary Lennox, or as the other children so ‘Mistress Mary, quite contrary’, who after becoming an orphan moves to London to live with her mysterious absentee uncle.

Miss Mary, who became used to the hot temperatures of her parents chosen home India, is more than a little cross at having to move back to the cold and wet England. Added to that, she’s not used to doing things for herself, having had a nanny that did everything for her from dressing to bathing to feeding, and the thought of being around disrespectful simpletons just about turns her stomach.

The housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock (played by Maggie Smith in the 1993 movie adaption), is having none of Mary’s bad behavior. She leaves Mary’s care primarily up to the young maid Martha, who encourages Mary to play outside, skip rope, explore the gardens, eat more hearty food and overall act more like a child.

Much to Mary’s surprise she finds herself enjoying her days – much more than she ever enjoyed life in India. Things get especially exciting when on one of her garden exploration days she discovers a hidden door – a secret door.

Before we get to that however, no story would be complete without the boys.

There’s Dickon, Martha’s adventurous animal-taming younger brother (Dickon was the one I had such a crush on as a little girl!), and Colin – the cousin Mary didn’t know she had. Not until the night she followed the mysterious, lonely crying that filled the large house and discovered the pale, angry invalid.

Together, the three children bring life and happiness back to the secret garden and themselves (Dickon’s pretty happy, but Mary and Colin were both really sour! They were really the only two that needed reviving but Dickon was a major factor in them achieving that.).

I love the 1993 movie adaptation of The Secret Garden – but I love the book more!

I so wish I had a garden like from the book! I wish that I could live in it forever! I plan to have a garden like it some day – the walls will be lined with lilac bushes! 🙂

The book focuses so much more on the beauty of the growing garden, on the hard work of clearing out the weeds and dead things, and Mary and Colin are way less bratty in the book. Their still bratty, but it’s more in a depressed way and not in a ‘na-na-na-na boo-boo’ kinda way. That and the movie added weird witchy stuff into it and I’m just not here for that.

The one thing the movie had that the book did not, was Maggie Smith.

Mrs. Medlock is in the book to be sure, but – she’s not Maggie Smith. Watching Maggie Smith as Mrs. Medlock is really just watching Maggie Smith and it’s so delightful!

Overall on a scale of 1 to 10, the movie gets a 9/10 and the book gets a 10/10.

Definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY, read The Secret Garden if you haven’t before. It will make you so happy! 🙂 ❤