The Secret Garden isn't just a children's story
about a hidden paradise. It's a masterful exploration
of how nature's magic transforms the human spirit
from winter into spring. The Secret Garden was
written in 1911 by, or published, I should say,
in 1911 by Francis Hodgson Burnett, and I have
a lot to say about it. I really like this book.
I was covering it chapter by chapter, but I'm
just going to cover it in one go now with this
episode. This is technically fortress fiction,
or I guess... Whatever. It's technically episode
15, even though it's not episode 15. But here
we go. So I, real quick, I really liked, like,
kind of five key areas. One is character parallels
and contrast. So the character work is really
good. Environmental transformation is the second.
Spiritual dimensions, symbolic elements, and
universal appeal. I will go back through these
and talk about each of them for a minute or so,
and we'll see how much we enjoy them. By the
way, when I say each of these, each of those
has a couple little notes under it. So here we
go. Let's see. So Colin and Mary, they have similar
backgrounds, but different manifestations of
neglect. So they obviously parallel each other
in multiple ways. Multiple characters in the
book mention how they're similar to each other.
They're both their cousins whose mothers were
sisters. I suppose both of their mothers are
described as beautiful. And Colin's mother died
when he was born, or shortly thereafter. And
so he was orphaned of his mother. And Mary Lennox
was orphaned when her mother and father got yellow
fever, I think it was. No, it was cholera. Cholera
killed them in India. They were stationed out
there in India. I think kind of like being part
of the whole regency system, they were, you know,
a duke, duchess, whatever, kind of landed gentry,
and they were sent to be out there. That's what
it sounds more like to me than her father being
an officer, but I could be misremembering that.
However, it doesn't actually matter. The point
is, they both lost their parents. Before they
lost their parents, or consequently because of
the losing of their parents, or rather the...
Let me back up a little bit. The station of their
parents allowed both of them to become very spoiled.
Mary's mother didn't want her, and she didn't
want her interfering with her parties and her
social activities, so she left her to be tended
to by the maids, or the nannies, the nurses,
who took care of her completely, and they let
her be a tyrant because they would be yelled
at. punished, presumably, by her mother, Mrs.
Lennox, if Mary was in her way and ruining things
for her. So they did everything they could to
keep the little girl at bay and pacified, basically.
Colin, on the other hand, after his mother's
death, his father felt like he couldn't look
at his son. He'd wished that he had died. He
was sad that his son had lived, and therefore
he gave him things, and he gave him people to
tend to him, but he never himself tended to his
son or cared for him, and it was too hurtful.
Well, anyway, the reasons don't really matter
right now, but you have these two people who
grew up isolated from their parents, from their
loved ones, in a very real way. Even though Mary's
parents were living until the cholera took them,
they were both growing up in this way, almost
orphans already, and they were growing up...
completely spoiled and being able to control
there were little tyrants who were able to control
people around them uh through whatever means
and that damaged both of them it caused them
to both be lesser people um despite the fact
that they are great in their own ways that they
come from families of great lineage and great
wealth and whatnot none of those things really
matter because uh you can have all the material
good in the world but if you're hollow inside
and if you're rotten uh to the core then Nobody
wants to be around you. And you really do have
nothing, which I think is illustrated very nicely
in this story. So that's a way in which they
parallel each other, Colin and Mary. And Colin
and his father, Mr. Craven, I don't remember
his name, Archibald. Archibald, that's right.
They are both isolated from each other. They,
supposedly Colin has the same maladies as his
father where he's going to be a hunchback and
all these different things. Even though his father
is like backpacking across Europe and climbing
mountains and hiking and things like that. I'm
not sure how exactly a cripple is doing that
sort of thing, but he's a sickly man because
he's, well, because he wants to be, or he doesn't
want to be healthy, I guess is the problem. And
Colin has never learned to want to be healthy
and to... seek more for himself or demand more
for himself or try more for himself up until
this point because of previously discussed neglect.
