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Aisha

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The Rose Field (The Book of Dust, #3)

by Philip Pullman

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Jan 04, 2026 02:01PM

Aisha is currently reading

The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in May 2013

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Aisha said: " I recently re-read this, to re-live some good, childhood, narrative driven story. I loved it. Okay some is a bit dated, like the 'blacks' and some a little fantastical, like the idea that 12 children semi-starving in a moorland cottage is all a big j I recently re-read this, to re-live some good, childhood, narrative driven story. I loved it. Okay some is a bit dated, like the 'blacks' and some a little fantastical, like the idea that 12 children semi-starving in a moorland cottage is all a big jape. But overall, a great book.

It was interesting looking at a few of the themes from my now more mature viewpoint. For example:

# The Secret Garden as a treatise on childrearing. Burnett is definitely a proponent of a more freerange child rearing philosophy. In her worldview, there's not much that some deep breaths of pure moorland air and a good run around the garden can't cure. Children should be left to explore and test themselves, and that's how they will get stronger. The adults in The Secret Garden, other than Dickon's mother, were notable mostly for the psychological (and physically manifested) tramua they wrought on their children with the combination of emotional neglect whilst ensuring that the children's every physical whim was catered for. Rather than children needing an adult to guide them through life's travails, Burnett suggests that they are more than capable of devloping themselves, if given the time, space, good food and fresh air to get on with it. I hope I remember that when I am a parent.

# Burnett deals with religion with a surprisingly light touch. The children talk about 'Magic' and how it is magic that turns Colin into a strong, healthy boy, Mary into a pleasant little girl, and makes the garden grow. There is only one point at which magic is explicitly linked to Christianity, and even then, the children are given the option to call it what they like, with Mother saying that what they call magic could have any number of different names. This seemed refreshingly tolerant.

# I found Dickon's character, though lovely, slightly problematic. He is this magic boy, almost a wood fairy, who teaches Mary to garden, encourages Colin to grow strong and generally makes the world a beautiful, magical place. But what will happen she he grows up? He's 12 or 13 in the book, he won't be able to roam the moors for ever. Will he be pushed into a stultifying job, bowing and scraping to some lord, becoming a gardener if he is lucky. How will his relationship with Mary and Colin develop? The weight of the class difference between them makes it unlikely they could maintain a friendship, will he be cast aside by them like an old toy, and how would that make him feel. All unanswered questions.

# The pleasures of gardening. Now, if anyone suggests that my new favourite hobby is just for old folk, I smile at them knowingly. Gardens are fascinating, transfixing places. Easily as interesting as tv or the Internet or whatever else. We seem to have let that view go today, and it is high time for a renaissance.

All in all, the world would probably be a better place if it was a bit more like the better bits of The Secret Garden. The twelve starving children aside (who, of course, were still very happy, even in their hungry states, running free range across the Yorkshire moors). ...more "

Jun 02, 2013 03:14AM · see review