The Secret Garden (Norton Critical Edition) [Paperback]

Frances Hodgson Burnett (Author), Gretchen Gerzina (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393926354 | ISBN-13: 978-0393926354 | Publication Date: January 23, 2006

Frances Hodgson Burnett was the highest paid and most widely read woman writer of her time, publishing more than fifty novels and thirteen plays.

Born in England and transplanted to New York toward the end of the Civil War, Burnett made her home in both countries, and today both countries claim her as their own. The Secret Garden, her best-known work, became an instant modern classic and world-wide bestseller upon its publication in 1911. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on the first edition and is accompanied by explanatory annotations.

"Backgrounds and Contexts" and "Letters" illuminate important aspects of Burnett’s life and work and include her own writings on gardens and their spiritual healing. Four illustrations point to Burnett’s prominence in popular culture.

"Criticism" includes fourteen contemporary reviews and nine recent critical views of The Secret Garden, including Jerry Phillips’s sociopolitical interpretation and Phyllis Bixler’s comparative analysis of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was an Anglo-American playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina is a professor of English at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Frances Hodgson Burnett, Black London, Carrington, Looking for Bijah and Lucy, and editor of The Annotated Secret Garden. She lives near Hanover, New Hampshire.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (January 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393926354
• ISBN-13: 978-0393926354
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great edition, August 7, 2009

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readsy - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Secret Garden (Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

A most helpful edition for students or anyone who wants more information regarding the author and/or story.

1 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Garden of Sentiment, June 14, 2010

By 

J. Edgar Mihelic "Iconoclast" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret Garden (Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

I have to admit, I did not like Francis Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. The book was readable, do not get the sense that it did not carry me along. The thing is that I seem to suffer from some sort of gender bias that I cannot break. Or it could be something else entirely. However, I am not setting out to talk solely of my bias towards male authors. I came to the book expectant. Books that seem to have come from outside the popular culture of my own childhood have been approached warily at best. I think I remember seeing some sort of film adaptation of The Secret Garden at a time long past, but it was not ingrained so the chance of enjoyment based on prior contexts was low. After reading and thinking about the novel, I still did not like it, and I was trying to consider why it seemed distasteful to me, so I could have something more than an unqualified value judgment.

This process of judgment led me to compare the novel to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Yes, Stowe's work is a classic in the way that parents of high school children seem to want to venerate, but there is a common thread between these two works, besides the female authors sporting three names: sentimentality. The writers on the book push the reader into so much pathos that there is perhaps a slip into bathos. There is in both texts what seems to be an inclination towards realism, but for this reader, there is too much sentimentality creeping into the text. Mary and Colin seem to be a combination of poor little Eva St. Claire, and perhaps we can force Ben Weatherstaff into the role of Uncle Tom, without the tragic Christian martyr's death.