Bella > Recent Status Updates

This reminded me of a short version of Crime and Punishment.

”It seems that others as well as Lake had been interested in collecting typical specimens; for there were two here, both stiffly frozen, perfectly preserved, patched with adhesive plaster where some wounds around the neck had occurred, and wrapped with care to prevent further damage. They were the bodies of young Gedney and the missing dog.”

This part actually sent chills down my spine, so eerie and unsettling.

”I have said that the bodies were frightfully mangled. Now I must add that some were incised and subtracted from in the most curious, cold-blooded, and inhuman fashion. [...] All the healthier, fatter bodies, quadrupedal or bipedal, had had their most solid masses of tissue cut out and removed, as by a careful butcher; and around them was a strange sprinkling of salt”

Creepy…

My first Harry Potter book! An early b-day gift from my sister & mom! This is my favorite and the first ever HP movie I watched, so it’s a full circle moment. Love it, so beautiful and colorful, makes it even more fun to read!

The difference between the book & movie so far: Dudley is blond, instead of cake, they had pudding & it fell on the kitchen floor, an owl flew in with the Hogwarts letter during dinner.

”But the calm had brought a sort of courage and hope with it. Instead of giving way to thoughts of the worst he actually found he was trying to believe in better things.”

(p.283)

”…He had not been courageous; he had never tried to put any other thoughts in the place of the dark ones. […] A terrible sorrow had fallen upon him when he had been happy and he had let his soul fill itself with blackness and had refused obstinately to allow any rift of light to pierce through.” (p.276)

”While the secret garden was coming alive and two children were coming alive with it, there was a man wandering about certain far-away beautiful places in the Norwegian fjords and the valleys and mountains of Switzerland, and he was a man who for ten years had kept his mind filled with dark and heart-broken thinking…”

”To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live. ”

"Where you tend a rose, my lad,
A thistle cannot grow."

(p.274-275)

“I am sure there is Magic in everything”
(p.234)

Mary: “[…] but I was thinking just then that it must have been very horrid to have had to be polite for ten years to a boy who was always rude. I would never have done it."

Am I rude?" Colin inquired undisturbedly.

"If you had been his own boy and he had been a slapping sort of man," said Mary, "he would have slapped you."
(p.228)

That last part made me laugh!

“Mary had indeed been rather like him herself and since she had been at Misselthwaite had gradually discovered that her own manners had not been of the kind which is usual or popular. Having made this discovery she naturally thought it of enough interest to communicate to Colin.”
(p.228)

”It was an agreeable idea; easily carried out, and when the white cloth was spread upon the grass, with hot tea and buttered toast and crumpets, a delightfully hungry meal was eaten, and several birds on domestic errands paused to inquire what was going on […]” (p.214)

There’s something about this scene that feels so cosy, I can just imagine it, it takes me back to when I was a kid.

"Because I am like this always, ill and having to lie down. My father won't let people talk me over, either. The servants are not allowed to speak about me. If I live I may be a hunchback, but I shan't live. My father hates to think I may be like him."
(p.125)

“Mary had not known that she herself had been spoiled, but she could see quite plainly that this mysterious boy had been. He thought that the whole world belonged to him. How peculiar he was and how coolly he spoke of not living.”
(p.129)

We find out that Colin is ill and an “invalid” and he has spent most of his life indoors, he tells Mary that he’s going to die soon. Why and what kind of illness he has, that we don’t know. Also, he’s spoiled and used to getting what he wants.

"Everyone is obliged to please me. I told you that," he said. "If I were to live, this place would sometime belong to me. They all know that.“

And I would like to say, I was right!! I knew it! I knew that Mr. Craven had child, except I was wrong about the gender, he has a son (not a daughter)

Basically, Mr. Craven’s wife passed away (presumably) during labor, ten years ago.

"My mother died when I was born and it makes him wretched to look at me. He thinks I don't know, but I've heard people talking. He almost hates me."

Then comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for, you know that crying voice, well, looks like it wasn’t just the “wind”.

One night when it’s raining Mary suddenly awakens and she can’t fall back asleep. She then hears that crying voice again so she goes to investigate. She finds a boy named Colin and Mary is like “Who is Colin?” and he says “I am Colin Craven.” Dun dun duuuun!

Mary explains to Mr. Craven that she wants to garden.

"You can have as much earth as you want," he said. "You remind me of someone else who loved the earth and things that grow. When you see a bit of earth you want," with something like a smile, "take it, child, and make it come alive."
"May I take it from anywhere if it's not wanted?"
"Anywhere," he answered.

Aaww, Mary reminds him of his late wife.

When Mr. Craven asks Mary if she wants anything, like “toys, books, dolls”, Mary says "Might I, might I have a bit of earth?"

At first, Mr. Craven is shocked and doesn’t know what she means by that (he’s probably thinking, what is this weirdo kid talking about, and “did she really just say “earth?”)

Long story short, turns out, Mr. Craven is not as mean and scary as Mary thought, he’s just a sad and grumpy old man.

"Martha," said Mary solemnly, "he is really a nice man, only his face is so miserable and his forehead is all drawn together."

Later that day, Martha tells Mary that Mr. Craven wants to meet her. Mary is scared because she thinks he might have found out about her discovering the secret garden and that’s why he wants to see her. The truth is Mr. Craven was approached by Susan Sowerby (Martha’s and Dickon’s mother) who told Mr. Craven that he should meet Mary.

A lot has happened. I forgot to mention in my last update that Mary met Dickon. He brought her the garden tools that Martha had asked for and different flower seeds. Dickon is two years older than Mary (so he’s twelve). Dickon is the first person Mary shows the garden to and he promises not to tell anyone about it. They spend several hours working in the garden, and Dickon let’s her know he’ll come back again.

“Mary had stepped close to the robin, and suddenly the gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails, and more suddenly still she jumped toward it and caught it in her hand. This she did because she had seen something under it - a round knob which had been covered by the leaves hanging over it. It was the knob of a door. […] She put the key in and turned it. […] She was standing inside the secret garden.”

Mary found the key to the secret garden, it was, presumably, dug up by the dog, and a few days later she found the garden and unlocked it! The robin lead her to the key and the garden door.

Martha grinned a little as if at some homely recollection.
"Mother said that to me once," she said. "She was at her washtub an' I was in a bad temper an' talkin' ill of folk, an' she turns round on me an' says: 'Tha' young vixen, tha'! There tha stands sayin' tha' doesn't like this one an' tha' doesn't like that one. How does tha' like thysel??' It made me laugh an' it brought me to my senses in a minute." (p.63)

I wonder," staring at her reflectively, "what Dickon would think of thee?"
"He wouldn't like me," said Mary in her stiff, cold little way.
"No one does."
Martha looked reflective again.
"How does tha' like thysel?" she inquired, really quite as if she were curious to know.
Mary hesitated a moment and thought it over.
"Not at all-really," she answered. (p.62-63)

“Mary had worn her contrary scowl for an hour after that, but it made her think several entirely new things.”

Very interesting to see how Mary is changing and growing into a better person.

In other news, Mary heard someone crying (and it sounded like a child) in the hall but for some reason everyone is saying she misheard, that it was the wind. Could that be Mr. Craven’s daughter? But why would he hide her?