The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden

Written by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Published in 1911

Five Stars

The other day I decided to give audio books a second chance. Last year I downloaded the audiobook app for my Itouch. It was only 99 cents for over 20,000 books. Did I realize the books were only classics? No, not at first. As I enjoy classics, I didn’t mind at all. But, after each one, I just wasn’t satisfied with the experience. The narrator changed, mostly, after each chapter. I lost all faith. I don’t have money for current audio books, so I stopped downloading them, or giving them a try.

The book I decided to try first was Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.

A ten-year-old disagreeable and self-centered little girl orphan Mary,  comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors where she discovers  her equally disagreeable invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

The garden, discovered by Mistress Mary, laid untouched for ten years, the same time her cousin was born and his mother died giving birth to him. Her cousin Colin’s father locked the garden up once his wife died-the garden was her favorite place to be. Mary decides to bring new life to the garden with her new friend, Dickon the animal whisperer and the best gardener at the young age of twelve.   What enfolds is a great story where Colin and Mary become each other’s savior. The garden healing them all (with magic as Colin repeatedly and joyfully said).

I looked forward to each chapter, hanging on to every word. The book was a great choice to rediscover audio books. Narrated by Karen Savage, the novel moved fast and charmingly.  Her voices were very much enjoyable. Savage did a great accent when each character entered the page. Dickon’s Yorkshire dialect was represented excellently. Mary’s was proper, with Colin’s voice slightly obnoxious, and superior. I felt every bit of the joy Savage felt. She embodied the story for me. I can’t picture another narrator that could do this great classic justice.

If you haven’t read this classic children’s book, you should!