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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
I had some patchy memories of watching this movie as a kid and this filled in the gaps.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
All the stars. I loved this so much.
Like Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden is another book that I was not allowed to read as a child because I was a boy. (It is important to note that the person who would not allow me to read these books was myself... I can distinctly recall being drawn by the title of this book, "SECRET? Garden. So... is there an alien, or magic, or a dragon, or some infernal machine in the garden? Looking at the cover... probably not. Nope! Not going to risk it.")
The most interesting thing about this book is that it has none of the things we think books need to have to be successful. There's almost no conflict. After the opening incidents, almost nothing goes wrong. The book is supposedly a series of adventures of some children overcoming hardship... but there isn't any hardship. Every chapter is just a list of things *going right*, and almost nothing going wrong, and that should mean a very dull and pointless book. Even the starving moor children are depicted as quaint and happy, ignoring their likely miserable state. Despite the opening chapter of disease and death, life is inherently wonderful for everyone in this book, which renders the children' accomplishments as nil, and should make the plot hollow and pointless.
So why did I cry so much while reading it? Why did I care? Why did I enjoy it so much?
It has a lot of spelled-out philosophy, which I am a sucker for. Even done imperfectly, I love it when a book takes that risk. The book also has joy and happiness, which is hard to find in a modern novel. It has redemption. It acknowledges both that the father has neglected his duties but also explains his point of view and what he has suffered, without beating it over our head. The book believes in life and in magic. There is never any doubt that everything is going to work out and be wonderful, that kindness is going to win. And despite how boring that ought to be, it mostly works. How often do we get to read something like that?
Finally, it is possible that this book contains a message that I, Douglas, need to hear. Something particular about trust--or about the inevitability of growth, that nature pushes us along, that green shoots *always* pop up from the dark soil. Because they do--it's true. And humanity is not in conflict with that spirit... we actually embody it, mostly. This book says that things are going to be okay, and it teaches us some of what we can do to help things be okay. Trump might be president, my children might hit each other, but things are going to be okay. And I can help. In our culture, it is a tremendous bit of bravery to consider that point of view, even for a moment.
I've seen clips of television or movie versions of this story, and I've sat through the musical, and I have to record here that I hated all of it. Watching them was like eating food that someone else had already chewed on for a while. I feel the same way, though not quite as strongly, about Anne of Green Gables. These are really interesting, good books, and they've been made *less* accessible to the world by adaptations.
The book isn't perfect. Besides the aforementioned bizarre lack of conflict, and the sweetness that is almost cloying, there are some passages that were poorly written or poorly imagined. It is almost as if the author were learning to write, and so she tried a series of different styles and techniques as she created a book. Some of the things she tried worked brilliantly, like the first paragraph of chapter 21 (XXI), or indeed many of the exploratory tone changes that the author uses when starting a new chapter. But some passages demonstrably fail, like Mr. and Mrs. Crawford's conversation in chapter 2, which almost made me drop the book. I can't make up my mind about the robin's point of view passage, and the section from Archibald Craven's point of view towards the end... does it work? Yes? Maybe? But I am impressed and inspired by the commitment and creativity used in crafting all of it.
Will re-read.
The most interesting thing about this book is that it has none of the things we think books need to have to be successful. There's almost no conflict. After the opening incidents, almost nothing goes wrong. The book is supposedly a series of adventures of some children overcoming hardship... but there isn't any hardship. Every chapter is just a list of things *going right*, and almost nothing going wrong, and that should mean a very dull and pointless book. Even the starving moor children are depicted as quaint and happy, ignoring their likely miserable state. Despite the opening chapter of disease and death, life is inherently wonderful for everyone in this book, which renders the children' accomplishments as nil, and should make the plot hollow and pointless.
So why did I cry so much while reading it? Why did I care? Why did I enjoy it so much?
It has a lot of spelled-out philosophy, which I am a sucker for. Even done imperfectly, I love it when a book takes that risk. The book also has joy and happiness, which is hard to find in a modern novel. It has redemption. It acknowledges both that the father has neglected his duties but also explains his point of view and what he has suffered, without beating it over our head. The book believes in life and in magic. There is never any doubt that everything is going to work out and be wonderful, that kindness is going to win. And despite how boring that ought to be, it mostly works. How often do we get to read something like that?