And Dickens' family is like a foil to the Cravens
and the Lennoxes because they are poor Yorkshire
folk and they have a crude manner of speech and
you could say a crude manner of acting. They're
not great lords and ladies, but they do have
great things. His mother is a great lady. despite
not having a title or any wealth. She's raised
12 kids. And she's a wonderful woman. She's very
warm. And the chief servant, housemaid, whatever,
at Craven's estate, Mrs. Matlock says that she's
this incredible person who she absolutely adores
and who is instrumental. It's acknowledged that
she's instrumental in the... healing and the
transformation of both Colin and Mary. And that's
stated in different ways throughout the book.
And it's through the effects of her children
mainly, but it just shows you what kind of mark
a mother can leave on her children because she's
so good. And I was going to say holy, which yes,
she is holy, but just we'll get to that later.
she's so good and kind and loving and she gives
that same warmth to her children and They're
able to share with other people despite their
poverty and despite what they lack they're able
to give so much from the goodness of their heart
and I would say Because of the goodness of the
heart that has been imbued into them by their
mother and they've grown up chicken jowl hungry
not having uh what they wanted or needed to eat
but they grew up loved they grew up with parents
who were there in body and spirit and heart i
guess here's spirit and heart and maybe the father
was away working a lot maybe the mother's away
working a lot but the love is still there and
it's still felt by people um it's unclear to
me whether uh uh their mother uh is at home or
not i think she's a working woman um doing whatever
in the village. So anyway, regardless, they have
the love and they have the family, Dickon and
his family, that Mary and Colin don't. Despite
all their greatness, they're lacking. They are
poor. And Dickon, this poor moor boy, is rich.
And his sister is rich to an extent, too, having
been raised in the same family. And it's really
wonderful how this small cast of characters,
you've got the gardener as well, Ben Weatherstaff,
and you've got some other people. Mrs. Matlock,
and a few others. And they really work to texture
the story. There's a nurse, there's the doctor
who's Colin's uncle, Archibald's brother, Dr.
Craven. They're secondary, and they have a lot
less time and a lot less focus, but you can also
see some good character work being done with
them as well, and how they're contextualized.
And not only does Hodgson do this great foiling
and paralleling work with the... with these characters
but um she also what was i going to say i don't
know but she makes a character out of birds which
is very interesting to me and very fun there's
even a chapter near the end of the book where
it's from the perspective of a robin and his
mate and that's pretty pretty special i think
so we have those character dynamics that are
set up and used to tell the story but we also
have the environment and status of the environment
and mary and collins let's say perception of
the environment to consider as well uh india
is described in very unflattering terms the more
is initially described in very unflattering terms
in the early chapters chapter three chapter four
even i think i was saying that it felt like a
horror like this was a gothic horror book and
part of what uh made that the case was the uh
the bleak wilderness um that the more was it
was uh you know deciduous everything was you
know in sticks instead of being fully leaved
and uh it was just not very attractive and it
was not very inviting and there were these horrible
howling winds haunted sounding winds that went
over the more and they scared mary she never
had never experienced anything like that in india
um and yeah it really did have this tone of like
horror but now that i'm thinking back on it now
that i have this different perspective on it
after finishing the book it's almost like it's
the uh the horror is uh uh it's it's what goes
on in here that's hard it's not the chains it's
the horror is inside because she was empty she
was hollow she was lifeless like the more or
like the more seemed to be but there was still
life in the more just like there was still life
in her which again it all links back to each
other it's uh hutchins is a very interesting
job. Very good job. I'm not trying to take it
away from her. She did a very good job of layering
the storytelling and it's really cool how she
does that and I appreciate that. We also have
this dichotomy of people who are always indoors,
like Mary and her mother and whoever else. They
were always indoors. They wouldn't really go
outside because the humidity and whatever else
in India was so hot and so oppressive for them.
