The Secret Garden-- by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mary becomes intensely curious about the secret garden, and determines to find it. This curiosity, along with the vigorous exercise she takes on the moor, begins to have an extremely positive effect upon Mary. She almost immediately becomes less sickly, more engaged with the world, and less foul-tempered. This change is aided by Ben Weatherstaff, a brusque but kindly old gardener, and a robin redbreast who lives in the secret garden. She begins to count these two "people," along with Martha, Dickon Sowerby, and Susan Sowerby, as the friends she has had in her life. Her curiosity is whetted when she hears strange, far-off cries coming from one of the manor's distant rooms.
However, Mrs. Medlock, the head of the servants at Misselthwaite, absolutely forbids her to seek out the source of the cries. She is distracted from this mystery when she discovers, with the robin's help, the key to the secret garden. She immediately sets about working there, so that the neglected plants might thrive. Dickon, who brings her a set of gardening tools and promises to help her bring the secret garden back to life, vastly aids her in her endeavor. Dickon is a boy who can charm the animals of the moor "the way snake charmers charm snakes in India." He is only a common moor boy, but he is filled with so much uncanny wisdom that Mary comes to refer to him as "the Yorkshire angel."
One night, Mary hears the distant cries and, flagrantly disobeying Mrs. Medlock's prohibition, goes off in search of their source. She finds Colin Craven, Master Craven's invalid son, shut up in an opulent bedchamber. Colin was born shortly before his mother's death, and his father cannot bear to look at him because the boy painfully reminds him of his late wife. Colin has been bedridden since his birth, and it is believed that he will become a hunchback and die an early death. His servants have been commanded to obey his every whim, and Colin has become fantastically spoiled and imperious as a result. Colin and Mary strike up a friendship, but Colin becomes furious when she fails to visit him because she prefers to garden with Dickon. That night, Colin throws one of the infamous tantrums. Mary rushes to his room in a fury and commands him to stop crying. He tells her that his back is beginning to show a hunch; when Mary examines him, she finds nothing whatever the matter with him. Henceforth, she will maintain that Colin's illness is only in his mind: he will be well if only he makes up his mind to be.
Dickon and Mary secretly begin bringing Colin out into the secret garden. On the first of these outings, the children are discovered by Ben Weatherstaff, who has been covertly tending the secret garden once a year for ten years. Ben has done so out of love and loyalty for the late Mistress Craven: he was a favorite of hers. Weatherstaff refers to Colin as "the poor cripple," and asks if he has crooked legs and a crooked back. Colin, made furious by this question, forces himself to stand up on his own feet for the first time in his life. After this feat, Colin's health improves miraculously: the secret garden, the springtime, and Dickon's company have the same rejuvenating effect upon him that they did upon Mary. The children determine to keep Colin's improvement a secret, however, so that he can surprise his father with his recovery when Master Craven returns from his trip abroad.
The three children, along with Ben Weatherstaff, spend every day of the summer in the secret garden. Only one other person is admitted into the secret: Susan Sowerby, Dickon's saintly mother. Susan sends a letter to Master Craven, telling him to hurry home so that he might see his son; she does not, however, specify why, in deference to Colin's secret. Master Craven complies, and returns immediately to Misselthwaite. His first act is to go into the secret garden; he does so at the behest of a dream in which the voice of his late wife told him that he might find her there. Just as he lays his hand to the doorknob, Colin comes rushing out and falls into his arms. Father and son are reconciled, and the miracle of Colin's recovery becomes known to all.
* Characters
1. Mary Lennox - One of the novel's two protagonists, Mary Lennox is a ten-year-old girl who, after the death of her parents in India, is sent to live with her uncle in Yorkshire, England. Mary changes drastically over the course of The Secret Garden: she evolves from a spoiled, unloved and unloving creature to a girl who is full of spirit and surrounded by friends. She begins the book as its central character, but is later displaced by Colin.
2. Colin Craven - The other of the novel's protagonists, Colin Craven is Archibald Craven's ten-year-old son and heir. He was born shortly after the death of his mother, and his father could not bear to look at him because of his resemblance to her. It is feared that he will grow to be a hunchback like his father, and he has been treated as an invalid since his birth. Colin's childhood has been entirely bedridden, and his servants have been commanded to obey his every whim. As a result, Colin is extremely imperious and gloomy; when we first meet him, he is certain he is going to die. By novel's end, however, he too will have undergone a transformation: he will have become a vigorous optimist, and will have won his father's love. Both his and Mary's conversions are effected by the magical properties inherent in the secret garden.
3. Dickon Sowerby - Dickon is alternately described as "a common moor boy" and "a Yorkshire angel"; he is both. Two years older than Colin and Mary, Dickon has lived on Missel Moor his entire life, and has a uniquely intimate relationship with the land. He is described as looking like the god Pan (the god of ...): he has rosy cheeks, rough curly hair, and blue eyes precisely the same color as the sky over the moor; he even carries a set of pan-pipes. Like Pan, he has the power to charm both animals and people: all the creatures who come close to him are instantly tamed, and he counts a fox, a crow, and two wild squirrels among his pets. His power to tame creatures works on Colin and Mary as well, and is one of the central causes of their wondrous transformations. He is the brother of Martha and the son of Susan.
