Sunday, September 11, 2022

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

 I vaguely remember 'The Secret Garden' as being a classic - and when Abhinay got a bunch of books from Akshara and asked me to pick a few,I picked this one. 


It's an interesting story about a badly behaved girl Mary (no love) from India who is orphaned thanks to cholera and is sent back to her rich uncle in England. Left to her own devices she finds a secret garden, some new friends and a love for gardening. She also finds a secret cousin who is believed to be so sick that he will die but he gets better after meeting her and seeing the secret garden.

It's all nice but what I liked best was the way Frances puts the power of auto suggestion as a magic tool to cure anything. What we focus on is 'bad magic' if its the bad side of things, and what is good is 'good magic'. So the ill cousin Colin changes his context of being a sick boy who can never walk and who will soon die to a boy who will live forever. I am sure the book and this idea must have given hope to millions of kids and people who read this book. All else falls in place once the magic is discovered and we also realise how important it is to be in touch with nature etc.

I loved reading the book. I could use some magic too in my life. Thanks Abhinay. And now to read 'Tender is the Night' from the same collection.      

1 comment:

That Girl said...

This was one of my favorite books while growing up...Although I'm still a huge fan of The Magic Faraway Tree series with regards to escaping into nature and secret lands! It's odd that books like these aren't written anymore.