It was not something that they could do. uh mary
was said to be yellow and sickly and thin because
of that she didn't get exercise she didn't have
good appetite um call him the same thing he doesn't
go outside he thinks being outside will be unhealthy
for him and it's not uh it's quite the opposite
but that's what his perception is that was his
father's perception is uh even his uncle craven
um dr craven rather uh has that perception and
yet there's a big doctor from london who comes
to the moore uh to misselthwaite manor and says
that that's what he means that's what he needs
he needs to get rid of his mac brace he needs
to get up he needs to get out of bed he needs
to be acting like an old boy running around getting
fresh air and exercise and things like that and
he'll be healthier and you know sure enough that
is what happens in the book but we don't find
that out until it starts happening um so it's
just you know kind of deepening that indoors
outdoors uh dichotomy and you know being trapped
inside being cooped up inside and not being able
to go outside or not or not feeling like you
were able to go outside is uh not something good
for for anybody in this story uh when you're
able to get outdoors it's a good thing However,
the indoors are not treated as a horror show
either. With the perspective of the people changing,
the indoors become a better place and a good
place. I believe Mary felt trapped. Mary felt
like the manor was scary because it was so large.
However, she and Colin at one point go exploring
the inside of the manor, and they find all sorts
of wonderful things, and they have lots of fun,
and it's a very enjoyable experience for them
because their mindset has changed by that time,
not because of anything different about the home
or the house changing, rather. And to go along
with that, that doesn't happen until spring is
upon them. Perhaps spring is there, maybe there
are spring showers that are causing them to stay
inside and they're able to have fun that way.
But again, when Mary arrives at Missile 3, it's
in its... I was going to use a French word, and
I don't even know if it's the right word, and
I don't... I can't even say the word right now,
but it's in my mind. Maybe you know what it is.
If you do, let me know, because I don't think
I'm going to say it, and I'm not going to flash
it on the screen. Anyway, oh, nadir is what I
was going to say. Anyway, I feel like it's, everything
is dead, everything is dying. That's when she
arrives at myself. Wait. Over time, she progresses.
By the time spring is fully in bloom, I don't
think they reach summer in the book. I think
it's just the passage of a partial year, winter.
Did she arrive in fall or winter? I don't quite
remember, but regardless. Once... She might have
arrived in fall, late fall. But anyway, it doesn't
really matter. By the time she's ready, by the
time Colin's ready, by the time they're both
well, it's deep into spring. And that's when
Archibald returns and when things go much better
for everybody in the book. And we have this happy
ending that it must be, yeah, when like spring
is in full bloom, that there's this rebirth of
father and son, which I will get to. And I'll
touch on when I talk about the spirituality,
which is actually coming next because this section
didn't take as long as I had anticipated it would.
But yeah, definitely as the seasons progress
from cold and dead and dormant. uh and new life
awakens again so does the life of these characters
awaken and their interior life awakens as well
so there's this idea in here this is a very spiritual
dimension of the book I wasn't sure exactly where
it was coming from. I kind of figured early on
that it was a little bit Christian. Hodgson does
have a book. It's called, it has something to
do with Pilgrim's Progress, but it's like Two
Pilgrim's Progress is, or something like that.
And that's kind of fun. I'm a big fan of Louisa
May Alcott's Little Women, which references directly
Pilgrim's Progress and may in fact kind of be.
well not really i'm not going to say that anyway
it very directly references pilgrim of progress
so uh which is christian allegory um and again
i don't think this is allegory i think this is
parallelism or something else um but it's it's
very fun but anyway let me go into it uh so nature
is seen as a healer and as a divine messenger
in a couple ways nature is a healer because the
well dickens health is and his like hardiness
is kind of attributed to him spending so much
time on the more even the color of his eyes the
sky blue color of his eyes or the blue gray color
of his eyes is attributed to the more and him
spending so much time on the more and out more
so much time looking up at the sky so it's almost
like the idea is that by spending time in a natural
environment one is influenced by the natural
environment and one is altered and changed by
the natural environment which i think It's probably
scientifically proven by now. It may not be super
mainstream science, but I think it's something
true, and if it's not something true on the cellular
level, it's definitely something that we can
see is true generally speaking. People are affected
by the environments that they're in and can be
shaped and improved by the environments that
they're in, or the environment you're in can
have deleterious effects on you, as we saw above
with Colin and... and Mary, what environments
they were in and how it caused them to wilt.
