The Secret Garden

Public reception

Upon its publication in novel format, The Secret Garden garnered largely warm reviews from literary critics,[36][37] and sold well, with a second printing announced within a month after the novel's release.[38] In general, it was seen as an enjoyable novel, and was reviewed within the context of Burnett's previous works, including Little Lord Fauntleroy.[39] It sold well during the 1911 Christmas season, becoming a bestseller in the fiction category, and placing on critical "best of" lists, including that of the Literary Digest and The New York Times.[40] Its literary debut in a magazine for adults led the public to understand it as adult fiction; the book was marketed accordingly, "with some overlap in the juvenile market", which affected its reception by the public.[41] Of this time, scholar Anne Lundin writes that "The Secret Garden struggled to assert its own identity as a different kind of story that spoke to both the romanticism and modernism of a new century".[41] Burnett regarded The Secret Garden as her favorite novel, although she considered one of her novels for adults, In Connection with the DeWilloughby Claim, to be her Great American Novel.[42]

Tracing the book's revival from almost complete eclipse at the time of Burnett's death in 1924, Lundin notes that the author's obituary notices all remarked on Little Lord Fauntleroy and passed over The Secret Garden in silence.[43] Burnett’s literary reputation waned over the following decades, possibly as a result of biases towards books that garner a female audience.[44] Despite being largely overlooked by literary critics and librarians,[45] The Secret Garden enjoyed a considerable following among its readers.[36] It continued to rank well on readers’ polls for favorite stories. In 1927, it placed in the top fifteen favorite books of female Youth Companion readers, and in the 1960s, the readers of The New York Times ranked The Secret Garden as one of the best children's books. Surveys of adult readers in the 1970s and 1980s show that the novel was a frequent childhood favorite, especially for women.[46]

Burnett's literary reputation underwent a critical resurgence in the 1950s. Marghanita Laski's Mrs Ewing, Mrs Molesworth and Mrs Hodgson Burnett (1951) described The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy as the best of Burnett’s children’s books; Laski considered The Secret Garden to be the best of the three, with a capacity to reach thoughtful and self-reflective children.[44] Other British literary critics and historians began to take note of the novel, including Roger Lancelyn Green and John Rowe Townsend.[47] Thwaite's biography about Burnett, Waiting for the Party (1974), highlighted The Secret Garden for its depiction of unpleasant children that she felt was much closer to contemporary ideas about how children behave.[48] At the time that Thwaite's biography was published, children's literature was becoming a field of greater scholarly interest, and as a result, The Secret Garden began to garner more scholarly analysis.[49] The Secret Garden became accepted as part of the scholarly canon of children's literature in the 1980s.[49]

In the twentieth-first century, The Secret Garden continues to be well regarded among readers. In 2003 it ranked No. 51 in The Big Read, a survey of the British public by the BBC to identify the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" (not just children's novel).[50] Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association listed it as one of "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".[51][52] In 2012, it was ranked No. 15 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with a primarily US audience.[53] A Little Princess was ranked number 56 and Little Lord Fauntleroy did not make the Top 100.[53] Jeffrey Masson considers The Secret Garden "one of the greatest books ever written for children".[54] In an oblique compliment, Barbara Sleigh has her title character reading The Secret Garden on the train at the beginning of her children's novel Jessamy and Roald Dahl, in his children's book Matilda, has his title character say that she liked The Secret Garden best of all the children's books in the library.[55]


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