The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

-

One of my best friends since middle school gifted me The Secret Garden for Christmas last year. At first I was just in love with the beautiful cover. It was not long before I realized that The Secret Garden is actually a children's book. And what a great one it is! I really enjoyed reading it. I loved the characters, the detailed descriptions of their development and the beautiful nature surrounding them. 

The Secret Garden tells the story of young Mary Lennox who spends her first years of life in India. She never really shares any time with her parents and she knows nothing of love and affection. Mary is not a kind little girl. She even looks unpleasant. Unhappy really. Mary does not know how to dress herself. Hunger and exhaustion are also unfamiliar to her. When the girl losses both her parents to cholera, she is sent off to live in her uncle's great mansion in Yorkshire. England is Mary's first encounter with a colder climate. This is where she learns how to behave and act towards others. It is where she gains an appetite and learns what it is like to play so much you feel tired. Mary makes her very first friends here. England is where Mary becomes a child. It's where she finally starts living.
Colin Craven is Mary's miserable and crippled cousin. Having spent his entire life inside his bedroom and doing nothing but screaming at the help, has left Colin a terrible child. Just like Mary, he has not learned the right way to behave towards others. When him and Mary finally meet, they manage to change one another.
The polar opposite of Mary and Colin is Dickon Sowersby. The air around him is sweet and pleasant - and so is Dickon. All animals love him. All people love him. Dickon is built different.
The three children have had very different upbringings. Still they manage to connect - with the power of nature.

The Secret Garden teaches us how much control our mind and thoughts have on our lives. The way we choose to perceive things has an effect on the way we live. Fill your mind with negative thoughts and your life will be miserable. If you choose to think that everything is magic, then everything is magic. Throughout the novel, we see how much the children change. Their mindset has a great deal to do with it. I love how fascinated they were by simple things. The children were great observers and they knew how to really enjoy the blossoming flowers and the smell of fresh air. The Secret Garden made me want to go outdoors more and try to enjoy nature as much as the children do. Nature is truly a gift from God. It's amazing how healing and soothing it can be. The power of nature is underrated and we really should force ourselves to get out more - maybe I'm just speaking for myself here. But honestly. Don't hide indoors all day. Whether it's freezing cold or pouring rain.. go out and enjoy it. Nature is magic. 

352 pages, Wordsworth Editions, 1911

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SOLGT

-
Image
Nadia og hendes datter Tina (til venstre) Zana (til højre) En sand historie fortalt af Zana Muhsen: Zana og Nadia Muhsen er 2 piger på 15 og 14 år. Deres mor er briter, og deres far er araber. Som de voksede op, var deres frihed meget begrænset. Deres far var meget streng og vogtede konstant over dem. En dag fortæller deres far dem, at de skal til Yemen på en drømmeferie i 2 uger. De siger ja med det samme, da de aldrig har været ude at rejse før, og fordi det lyder meget spændende. Zana rejser nogle dage før Nadia, med hendes fars ven Abdul Khada og hans søn Mohammed. Da Zana ankommer til Yemen, er det overhovedet ikke som forventet. Der er utroligt varmt, og landskabet skifter meget fra landsby til landsby. Zana går anderledes klædt i forhold til andre kvinder, som er fuldt tildækket med lange bukser og tørklæder. Zana er meget uvidende og venter på, at hendes ferie skal begynde. Hun tror jo, at hun skal på en drømmeferie, men i virkeligheden har hendes far solgt h...
Read more

Forfatningen af Gemma Malley

-
Image
Anna er et Overskud. Hun lever i året 2140, hvor man har evigt liv, fordi man kan tage nogle stoffer, der hedder LangtLiv. Det har gjort, at verden er blevet overbefolket. Derfor står der i Forfatningen, at det er forbudt at få børn. Nogle børn, der bliver født ulovligt, bliver dræbt, andre bliver sat på et Overskudshjem som Anna. Hun bor på Grange Hall. Hun hader sine forældre. Det var en synd, at de fik hende, og nu betaler hun prisen for det. På Grange Hall bliver børnene oplært i forskellige ting som usynlighed. De får hele tiden at vide, at de ikke burde være der. - hvert minut er stjålendt. De må ikke stille spørgsmål, de bliver tæsket, hvis de gør noget forkert, de bliver isoleret, de har ingen ejendele, og de skal hele tiden kigge ned. Anna er Præfækt, og hendes mål er at være Værdsat. På Grange Hall er lederen en sur og meget skrap dame, Mrs Pincent. Der er ikke noget kærligt eller menneskeligt i hende. Hun bestemmer, hvad overskuddenes straf er, og hun viser ingen barmhj...
Read more

"It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover

-
Image
Lily Bloom grew up in a house with an abusive father and a mother who couldn't say no. As Lily grew up she came to hate her father for his actions and swore that she'd never be with a guy who abused her. Lily is 23 years old and has moved away from her hometown. She now lives in Boston. One special night she meets the handsome and successful neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid. They immediately connect and have a rare, but honest conversation about the naked truths of their lives. They think they'll never meet again, but that's the funny thing about the universe. We never know what's going to happen to us.  I was very excited to read this novel as I had heard great things about it. I even saw that it won a Goodreads-award. That's why I thought it would be absolutely amazing. It's not that I was disappointed when I finished the novel. I am just being honest as I write that the issue with this novel is that it in some ways fails to be authentic.  To be fair, the...
Read more