As far as being a divine messenger, the Robin
is a bit of a character in this book and Mrs.
Robin. And you can see them as being divine messengers
sent by God to help these children. How else
would the Robin have shown, been able to show
Mary? where the key was to the garden, if not
divine providence. How else would Mary have found
the door for the garden had she not been where
she needed to be? And that breath of wind had
come, that breath of spirit, you could say, had
come and blown aside the vines just as she needed
them to so that she could see the door. It feels
very magical, but it also feels very divine and
godly. And there's this very interesting blending,
contrast, complementation, or complementing of
magic and Christian imagery put here together.
They're seen as complementary things, not contradictory.
The Christianity actually doesn't really come
in, I think, until the very final chapter, or
maybe it's the penultimate chapter. It's specifically
called out. They talk about church. They talk
about a particular hymn. I don't remember what
it is, but it's beautiful. Beautiful little chunk
of a hymn capped off by the Trinity. And anyway,
it's just like, it's really interesting how This
was written in 1911. I don't know when it's supposed
to be set. Maybe somewhere around then. These
are children. I don't know that Collins received
any formal education. He knows how to read, and
he's kind of an autodidact. He's read a lot of
books himself, books on science and books on
nature and books on lots of other things. And
he feels like he's going to become a scientist,
and he's going to share scientific knowledge,
and he's going to be a scientific lecturer who
lectures on the nature of magic and the science
of magic. But he's open to ascribing this divine
power to magic as well. And the way he speaks
of magic, the way he speaks of magic and the
way that Mary perceives magic and the way that
magic kind of handles this, it's like this unexplained
phenomenon that is observable and reliable and
repeatable. And that some people have access
to or know how to manipulate and some people
don't. And in a childish kind of way, there is
no, there's a... I don't know if it's Arthur
C. Clarke or if it's other science fiction author,
but any sufficiently advanced technology will
appear to be magical or magic. It's an old saying
from, I don't know, the pulp sci -fi days, maybe,
perhaps. I don't know. I haven't sourced that
myself, but look into it. And I could see that.
I could see that, and I could see that here,
that any natural phenomenon that's special enough,
magical enough, beautiful enough, amazing enough,
can be seen as... magic and um the idea of magic
or the activity of magic can mask the divine
that's actually hidden and secret behind it and
i think that's what we see here um you could
argue that the garden has a garden of eden the
secret garden has a garden of eden or paradise
uh aspect to it uh quality to it Maybe it has
that imagery reflected in it. It's definitely
not heavy -handed. It might be metaphorical.