4. Martha Sowerby - Mary's friend and maidservant, Martha is distinguished by her charming frankness and levelheaded approach to all aspects of life. Her simplicity and kindness are a great help to Mary upon the latter's arrival at Misselthwaite. In her very ordinariness, Martha represents the goodness of all the people of Yorkshire.
5. Ben Weatherstaff - Ben Weatherstaff is a gruff elderly gardener who is only permitted to stay at Misselthwaite because he was a favorite of the late Mistress Craven. He introduces Mary to the robin redbreast, and helps the children keep the secret of the garden. Ben himself clandestinely tended the garden during the ten years in which it was locked, out of love and loyalty for the Mistress Craven. Although he is rather rough, Ben's essential kindness is fundamental to his character.
6. Archibald Craven - The master of Misselthwaite Manor, who suffers from a crooked spine and general ill health. He has been in a crushing depression ever since the death of his wife, ten years before the novel begins. Archibald spends most of his time abroad, since he wants to see neither his house nor his son, Colin, because these remind him of his late wife. At novel's end, he undergoes a change of heart after his wife comes to him in a dream. Master Craven comes to embrace his son when he realizes that this latter is in perfect health.
7. Lilias Craven - Archibald's late wife, who died ten years before the outset of the novel. Her spirit is associated with both roses and the secret garden. Her portrait hangs in her son's room beneath a rose-colored curtain, and she is described by all who knew her as the gentlest, sweetest, and most beautiful of women. She represents an absent ideal.
8. Susan Sowerby - The mother of Martha and Dickon (as well as of twelve other children), Susan Sowerby functions as a symbol for the concept of motherhood itself. She is all-nurturing, all-knowing, and appears dressed in a hooded blue cloak like that of the Christian Virgin Mary (the mother of Jesus Christ). Both Mary and Colin express the wish that she were their mother; stories of her sustain each of them before their respective transformations.
2. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character created by British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A London-based "consulting detective" whose abilities border on the fantastic, Holmes is known for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to adopt almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science to solve difficult cases.
3. Child Protagonist: children are the main characters in a novel, play, movie. ex. Harry Potter, The Adventure of Tom Sawyer
Popular Child Protagonist Books (https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/child-protago...)
4. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism . It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective). It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer .
5. ”A Little Princess” is written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The genre of the story is drama. Burnett has also written books such as “The Secret Garden” and “Little Lord Fauntleroy”, which in addition to “A Little Princess” has also been made into films.
“A Little Princess” is the story of Sara Crewe. She is placed in an all girl’s school when she is only seven. Here she is taught in subjects like History and French, and she lives a life in luxury. Unfortunately her father dies after a few years, which makes her life change radically and she now has to start working as a servant at the school.
Sara Crew is the main character in the book. She is skinny girl, has big green eyes and black half short hair. She is also relatively grown up in her manners for someone that young. This is quite obvious when she for example is being given reprimands, and don’t loose her temper. She also has a tendency of thinking of other peoples needs before her own, which very few children normally would have done. In addition, this behaviour make her seem very kind and lovable, even though she has been spoiled by her father from the day she was born. Sara is used to wear fur coats, the finest dresses and having all the toys a girl could want.
It is therefore a shock to Sara when Miss Minchin gives her the news that her father is dead. Miss Minchin is the headmistress of the school, and since Sara no longer as any money and is an orphan, she decides that Sara is to work as a servant at the school. This is a kind gesture in Miss Minchin’s opinion, for the headmistress has a cruel personality and the only thing she cares about is rules and money.
When Sara is working as a servant, she becomes good friends with Becky, the scullery maid. Becky helps Sara keep her mood up, when she has a rough time. Becky is a shy person, but becomes more sociable after she meets Sara.
In addition to Becky, Sara’s best friend at the school is a girl called Ermengarde. Ermengarde is not exactly an intellectual; she struggles with most of the subjects they are taught in, but Sara helps her with her homework, which makes her improve a bit. The two girls became friends when Sara was a student, and she is the only person that keeps contact with Sara when she becomes a servant.
Regarding the language in the book, it is quite difficult, considering the fact that it is a children’s book. This is because the author uses fairly much dialect, in the conversations between Sara and Becky, for example when Becy is telling Sara bout an event in town; “… watchin’ the swells go inter the operer. An’ there was one everyone stared at most”.
The dialogues between Sara and Becky are the dialogues you mainly find in the book, there isn’t exactly much dialogue between other persons. Because of this we get the main part of information about events that occur and peoples opinions, through a sort of all knowing person that describe it for us. It is for instant through one of these descriptions we get to know the turning point of the story.
When we are being told about the Indian gentleman that moves in next door to the school, we can imagine that it is a sign that Sara will have her old life back. This is because she used to live in India before she moved to the school and became a servant. The Indian gentleman is therefore a symbol of her old life returning.
The theme of the book is probably about karma, and how you treat others. Take for example Sara, she is kind to other people and never does anything to hurt anyone. Miss Minchin on the other hand is cruel to others and she likes to be in total control over everybody. But in the end it is Sara that is rewarded for her kindness, when she gets her old life back.
After reading the book, I am of the opinion that the film is better than the book. This is because the book had a very quick ending, and you did not really get enough information to sympathize with Sara’s situation. In the film the ending is much more intense, because the police is about to take Sara away from her father, who does not recognise her. But even though the film is better I would probably recommend the book because it is well written and one would then have something to compare the film against.
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