Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote The Secret Garden in 1911, after a decade during which she lost her son Lionel and underwent what she later described as a spiritual crisis resolved partly through her belief in the healing power of nature and mind.
The novel contains all of that. It is also completely absorbing, from the first chapter to the last.
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What The Secret Garden Is About
Mary Lennox begins as one of the most disagreeable children in English fiction — spoiled, pale, self-pitying, and convinced that nothing is interesting. She grows up in India, is orphaned in a cholera epidemic, and is sent to live with her reclusive uncle Archibald Craven at Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire.
The manor is enormous and forbidding. Her uncle is never there. The moors outside are vast and strange. The housekeeper gives her a room and leaves her largely alone.
Mary, out of sheer boredom, begins to explore — and discovers a locked door in a wall, and a key, and behind the door a walled garden that has been sealed for ten years. She also discovers Dickon, a Yorkshire boy with an extraordinary relationship to wild animals, and Colin, her hidden invalid cousin who has been confined to his room since birth and believes he is dying.
What happens in the garden — to Mary, to Colin, and to Archibald Craven himself — is the novel's subject.
How Long Is The Secret Garden?
| Reading speed | Time to finish |
|---|---|
| 200 WPM | ~6.9 hours |
| 250 WPM (average) | ~5.5 hours |
| 350 WPM (practised) | ~4 hours |
| 500 WPM (RSVP) | ~2.8 hours |
Reading Strategy
The moor chapters (1–8) set the atmospheric foundation — Yorkshire, the winter landscape, the house. Use warpread's RSVP mode at 300–350 WPM here; the descriptions reward attention.
The garden chapters (9–20) — once Mary finds the garden, the novel accelerates. The seasonal progression (late winter → spring → summer) is the novel's structural engine. Read at 350–400 WPM.
Colin's chapters — the discovery of Colin and his transformation are the emotional centrepiece. Read at 300 WPM; Burnett is very precise about his psychology.
The final chapters — Archibald Craven's dream sequence and his return are slightly more metaphysical than the rest of the novel. Burnett's belief in "the Magic" (her version of natural healing power) is most explicit here.
For the full speed reading technique, see how to read faster.
Where to Read The Secret Garden Free
- warpread library — instant reading, RSVP mode, no account needed
- Project Gutenberg — complete text, EPUB and download
- Standard Ebooks — best-formatted free EPUB
Related Reading in the Library
For more in the tradition of transformation and childhood:
- Anne of Green Gables — another child who transforms a household through her presence
- Peter Pan — a very different vision of what childhood freedom means
- Little Women — growing up and becoming through work
For the full list of free classics, see the 50 best free classic novels to read online.
Topics
Frequently asked questions
Is The Secret Garden free to read online?
Yes. The Secret Garden was published in 1911 and is in the public domain. You can read it free at warpread.app's library (Project Gutenberg ID 17396), Standard Ebooks, and many other sites — no account, no download, no payment.
How long does it take to read The Secret Garden?
The Secret Garden is approximately 83,000 words. At 250 WPM it takes about 5.5 hours. At 350 WPM around 4 hours. At 500 WPM with RSVP reading, about 2.8 hours. A comfortable weekend read at a relaxed pace.
What is The Secret Garden about?
Mary Lennox, a spoiled and disagreeable child, is orphaned in India and sent to live with her reclusive uncle in a grand Yorkshire house on the moors. She discovers a walled garden that has been locked for ten years — ever since her uncle's wife died — and begins to bring it back to life. The garden's renewal parallels Mary's own transformation and, ultimately, her cousin Colin's recovery from his belief in his own invalidism.
Why is The Secret Garden considered a classic?
The Secret Garden is considered a classic because it is one of the most precisely constructed novels about transformation in children's literature — not transformation through magic or adventure, but through attention, work, and the restorative power of nature. Mary begins as one of the most unpleasant children in fiction; her change is earned through the garden's seasons. The novel also contains one of the earliest literary treatments of what we might now call psychosomatic illness in Colin.
Is The Secret Garden appropriate for adults?
The Secret Garden was written for children but is read with equal pleasure by adults. The descriptions of the Yorkshire moors and the garden's seasonal awakening are among the most beautiful in English children's literature. The psychological portrait of Colin — a child who has been told he is an invalid so often he believes it — is genuinely acute. Many adult readers find the novel more affecting on re-reading than they did as children.
What does the garden symbolise in The Secret Garden?
The locked garden represents Colin's father Archibald Craven's grief — he locked away the garden where his wife died and cannot engage with life. It represents Mary's potential — unlocked, tended, it transforms. And it represents the 'magic' that Burnett describes throughout the novel: the life-force in growing things, the restorative power of sun and soil and fresh air. The garden is both literal and allegorical.
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