It could kind of be allegorical. I was thinking
about his mother falling off the tree branch
and dying, Colin's mother, that is, and then
his father closing and sealing the garden. If
you don't know, if you're not familiar, I think
it's Genesis 2, that after Adam and Eve had sinned
by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, they were banished, and there
was a... angel a cherub an angel with a flaming
sword uh that guarded the way to the garden and
prohibited them from getting out and in a way
you could see that when well and of course through
that sin death came into the world and it was
through the woman uh the most plain reading of
it even though there's a lot of uh interesting
takes on that interesting uh different perspectives
on that that you can have that are very much
orthodox let's say um but anyway mrs craven dies
in the garden and then her husband pulls away
from it puts himself into exile so to speak they
were exiled into the land of nod or no that was
actually uh kane they were exiled out of the
garden regardless and the way was sealed and
um it was the you know the door was locked and
the key was hidden and it was very much you know
barred and closed off from anybody entering it
until this little girl um and this is where the
analogy breaks down or the uh the metaphor for
it breaks down then this innocent little girl
who's actually rather nasty little thing is somehow
guided um by nature by god uh to find a way back
into this garden and through entering into that
garden she's able to or she it's less that she's
able to and it's more that she happens to facilitate
um the redemption and the healing and the coming
back to life of this young boy her cousin um
she's kind of like a redeemer for uh if you will
if you want to go even farther with the christian
imagery although there's a strong concept within
the jewish texts alone the kinsman redeemer um
or the blood avenger really and that has more
to do with uh well something else that's not
really related so we won't go into that right
now but i do think it's interesting there's a
lot of interesting spiritual uh, biblical imagery
in here, but, and you could argue that some of
it's Christian, but I think it could be Jewish
as well, but, you know, the main thing is that
it's biblical, and I think that's really interesting.
Um, so moving on from that, there's, uh, really
strong symbolic elements, like, I've been talking
the whole time about symbolic elements in this
story, um, so the key that's hidden to the garden,
as I alluded to earlier, uh, once it's available
and accessible, it unlocks the garden. Mary goes
into the garden, she... sees its beauty she's
astonished by it we learned later that ben weatherstaff
had actually climbed a wall and would go into
the garden and prune it and tend to it of his
own volition he wouldn't use the gate because
the master had forbidden it however he had the
choice to fight against that and until the rheumatoid
got him or the rheumatism got him he was going
in there and tending to the garden pruning and
such to help it to flourish even in the absence
of his lady who he had basically sworn to take
care of it too before her death But eventually,
like I said, Mary is kind of supernaturally guided
to the key to the garden, and then she unlocks
it. It completes her transformation. She meets
Dickon, who, again, he's almost like this cherubic
figure, like if you think about Lot being taken
out of Sodom and Gomorrah. I guess it was just
Sodom, actually, being taken out of Sodom by
this angel who helped guide him out and save
him. Dickon can kind of be seen as that kind
of figure as well. And he is this very peculiar
boy, this animal charmer. He's very special.
He's very magical presence in the book, even
though he seems to be positioned as only being
human, but he has almost these supernatural qualities
in and of himself, which is really interesting.
And, you know, like... I'm comparing him to an
angel, but being that nature and God are kind
of conflated in this story in an interesting
way, because if God is the one and only thing
there is, then all nature is God at its root
and its source. And there really is nothing else,
so it would make sense then that this person
would be the messenger, like an angel, which
that's what angel means, it means messenger,
if you go back to the Hebrew. So really, Dickon
is this messenger of the nature. And he's this
messenger of God guiding these two to where they
need to be, guiding them onto this path of redemption,
which is really fascinating. And of course, I
mentioned earlier, the Robin acts as a messenger
and again, an angel and a guide to them, assisting
them through all this and taking the Robin, have
their own conversation. And when we get the chapter,
it's maybe the third of the last chapter where
we get to see the Robin's perspective, him and
his wife, him and Mrs. Robin. He seems to indicate
the Robin that he and Dickon do really speak
the same language. So that's even more interesting
and like I Know it's it's a very fantastical
and very interesting that we're getting this
Robin this, you know common birds perspective
on the whole matter and he even sees this Transformation
on these children and like he knows that they're
going to be fine because they're doing what they
should be doing and they're where they should
be which is outside nature enjoying it um and
being part of it uh and he promises his wife
