The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Hennepin County Library audiobook 7 CDs
read by Finola Hughes
genre: children's fiction

I haven't read this book in a really, really long time. I had forgotten *why* Mary Lennox was so horrible before the garden transformed her. She was a child in India with parents who didn't want to deal with her. The servants gave her whatever she wanted so that she didn't fuss and cause trouble for them with "Mem-sahib." Consequently, she was a lonely, imperious brat. I love her initial interactions with plain-spoken Martha when she gets to Mistlethwaite Manor!

Hughes did a wonderful job with the voices, but Colin is too realistically whiny and bossy. Yuk! Thank heavens for Dickon and the garden to help with the transformation of these two horrible children! In fact, Susan Sowerby's entire family are the brightest part of the characters who populate this book.

The kids are fully invested in "the magic" of the garden. Susan Sowerby refers to "The Good Big Thing," "Joy Maker," and the fact that the kids were singing the Doxology when she came into the garden. Interesting way to look at creation and healing.

One of the problems with an audiobook as opposed to a print book is trying to capture quotations. "Where you tend a rose, my love, a thistle may not grow." This is what I wrote down. I was pretty close - it's lad, not love, and cannot instead of may not. That's according to SparkNotes . . . ugh. Now I have to find a print copy and look at it more carefully. Also according to SparkNotes, this is part of the Christian Scientology aspect of the book. What?!? Sometimes I just want to enjoy a story as a story.

One other aspect that I had forgotten or gotten wrong after not having read or seen this in ages is the ending. I knew that Archibald Craven found the children in the garden and that there was a happy-ever-after, but I thought that his initial reaction was extreme anger. Perhaps there's a movie version that he yells at the kids? Anyhow, I am glad I revisited this story after so many years. (Though I shouldn't have checked SparkNotes for the spelling of character names . . . sometimes ignorance is bliss.)

 

<I wrote the above on 2.7.2018 and am adding below on 8.1.2022.> 

I really, really liked how Mary didn't put up with Colin's crap. When he was pitching a fit and she screamed at him . . . that was just right. It bugged me again that the "magic" and the beauty of nature were the predominant reasons the children gave for the changes in their health. 

This audiobook was on Libby and read by Alison Larkin. Her vocal work was excellent. I got this to listen to at work, since I knew I didn't have to give it my full attention. I enjoyed listening again.