The Secret Garden (Book Review)
The Secret Garden written by Frances Hodgson Burnett is one difficult classic to read! I managed to finish it. No doubt it’s a well written book (as it is a classic), but look at this –
“Iris and white lilies rose out of the grass in sheaves, and the green alcoves filled themselves with amazing armies of the blue and white flower lances of tall delphiniums or columbines or campanulas.”
Did you notice it? If you don’t live in England, try imagining even a couple of flowers mentioned in this small paragraph. The entire book contains plants and trees we have never heard of, let alone seen!
The second issue is, not much happens in terms of action. I know I am not reading a thriller or action suspense or anything, but even in literary fiction genre (that I love), there is some action, exposition, conflict, resolution, etc.
In this book, a child called Mary wakes up at her home, goes to the garden, comes back and talks about it to her cousin brother (who has some health issues), then she goes, comes back, meets another boy there, takes her cousin to the garden, comes back home, goes back, comes back home . . . aaarrrggg!! 🙂
That’s it! Imagine reading couple of hundred pages like that. I was expecting some kind of antagonist to up the ante – the doctor who comes to treat Colin was an excellent potential antagonist, but there is none! Everyone in this novel are good and only positive things happen. Ok, there is some negativity to begin with, but even fairy tales for kids are more realistic than this book.
However, what this book gets right, is the imagery and a sublime message. If you live in England or anywhere nearby, you may appreciate the former. The message is fine, but does the author need so many pages to convey it?
The previous two classics I read were good (1, 2). But this one bored me. You may like it still . . . Next up is The Tale of Two Cities. I have read Oliver Twist by the same author, and hence hope this book will also be good. Fingers crossed 🙂
Destination Infinity
This book has been there on my must-read list for a long time. After reading your review, I don’t think I will read this book in the near future. 😛 Thanks for the review.
Never knew this book existed!
😛
Not interested to read it either.
I wonder why some classics are boring and some award winning movies are not easy to understand!
Ok, the book is not that bad, but I felt difficult to complete it – that’s all!
Destination Infinity