The Secret Garden is a children’s book classic. It’s a novel written in 1911, pretty much at a YA reading level, based on vocabulary and complexity, but with a fairly simple plot, (told in extensive detail), of 10 year old children. I believe that The Secret Garden must be looked at as a piece typical of its time, and for many reasons I doubt it would be published today.

The main characters’ age would be looking for a middle grade or younger audience; the reading level required would be older still. A contradiction. In addition, the author is often highly critical of her own characters, and in describing them, does not engender empathy for them, but rather a dislike. It’s what the reader brings to the characters, I think, that makes them likable. And the detail … there’s an awful lot of it. I suspect The Secret Garden could be told in a fraction of it’s length. But such was not the writing of the time, and this story is nearly a 100 years old.

So what was the attraction in reading this for me?  First, I wanted to remember what it was about, as it was so long ago that I’d loved it. I still love the plot – the healing of two children, Mary and Colin, who suffered greatly through lack of love, and yet being utterly spoiled in their different circumstances. Their healing comes through the wonders of nature and a third child, Dickon, who is inextricably a part of the natural world. His relationship with animals and his understanding of all green, growing things is magical. I also enjoyed the location, the Yorkshire moors, and how Burnett shares the lives and language of the characters who reside there.

And I do so like Burnett’s message – that the magic that ultimately heals is not just the magnificent natural world around us, but the belief in the power of positive thought. Reading the story tells us so, but Burnett’s gem is briefly made clear in one small section of the story, where she reveals this to be the key to both Mary’s and Colin’s recovery from their physical and emotional ailments. “Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in the same place at the same time.”

The message of The Secret Garden, written a century ago, is as current and powerful as that of many books written today. It’s a bit of a long read, but a trek into an interesting life and time, and with an uplifting message and satisfying conclusion. However, I don’t know who its audience today might be.