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For Irish-Norwegian duo playing Neo-classical music see Secret Garden.
The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in 1909. It is one of Frances Hodgson Burnett's most popular novels.
Summary
The book tells the story of Mary Lenox, a spoiled, contrary orphan, who is sent to live in her uncle's manor in Yorkshire. She is left to herself by her uncle, Mr. Craven, who travels trying to escape from being haunted by the death of his wife, and the only one who has any time for her is the chambermaid Martha. It is Martha who tells Mary about the walled garden, Mrs. Craven's favourite garden, which nobody has seen the inside of since she died; Mr. Craven locked it and buried the key.
Exploring the grounds, Mary meets the gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, and befriends a robin, who lives in the secret garden. Following the robin around, Mary discovers the key to the secret garden, which has been turned up by a dog digging for moles, then the door. When she is inside the garden, she discovers that although the roses seem lifeless some of the other flowers have survived; she decides to work on the garden herself, but to keep it a secret, in case her uncle should find out and fit another lock for it. She tells Martha that she would like to do a bit of gardening, although not in which garden she plans to do it, and Martha asks her brother, Dickon, to buy some gardening tools and flower seeds in the village. When Dickon comes to deliver them, Mary befriends him, and tells him about the secret garden, for she feels he is trustworthy. They go around the garden, and Dickon, who is good with plants and wild animals, proves that most of the flowers aren't dead, and agrees to help her with the garden. When Mary's uncle visits the house briefly (for the first time since she arrived), Mary asks him if she may have a bit of earth to make a flower garden in, and go and visit Martha and Dickon's family at their cottage, which she has been wanting to do. Her uncle agrees.
That night, she follows a sound of someone crying, which she had heard before but which Martha and Mrs. Medlock the housekeeper had both denied hearing. She discovers her uncle's son, Colin, who has been a bedridden invalid all his life and is as spoiled and as contrary as Mary. The servants have been keeping Mary and Colin a secret from one another because Colin doesn't like strange people staring at him, and is prone to terrible tantrums. He has overheard many opinions that were not good for him, especially that he will not live to grow up, and that his father almost hates him. A doctor brought from London said that there was nothing wrong with him that getting out in the fresh air and being put in a good humour wouldn't fix, but Colin has resisted because he is afraid of becoming more ill and doesn't want people staring at him. Colin decides he likes Mary, and tells her to stay and talk to him. Mary accidently slips a bit about the secret garden, and Colin is as interested in it as Mary was, for exactly the same reasons. Colin wants to see it by using the fact that everyone is obliged to please him, but Mary, not wanting anyone to know she's been in the garden, convinces him how much nicer it would be if it was a secret.
Colin insists on Mary visiting him often, overriding the concerns of his doctor that it will make him overexcited and threatening to become excited if his wishes are not met. (Colin tells Mary that he suspects the doctor, who is always reminding him how ill he is, secretly wants him to die; Dr. Craven is Mr. Craven's cousin, and next in line for Mr. Craven's money and property after Colin.) As Spring approaches, Colin becomes put out that Mary is spending more time in the garden with Dickon than with him, and flies into a tantrum after Mary refuses to give way to him. Mary stands up to him as the servants have been afraid to do, and when he calms down he asks if he could go out into the garden with her. Mary agrees, as she and Dickon had been planning to suggest it themselves, feeling that it would do Colin good and that in the secret garden he would not have to worry about anyone staring at him.
Dickon comes to visit Colin in his room, bringing various moorland animals with him, and the three children make plans for taking Colin to see the secret garden. Dr. Craven agrees that it might do Colin good to have Dickon and Mary taking him around the gardens in a wheelchair, and Colin gives instructions that the gardeners are to keep out of the way while they are outside. Colin is delighted with the garden, and (again overriding Dr. Craven's concerns about him overextending himself) goes out to it with Mary and Dickon whenever the weather allows. As the garden revives and flourishes, so does he.
The first person to find out what the children are up to is Ben Weatherstaff, who appears over the wall on a ladder one day. He is initially angry with them until he sees what good they've done the garden, and what good they've done Colin. He admits that he has been in the garden himself since it was locked up, looking in on it once or twice a year to keep it going for the sake of Mrs. Craven's memory, but he'd had to leave it alone for over a year before Mary found her way in because his rheumatism wouldn't let him go up and down ladders as easily as he used to. Colin orders him not to tell anybody, and he agrees.
Colin becomes determined that not only will get better, by the next time his father returns from abroad he will be able to walk and run like a normal boy. He makes great progress, but keeps it hidden from everyone but Mary and Dickon and Ben, wanting it to be a surprise. He and Mary concoct various stratagems to keep Dr. Craven and the servants from realising just how much better he is, and to keep them from writing about it to Mr. Craven.
Dickon's mother is also let in on the secret, and when she judges that Colin is as healthy as he's going to get without risking the surprise being let out early, she writes to Colin's father herself, telling him he ought to come home but not why. Mr. Craven, afraid that this means Colin has taken a turn for the worse, hurries back to Yorkshire. Mrs. Medlock's confused account of the changes in Colin since Mary's arrival do little to reassure him, and he goes out into the grounds to see Colin for himself. He finds himself drawn to the secret garden, where he is astonished first to hear children's voices and then to find Colin not only racing Mary and Dickon around the garden, but winning. They take Mr. Craven into the secret garden to tell him what has been going on, then walk back to the house, astonishing the servants by how healthy Colin is and how much happier his father has suddenly become.
Screen and Stage Adaptations
The Secret Garden has been adapted many times for stage and screen. One notable adaptation is a musical with music by Lucy Simon and book and lyrics by Marsha Norman, which opened on Broadway in 1991. The production was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning Best Book of a Musical and Best Actress in a Featured Role (Daisy Eagan as Mary, at eleven years old the youngest person ever to win a Tony).
See also
External links
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