Frances Hodgson Burnett
FACTS
1. FRANCES TURNED TO SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
After the death from consumption of her older son Lionel, Frances turned to Spiritualism and Christian Science. The ideas she learned from these belief systems found their way into her books, especially The Secret Garden, in which Mary Lennox persuades her sick young cousin that he can heal himself though the power of positive thinking.
2. SHE HAD A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN ON WHICH SHE BASED HER MOST FAMOUS NOVEL.
Frances bought a manor house in England, Great Maytham Hall, which had a beautiful garden on which she based her most famous novel. She lived there for ten years, initially scandalising the local vicar by living there with her much younger lover. The couple eventually married, but separated again shortly afterwards.
3. THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF THE SECRET GARDEN WAS MISTRESS MARY.
Mary’s name comes from the English nursery rhyme:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
At the beginning of the book, Mary is an unlikable character, described as ugly, spoiled, and rude. The other children chant this nursery rhyme at her and call her “Mistress Mary Quite Contrary.” Burnett used Mistress Mary as a working title for the book but eventually settled on The Secret Garden instead.
4. THE SECRET GARDEN IS INFLUENCED BY CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
Burnett admired Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science teachings, which include the rejection of medicine in favor of prayer and positive thinking. These beliefs make their way into The Secret Garden through the character Colin, a sickly boy locked away in the mansion. It is even proposed that the novel be read "as a feminist, Christian Science revision of ... rest cure," which was a popular treatment involving "bed rest, social isolation, and force-feeding." The doctors in the book of Colin more harm than good with this method, and it's Mary's influence, as well as the influence of nature and good thoughts, that make Colin walk again. "When new beautiful thoughts began to push the old hideous ones, life began to come back to him, his blood ran healthily through his veins and strength poured into him like to flood," the book reads. Colin also says he wants to study "The Magic" when he's older, which is commonly believed to stand for Christian Science theology.
5. COLIN MAY HAVE BEEN BASED ON BURNETT'S DEAD SON.
In 1890, Burnett’s 16-year-old son, Lionel, died from tuberculosis, which devastated his mother. Some biographers think Burnett based the young Colin on Lionel. The ending, where Colin walks again in front of his father, is thought to be Burnett imagining her son restored to health. However, others disagree with this interpretation. "Colin has nothing at all in common with the real Lionel, or with the idealized dead son," the novelist A.S. Byatt once wrote. "The writer is tougher than the woman.”
6. THE SECRET GARDEN WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FOR ADULTS.
In 1910, The Secret Garden appeared in serial format in The American Magazine, a publication aimed at adults. It was possibly the first children’s story to appear in an adult magazine before coming out as a book, which may have caused confusion about whether or not it was intended for kids. The book was published the following year in both England and America. (As a side note, Charles Robinson’s illustrations in the original British edition depict Mary with dark hair.)
7. IT WAS ONE OF BURNETT'S LEAST POPULAR BOOKS.
Perhaps because of the odd way the book was published, The Secret Garden was overlooked in Burnett’s lifetime. While it sold well and received good reviews, it didn’t compare in popularity to other works such as Little Lord Fauntleroy or The Little Princess. In fact, when Burnett died in 1924, The Secret Garden wasn’t even mentioned in her obituaries. It wasn’t until the 1940s, and the rise of scholarship around children’s literature, that people started calling The Secret Garden a classic.
8. SOME HAVE CRITICIZED THE SECRET GARDEN FOR COLONIALISM AND RACISM.
The Secret Garden is not without controversy. Mary’s parents are British colonizers, living in luxury in India until they’re killed by a cholera epidemic. Mary also expresses racist attitudes to the maid Martha. When Martha says she thought Mary would be black because she was from India, Mary bursts into tears and says, "You thought I was a native! … They are not people—they are servants who must salaam to you." Because of this, The Secret Garden is often listed as an example of racist classic literature.
9. THE EXPIRED COPYRIGHT HAS LED TO MANY ADAPTATIONS.
The Secret Garden entered the public domain in 1987, which has allowed for many versions and adaptations of the story, including movies, TV, musicals, plays, coloring books, anime, cookbooks, radio shows, and free versions of the novel online. There’s even a YouTube show called "The Misselthwaite Archives," which is a modern retelling of the story. You can watch it here.