that their children their eggs when they hatch
they'll never be as you know silly or goofy as
these uh you know human children or whatever
and it's just really uh really interesting that
kind of again that's another area where that
you know analogy or that symbolism kind of breaks
down and um anyway so Again, this is not perfect,
and I'm doing a lot of this off the cuff, so
you'll have to forgive any little issues that
I have here, but I'm trying my best. So here
we go. I want to speak to the universal appeal
of the book. I think it speaks across religious
boundaries. I am not Christian. I am definitely
on the Jewish side of things, and despite the
explicit Christian... things here at the end
um i have no issue with any of that because the
way it's presented is so open and so optimistic
and so welcoming uh to these people uh the children
in particular benoit as well um that like there's
really no issue with it there's nothing this
isn't a preaching book it isn't a crit it isn't
a christian book it is a book that has some christian
things in it but really they're the most universal
of christian things um they speak of again god's
sovereignty god's connected to nature um how
god speaks through nature and uh really what
i think helps it the most is that colin really
has no nature no knowledge of god no knowledge
of church um no knowledge of the the christian
culture he's uh existed in this interesting space
and of isolation really um he's been quarantined
and that gives him a very different perspective
he has a open curious perspective and he's interested
in these different things but he almost has uh
like he's very captivated by the the ideas of
magic and when mary is coaxing him or helping
him soothing him to go to sleep early on she
tells him stories of india and the magic that
she heard of there or saw there herself snake
charmers and things like that and there's almost
this uh animistic viewpoint um which is very
universal people all over the world different
cultures older cultures um more indigenous cultures
will have will feature animism as part of their
worldview and i actually don't want to uh speak
out of turn so i copied from the wiki what animism
is specifically and i will read that definition
for you now uh animism uh is from the latin anima
meaning breath or spirit or life is the belief
that objects places and creatures all possess
a distinct spiritual essence animism perceives
all things animals plants rocks rivers weather
systems human handiwork and in some cases words
as being animated having agency and free will
animism is used in anthropology of religion as
a term for the belief the belief system of many
indigenous peoples, as I made reference to, in
contrast to the relatively more recent development
of organized religions. Animism is a metaphysical
belief which focuses on the supernatural universe,
specifically on the concept of the immaterial
soul. Although each culture has its own mythologies
and rituals, animism is said to describe the
most common foundational thread of indigenous
peoples' spiritual or supernatural perspectives.
The animistic perspective is so widely held and
inherent to most indigenous peoples that they
often do not even have a word in their language
that corresponds to animism or even religion.
The term animism is an anthropological construct.
But I do definitely believe the children's perception
of nature and magic and this... like, nascent
conception of the spiritual world is definitely
rooted in an animistic, like, worldview or perspective.
And I think that without context, without upbringing,
that it's very natural for children to tend to
or to have an innate animistic perspective. So
it definitely makes sense within this context.
If you allow me to get... a little more uh religious
here on you there's a story from it's a midrashic
story i don't know if it's from the talmud of
the gemara specifically but that abraham the
father of the abrahamic faiths of judaism and
such um he actually at a very young age i think
by the time he was three had looked at observed
and perceived how all the different ideology
idol idolatrous practices i don't know how to
say that um that he was exposed to worked in
the world his father was an idol maker and um
he looked at all these different idol making
uh an idol following idol worshiping religions
and practices and cultures around him and said
none of these are right and there's this great
story that i'm being urged to tell being compelled
by some spirit some animal spirit close to me
that um One time Abraham's father went out, his
name was Abram at the time, or Abram at the time.
His father went out on a trip and he left his
son in charge of the idol shop. And when he came
back, all the idols had been smashed except for
the largest one. And there was a hammer in the
hand of the largest idol. And his father said,
what happened, son? Who smashed all these idols?
Abram said, look, Dad, it's that one right there,
the one holding the hammer. What? He said, yeah,
this lady came in and she brought soup and offering
to these idols. And all the idols started fighting
over who would get the offering. And one by one,
they started fighting. And this big idol got
mad because he's the biggest and the strongest.
He grabbed this hammer and he crushed all the
other idols and destroyed them. And here he is.
He's holding the hammer. So that's proof. And
his father said, you know, there's no. such thing.
