I know we all mean to read some good classics but they can be hard to get into, sometimes you might be unsure if you'll like a particular story, or if the payoff is worth the length/ Victorian love of detailed description. Hopefully this series will help you decide on whether you want to read a particular novel, or alternatively, remind you of that old classic you have sitting on your book shelf that you completely forgot how much you loved.
So without further ado, let's get into it:
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
First published in its entirety in 1911.
Many of you are probably familiar with this book (or at least the fantastic movie adaption of it), but for those of you that need a refresher The Secret Garden is the story of a young girl named Mary Lennox who moves in with her mysterious and distant uncle following the death of her parents. Mary then discovers a neglected garden on her uncle's estate which she falls in love with and begins restoring. What is really great about this novel is at its heart it is about family and how two neglected children are able to find happiness and contentment through feeling loved.
To be honest, this book has a special place in my heart as I got a version of it from my grandfather and his partner on my 10th birthday and it is such a beautiful hardback edition (pictured above*) that I fell in love with it immediately and just had to read it (also, I really loved the movie as child. If you haven't seen it you absolutely must). Nowadays, the book really gives me feelings of the best kind of nostalgia. For example, I remember when my cousins, my brother and I used to run through over-grown or unknown gardens as children and everything was so big and beautiful and almost magical. That's the feeling that I get reading this book. The same feeling of the beauty and magical nature of, well, nature.
Although this is technically a book for children I think, like most children's books written around this period that it is sophisticated enough for an adult reader to enjoy, even if they did not have childhood memories connected to it. In fact, a friend of mine had never heard of the book and was not familiar with the story and read it for the first time when she was 23 and loved it. However, because the central characters are children (and fairly selfish children) their actions can be a bit frustrating to read from an adult perspective but they do mature as the novel progresses. The story, while not particularly 'exciting' in content moves nicely and you get a good amount of story payoff from individual chapters which keeps you coming back for more.
In sum, The Secret Garden is well worth a read (or re-read) if your are so inclined. It really is just a nice, sweet story that will have you wanting to get stuck in to a bit of gardening while wearing an entirely inappropriate dress. Seriously.
Do you share a love of this book too? Let me know if you have a book that stirs similar feelings of nostalgia in you!
Enjoy your day,
xoxo
*disclaimer: the image above is not my own. it was sourced from here.
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