Frances Burnett’s The Secret Garden published in 1911 is still read by children today. Much of its permanence belongs to the author’s childhood, writing style and the development of children’s literature. Frances was born in Manchester, England in 1849, but following her father’s death the family emigrated to America. Her writing career began in efforts to assist her family financially. At nineteen, her stories were being published in magazines. Burnett’s English childhood fostered reading. Author, Shirley Carpenter writes, “Frances had always liked stories. She learned to read at the age of three. Soon she could read the Bible, history books and romances. She preferred books with exciting plots” (13). This included children’s authors, Maria Edgeworth, Anna Barbauld and Samuel Griswold Goodrich. She favored Sir Walter Scott, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, adventure stories and, “ideas about America and Americans from fiction” (Gerzina 6). Frances enjoyed reading more than playing with other children. She staged dramatic productions with her doll creating dialogues and scenarios (Rutherford 7). Educator and author, Rosemary Threadgold claims, “as a child she was a storyteller in chief to her school friends, […] she soon learned that children clamor for details of inconsequential things. […] they feed the imagination of the listener and add credibility to the rest of the tale” (116). English author A.S Byatt believes she was, “living out the life of her mythical childhood self” (P.8). Author and editor, William Zinsser writes, “Writers of children’s books, perhaps more than other writers, write out of the emotional needs they felt when they themselves were young” (9).
Burnett’s influences attracted young readers. Professor Bixler acknowledges that, “Complex characterization is especially difficult in children’s fiction…internal complexities must be expressed primarily through external actions and concrete images; characters’ change must be dramatized or symbolically suggested rather than directly described” (3). The portrayal of Mary and Colin, the young protagonists appeals to the readers’ inquisitiveness. Threadgold believes, “The success of the book lies largely in the characterization and the style which are more apparent than in a more involved tale. The children themselves are of the utmost importance and here the author’s habits of observation and her eye for detail stand in good stead” (116). The readers engage with the characters, whose disagreeable behavior is captivating. American children’s literature author, Lois Lowry applauds the theme of orphan hood as pleasurable for readers, “Orphan hood-how kids love it. More than love it-yearn it…What a dream […] To prowl about one’s own, to pry into forbidden things as Mary did. To deceive and prove adults wrong as Colin did” (vii).The theme of secrecy is also fascinating to the readers. Devoid of preaching, the plot is simple with recognizable fairytale elements. As an adventure the readers have the opportunity to escape daily life and cultivate imagination.
The time period of the book is critical to the history of reading for children. During the 18th through the early 19th centuries publishers believed that children’s literature should provide moral instruction instead of entertainment. American Professor Jack Zips states, “The reading audience was constituted mainly but children of the aristocratic and middle classes. Books were expensive. Children rarely bought books. They were given them as gifts on special occasion” (46). By the middle of the 19th century children had a greater variety of stories available. Educator and author Peter Hunt declares, “Reading was central to American cultural life in the 19th century, for the young as much as for their elders and as the reading public grew, publication for every kind of reader flourished” (Illustrated History 127). Professor Seth Lerer adds, “After decades of Victorian social realism, readers and writers at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century began to turn toward more speculative modes of fiction. […]The look of the modern children’s book took shape […] the rich embossed covers of adventure books, the evocative line drawings that adorned texts, the etchings and photographs that brought far off places and events into the child’s room”(255-257). The Secret Garden attracted children because it had these elements of the changing era.
In future years, librarians, marketing, mass media and technology would nourish the novel. By 1919, there was a film version and others followed in 1949 and 1993. Television adaptations by American and British networks generated readers. Dramatic performances, like Broadway’s 1991 production revitalized the book. Today, The Secret Garden continues to survive as a new generation of child readers is intrigued.

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