You know, that's not possible. I carved all of
these idols by my hand. And then he said to him,
then why do you worship them? And it goes on
from there. Um, that's a very fun story, but,
uh, it illustrates a point of, I guess, spiritual
sophistication and spiritual perception that
children have that I don't know that they're
always credited with. Um, but I definitely, uh,
see it. And, uh, I think it's evidenced here.
I think it's something that Hodgkin put into
this book, and I think that's interesting. Going
back up to my notes from that description, I
think the universal feel of the book is why it
continues to resonate with modern readers, and
again, I think you could be completely secular,
I think you could be Catholic, Christian, Jewish,
Muslim, whatever, and you would still be charmed
by this book, because as a person of faith, you
think that God loves you, and loves the world,
and created it. for you, to some perspective.
Now, to somebody who's not religious, that might
sound ridiculous because you're saying, what,
God created the world for you? But yeah, God
did create the world for you. There's another
saying that, well, I won't get into that right
now, but to have this perspective that God loves
you so much that he created the world and filled
it with all these wonderful things is part of
it. And you're being very distracting. Hold on.
What are you trying to say? Say it louder. You
know what you think? Okay, yes. If you believe
in God, you know that the world, that he created
the world for you, at least in part for you.
Not that you think, it's that you know. I guess
that's what it is to have faith, right? Anyway,
so, yeah, if you know that, then it doesn't matter
how different Mary and Colin are from you. You
can see that they have a bit of the truth that
you know, or they're learning that bit of the
truth. They're getting in on the secret that
you have, that your mother and father have given
to you, that whoever has given to you. And it's
kind of exciting to see them get in on the secret,
which is a whole other thing. There's this cult
idea of this secret and this, like this keeping
secrets and like this wonderful secret that the
garden is. colin's growing health is that uh
becomes a large focus of or a large motivator
for colin and uh it is for mary for a little
while but then it really becomes colin's passion
and he's very happy that he has this secret uh
that he can let other people in on and then by
the end of it he well he starts off being very
exclusive about it but then by the end he wants
everybody in on his secret um which is that he
will live forever uh that the garden and like
that he's healthy in the whole and that he has
this joy in this life yeah the more I think about
the more this is like you can definitely see
like the Christianity in it but it definitely
goes beyond that to the to the foundation which
I think is impressive so yeah it would make sense
or it does totally make sense why this has such
a long -lasting appeal um because it is such
a beautiful story it's very meaningful and it's
so thematic and it hits on so many different
levels that like i thought i'd really analyze
this book and thought about it really well but
as i'm talking about it i'm discovering more
layers to it and more little bits of it little
uh it's like walking through a garden and being
surprised by all the beautiful things that are
developing there that's kind of what this feels
like going through it again thinking about it
talking about it so Anyway, that's pretty much
all I have to say on this book. I would love
to hear your thoughts on it. Oh, before I go,
I want to let you know there are a few other
famous works by Francis Hodgen Burnett, and I
want to just give some kind of credits that I
didn't give at the top of this. So, Secret Garden
is a children's novel written by Francis Hodgen
Burnett, first published in book form in 1911
after serialization in the magazine, or in the
American magazine, from November 10th. to August
of 1911. Set in England, it is seen as a classic
of English literature, of course. The American
edition was published by the Frederick A. Stokes
Company, with the illustrations by M. L. Kirk,
and the British edition by Heinemann, with illustrations
by Charles Heath Robinson. Other works by her...
