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Title: The Secret Garden
ISBN: 0451528832
Author:
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Publicate Date: 2003-07-01
Publish: 2003-07-01
List Price: $3.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $1.15
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.86
Amazon Merchant Price: $3.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Part fairy tale, part science
This is one of my favorite books of all time. Each time I read it I am once more swept away into the haunting and slightly Gothic world of the English moores and the mystery that haunts that old house.
There is something absolutely enchanting this book that I have yet to put my finger upon. I don't know if it's the setting, the classic story, the incredibly developed characters, or the mystery. But it's fantastic.
It begins with Mary, a thoroughly bratty, spoilt child who had grown up in India, every single one of her whims answered. When her parents die horribly, she is shipped off to her uncle's, across the world in dreary England. However, he doesn't pay much attention to her, either, and Mary finds herself, most unwillingly, becoming attached to the staff of the spooky old house and the story of an abandoned garden loved by her dead aunt.
One of the strongest points of this book is its characters. We have the obvious example of Mary, the girl who goes from being a complete bitch to someone tolerable. The rest of the cast is just as wonderful, as quirky and different as one could ask for, all with their own stories and personalities.
Then we have the vibrant setting. Hodgson is a genius at painting a gorgeous but unflowery world of enchanting England and India, from lush sun to rain-soaked fields, an earthy garden, a dusky old house.
Basically, it's everything you could ask for from a book.
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2: Still a favorite
Mary is a sour nine-year old girl whose neglectful parents die in India and she is taken to an even more neglectful uncle in a gothic castle in a remote part of England. Interest in something outside herself is sparked when Martha, the servant assigned to look after her, is shocked that Mary never learned how to dress herself. There had been no need. Martha has other duties so Mary is left alone. Her explorations lead her out in the late winter air and to an obsession with finding "the secret garden." She discovers an even bigger secret of another child in the house.
Through magic and exercise, both children are transformed. This highly entertaining book is a wonderful read for all ages.
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3: Excellent classic
This is a wonderful classic. Our garden gives me an emotional resurrection every spring which this story describes beautifully.
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4: The Secret Garden
I am an urban, public school teacher with a fifth grade reading group. The girls, as well as the boys, found this book to be spellbinding. I had students trying to smuggle copies of the book out of the room at the end of our period - just so they could read the next few chapters!!!
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5: Mistress Mary, quite contrary...
The Secret Garden - my mum gave me this book when I was about eight and in the front it says: "for Kate, who will stay up reading until the wee hours of the morning." and it is true. I've read this book many times since then and I discover something new each time.The characters are wonderful, especially Mary, Colin, Ben Weatherstaff and the "Yorkshire angel" Dickon. The changes that happen to both Mary and Colin throughout the book are a delight to observe. I feel protected and happy once I've finished this book, things turn out happily, for the best and the image I have in my head of the Secret Garden surpasses anything I have ever seen in real life - and that is fine, for this is literature. Read it.
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