The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

• The Shuttle
• The Making of a Marchioness
• The Methods of Lady Walderhurst
• The Lass o' Lowries
• Through One Administration
• Little Lord Fauntleroy
• A Lady of Quality

Contents

1. There is No-one Left
2. Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary
3. Across the Moor
4. Martha
5. The Cry in the Corridor
6. "There was someone crying--there was!"
7. The Key to the Garden
8. The Robin who Showed the Way
9. The Strangest House Anyone Ever Lived In
10. Dickon
11. The Nest of the Missel Thrush
12. "Might I have a bit of earth?"
13. "I am Colin"
14. A Young Rajah
15. Nest Building
16. "I won't!" said Mary
17. A Tantrum
18. "Tha' munnot waste no time"
19. "It has come!"
20. "I shall live forever--and ever--and ever!"
21. Ben Weatherstaff
22. When the Sun Went Down
23. Magic
24. "Let them laugh"
25. The Curtain
26. "It's Mother!"
27. In the Garden

Note: this public domain work – published in 1911 – was originally incorporated by Valjuan, who noded the first few chapters.

1. Opening
2. Scene: India
3. There's A Girl
4. Scene: The Library at Misselthwaite Manor
5. Scene: A Train Platform in Yorkshire/The House Upon The Hill
6. I Heard Someone Crying
7. Scene: Mary's Sitting Room/If I Had A Fine White Horse
8. A Girl In The Valley
9. Scene: The Ballroom
10. It's A Maze
11. Scene: The Greenhouse
12. Winter's On The Wing
13. Scene: The Edge Of The Moor
14. Show Me The Key
15. Scene: Archibald's Library/A Bit Of Earth
16. Storm I
17. Lily's Eyes
18. Storm II
19. Scene: Colin's Room
20. Round-Shouldered Man
21. Final Storm
22. The Girl I Mean To Be
23. The House Upon The Hill-Transition/Scene: Archibald's Dressing Room
24. Quartet/There's A Man-Transition
25. Race You To The Top Of The Morning
26. Wick
27. Scene: Colin's Room
28. Come To My Garden/Lift Me Up
29. Come Spirit, Come Charm
30. A Bit Of Earth-Reprise
31. Scene: The Library/Scene: Mary's Room
32. Hold On
33. Letter Song
34. Where In The World
35. How Could I Ever Know
36. Finale

Also, evan927 has omitted from http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm70.html that all music is by Lucy Simon and the book and lyrics are by Marsha Norman.

The 1993 film version of "the Secret Garden", directed by Agnieszka Holland, stared a cast of relative unknowns (save for Maggie Smith). The movie was filmed on location in London and stays more or less faithful to the book.

The movie is visually stunning. The house, Craven Manor, the gardens and the moors are shot in vivid colour and detail. Great attention is paid to the look of the film, in creating a larger than life feel to the gardens, drawing the viewer into the film. To that effect, the sound of the film is amazing. Not the score, the background noise of the scenes. A fire crackling, doors creaking, wind blowing through leaves, a child's wails in the night. The atmosphere to the film is wonderful.

The Secret Garden isn't just a film for children, it's a film about children. The children in the movie (as in the book), Mary and Colin, are self-centred, arrogant, certain, scared, obsessive, determined, curious: everything that 10-year-olds are. There are two scenes in the movie that, to me, emphasize this.

(in Colin's room)
Mary: I hate the way you talk about dying.
Colin: Everybody thinks I'll die.
Mary: If everybody thought that about me, I wouldn't do it.

The second scene is in the garden for a midnight bonfire, the children having snuck out when they were supposedly locked in their rooms. Colin starts chanting nonsense words while dancing around the fire, which the others mimic, asking the "magic" (the whole story of the magic wasn't defined in the movie, but was well belaboured in the book) to send his father back to the manor. How many children haven't played at making up their own imaginary magic world, that only children can see?

The acting was great. Maggie Smith was, as always, magnificent in her role as the stern and overbearing authority figure of the housekeeper Mrs. Medlock. The part is played so well that you can't exactly like the character, but you understand her. The roles of the children are realistic and very well done. The very small supporting cast is charming.

Midway through the story, Mary dreams of her dead mother in the garden, "and the garden was a jungle". The dream-Mary was a toddler, and when her mother ran off, abandoning her in the garden, the little girl's face crumpled and she quietly started sobbing for her mother. Everything changes, and we have to change with it. It's a part of growing up.