that I've heard of are A Little Lord Fauntleroy
from 1886 and A Little Princess, or Being the
Whole Story of Sarah Crewe Now Told for the First
Time. That was published in 1905. I love how
long old book titles were at some point. It's
very fun. And then The Secret Garden was published
six years after that in 1911, but she wrote a
lot of books. Other than that, you can check
them out. These are not endorsements. It's just
a little, maybe you'd like to know what other
works this author has made, so you can check
them out for yourself. and I ask you to continue
on this journey with me of fortress fiction as
I well I didn't even tell you this book 100 %
is a hard recommend it definitely has a place
of honor in the fortress fiction it deserves
a place of high honor in the fortress fiction
and I absolutely loved it and I am i've already
encouraged my other my children to read it and
i've suggested that if they can't read it then
i will read it to them because it's that worthwhile
it's definitely a great family book it's a great
individual book and i think a lot of people will
love this book i think a lot of people will benefit
from this book if they haven't checked it out
yet and uh now i know why because it's beautiful
and i just talked for the last over 30 minutes
about how wonderful this book is and If you'd
like to join me as I talk about other books,
that would be great. You can check out my backlog
of fortress fiction where I talk about some really
wonderful books and a couple of terrible books.
And I make no bones about telling you what books
I think are awful. If you want to find out, though,
check out the show notes at mjmunoz.com. And
yeah, you can look for fortress fiction. You
can find the books there that I liked and didn't
like. I'm doing this for many reasons. One, I
really enjoy books and I want to have a, uh,
I want to have as many books in my bucket. No,
it doesn't make sense. I want to read a lot of
good books and I want to be able to recommend
a lot of good books to people and tell them these
are good books. These are bad books. If you're
like me, you'll value these books. If you're
like me, you probably won't value these books.
So maybe steer clear of them. Don't waste your
time on them. And I feel like I do very honest
and very forthright reviews where I talked about
the good and the bad of these books. Um, There
really was no bad in The Secret Garden that I
can think of. Maybe the Yorkshire accent could
be bad. You can see that it's bad because it's
spelled out and written as Yorkshire, and it's
kind of crazy, but it's not a bad thing. It's
actually pretty fun. Anyway, but I'm also working
on my own books. I'm an author who wants to write
a ton of books, and my first book that I'm writing
that I have almost ready for publication. It's
called Mockwing Mayhem. It has nothing to do
with the Secret Garden except for the Secret
Garden has a lot of spiritual aspects and has
a lot of hidden divinity in nature. And in Mockwing
Mayhem, there are magical bugs who battle monsters.
These magical bugs come from the stars. They
come from God pretty much directly, who they
call Luz. And they also call the Maker. And the
Maker sent them here to protect children from
evil things that would hurt them. and things
that would prey upon them, their potent emotions.
And in Mockwing Mayhem specifically, a Mockwing,
which is a type of one of these monsters, finds
out where a bunch of these grow bugs live, which
those are my magical bugs that battle the monsters,
finds out where all the grow bugs live, or not
all of them, but a family of them live, and it
sends its brethren, or it brings its brethren
with it to where they live to try to kill them
all, because that's what evil things do. And
then the grow bugs have to fight for survival,
particularly... Two of them who are in training
still and they haven't been tested by battle.
They try to save their master. And the catch
is that even if they save their master from one
of the monsters that's attacking her, they have
a whole fox to deal with still. And if you want
to know how that turns out, then you have to
read Mockwing Mayhem. You can sign up on my website
for the newsletter and you can find out. when
the book comes out you can get some bonus material
some short stories or a short story and some
bonus material that go with the book as a little
extra as a little bonus for people who sign up
early and you can find out when it's going to
come out and you can get it check it out for
yourself and enjoy it for yourself because I
think it's a very good book. It's a middle grade
book. And yeah, I think it's very good. I've
worked on it a lot and I keep working on it,
keep improving it. And I think it's getting better
and better. I've been reading it to my kids.
They're biased, of course, but they seem to like
it. And that's nice. So you like it a lot? Okay.
They like it a lot, but again, they're biased.
So you got to check it out for yourself. And
you can do that by signing up for the newsletter,
getting the free short story, and getting the
free guide to Mockwing Mayhem in the World of
the Grobugs. Until next time, folks, take care
and be well.