Finally, it is possible that this book contains a message that I, Douglas, need to hear. Something particular about trust--or about the inevitability of growth, that nature pushes us along, that green shoots *always* pop up from the dark soil. Because they do--it's true. And humanity is not in conflict with that spirit... we actually embody it, mostly. This book says that things are going to be okay, and it teaches us some of what we can do to help things be okay. Trump might be president, my children might hit each other, but things are going to be okay. And I can help. In our culture, it is a tremendous bit of bravery to consider that point of view, even for a moment.
I've seen clips of television or movie versions of this story, and I've sat through the musical, and I have to record here that I hated all of it. Watching them was like eating food that someone else had already chewed on for a while. I feel the same way, though not quite as strongly, about Anne of Green Gables. These are really interesting, good books, and they've been made *less* accessible to the world by adaptations.
The book isn't perfect. Besides the aforementioned bizarre lack of conflict, and the sweetness that is almost cloying, there are some passages that were poorly written or poorly imagined. It is almost as if the author were learning to write, and so she tried a series of different styles and techniques as she created a book. Some of the things she tried worked brilliantly, like the first paragraph of chapter 21 (XXI), or indeed many of the exploratory tone changes that the author uses when starting a new chapter. But some passages demonstrably fail, like Mr. and Mrs. Crawford's conversation in chapter 2, which almost made me drop the book. I can't make up my mind about the robin's point of view passage, and the section from Archibald Craven's point of view towards the end... does it work? Yes? Maybe? But I am impressed and inspired by the commitment and creativity used in crafting all of it.
Will re-read.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Why did no one ever suggest this book to me when I was a child? It was magical.
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this classic. For some reason, I didn't read it in school as so many other people seem to have done. I always meant to get around to reading it.
I did hit a slump in the beginning of the book. I got started reading it and then had to hurry and read a book for book club. The Secret Garden got put on the backburner, and it took me a long time to pick it up again. I was a little disappointed at first because I wanted it to be a book my 7yr old daughter could read. While it was easily appropriate for her, I thought the Yorkshire dialect used in the dialogue would be too challenging. I found it awkward myself, and it might have been the reason I set the book aside for so long.
But I'm glad I returned to it. The book was very enjoyable. I found it reminded me of a younger charactered version of The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Straton-Porter. The story has a lot of heart. I'm not a gardener myself, but I found the love of nature and the fascination with the garden and its creatures to be quite infectious.
I was a little wary when there was so much talk of magic as the cause of things, but I realize the book is about children. We all want to believe in magic when we are kids, don't we? I liked what Susan Sowerby (Dickon's mother) said when asked if she believed in magic. "'That I do, lad,' she answered. 'I never knowed it by that name but what does th' name matter? I warrant they call it a different name i' France an' a different one i' Germany . . . Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it -- an' call it what tha' likes.'"
I did hit a slump in the beginning of the book. I got started reading it and then had to hurry and read a book for book club. The Secret Garden got put on the backburner, and it took me a long time to pick it up again. I was a little disappointed at first because I wanted it to be a book my 7yr old daughter could read. While it was easily appropriate for her, I thought the Yorkshire dialect used in the dialogue would be too challenging. I found it awkward myself, and it might have been the reason I set the book aside for so long.
But I'm glad I returned to it. The book was very enjoyable. I found it reminded me of a younger charactered version of The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Straton-Porter. The story has a lot of heart. I'm not a gardener myself, but I found the love of nature and the fascination with the garden and its creatures to be quite infectious.
I was a little wary when there was so much talk of magic as the cause of things, but I realize the book is about children. We all want to believe in magic when we are kids, don't we? I liked what Susan Sowerby (Dickon's mother) said when asked if she believed in magic. "'That I do, lad,' she answered. 'I never knowed it by that name but what does th' name matter? I warrant they call it a different name i' France an' a different one i' Germany . . . Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it -- an' call it what tha' likes.'"
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes