Chapter by Chapter: 1 - 6 (No Spoilers, Please!)

[Peppermill]

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debbook wrote:

I just started re-reading this book. I haven't read it in awhile, not since my teenage niece was a little girl. This book is so beautifully written, I don't know why so many only consider this a children's book. When I bought this book for my niece I told her to keep it forever as she will want to read it again when she is grown.

Anyway, I think the setting on the moors adds to the mystique of the book. I like how she is listening to the wind " wutherin".

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Wuthering -- dialect English: to blow with a dull roaring sound (m-w.com)

To think that I never bothered to look that up when reading Brönte! (Confession time.) It must be a different sound than the wind of the U.S. plains?

[AbbieCPA]

Elizabeth Goudge is another author who always springs to mind when I'm reading the Secret Garden.  She must have been very much like my English grandmother, because she read all the old English children's stories, and then put quotations from them in many of her books.  I fear many (most/all) of them are out of print now.

In her Eliot Trilogy (The Bird in the Hand, The Pilgrim's Inn, and The Heart of the Family), the children have a wild, secret, walled garden that is "the children's own.  They allowed grownups to sit there occasionally, but it was really their own."

I love reading authors who have the same loves of other books that I do, and who frequently quote from them.  It's like unexpectedly finding a friend whose grandmother also read The Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows, and the Oz books to her.  It's very restful not having to explain your frames of reference to an acquaintance - that's one of the things that makes a real friend.

[Bayles]

Thank you so much for that warning.  It would never have occurred to me to be careful.

[ConnieAnnKirk]

Welcome, debbook, if I didn't welcome you any time earlier!

~ConnieK

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debbook wrote:

I just started re-reading this book. I haven't read it in awhile, not since my teenage niece was a little girl. This book is so beautifully written, I don't know why so many only consider this a children's book. When I bought this book for my niece I told her to keep it forever as she will want to read it again when she is grown.

Anyway, I think the setting on the moors adds to the mystique of the book. I like how she is listening to the wind " wutherin".

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[ConnieAnnKirk]

Glad to have you with us, Abbie.  I know what you mean about finding acquaintances with similar frames of reference in terms of books.  You have something to talk about immediately!

~ConnieK

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AbbieCPA wrote:

Elizabeth Goudge is another author who always springs to mind when I'm reading the Secret Garden.  She must have been very much like my English grandmother, because she read all the old English children's stories, and then put quotations from them in many of her books.  I fear many (most/all) of them are out of print now.

In her Eliot Trilogy (The Bird in the Hand, The Pilgrim's Inn, and The Heart of the Family), the children have a wild, secret, walled garden that is "the children's own.  They allowed grownups to sit there occasionally, but it was really their own."

I love reading authors who have the same loves of other books that I do, and who frequently quote from them.  It's like unexpectedly finding a friend whose grandmother also read The Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows, and the Oz books to her.  It's very restful not having to explain your frames of reference to an acquaintance - that's one of the things that makes a real friend.

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[Everyman]

Off topic:

It's good that you mention Elizabeth Goudge, because several of her books have just recently been reprinted, and more may be coming.

My favorite of all her books, not yet reprinted but here's hope, is A City of Bells. Glorious book.

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AbbieCPA wrote:

Elizabeth Goudge is another author who always springs to mind when I'm reading the Secret Garden.  She must have been very much like my English grandmother, because she read all the old English children's stories, and then put quotations from them in many of her books.  I fear many (most/all) of them are out of print now.

In her Eliot Trilogy (The Bird in the Hand, The Pilgrim's Inn, and The Heart of the Family), the children have a wild, secret, walled garden that is "the children's own.  They allowed grownups to sit there occasionally, but it was really their own."

I love reading authors who have the same loves of other books that I do, and who frequently quote from them.  It's like unexpectedly finding a friend whose grandmother also read The Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows, and the Oz books to her.  It's very restful not having to explain your frames of reference to an acquaintance - that's one of the things that makes a real friend.

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[travelighter]

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Everyman wrote:
Misslethwaite Manor is in Yorkshire, on the edge of the moors. Coincidentally, the Literature by Women board is discussing Agnes Grey this month, which is also set in Yorkshire, and on that board there have been a number of interesting links posted about the Yorkshire region which might be of interest to some here.

Go to here to check out those links. Particularly interesting to me were some of these Utube videos of Yorkshire scenery and villages. This is perhaps much like the landscape that Mary came to know.

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I'm going to check out your links, as the setting appeals to me so much. About 8 years ago I spent a summer in the Lake District of England, some of which is similar to Yorkshire. I also took a train through Yorkshire. I find the moors to be beautiful. I think the isolation of Misslethwaite Manor is important to the story.

[travelighter]

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Peppermill wrote:
-- dialect English: to blow with a dull roaring sound.

I love listening to books on tape. Hearing the book read to me, with the Yorkshire dialect done well, is tremendously enjoyable. A cross between being a child again and going to the theater.

There are some disadvantages, though, so I need to go down to the basement and scrounge in the box of children's books for my copy of the text.

[travelighter]

I was thinking at the end of chapter 6 how many characters had been introduced...but not seen. We know about Mr. Craven, but we haven't seen him. We know about Dillon, but, again, we have not seen him. (I'm listening the book, so I may spell some names wrong.)

I enjoyed the skill with which FHB set the stage for us in these chapters. We see how isolated Mary is, despite being surrounded by her servants in India. We see how ugly and yellowed she is, then watch as the Yorkshire air and a little bird begin to change her.

FHB has already offered us so many tantalizing things to think about: the locked garden, the crying heard in the hallway.

I am enjoying the author's skillfulness at her craft.

[Everyman]

It's been many years since I read the book, and I had forgotten how early in the story the secret garden gets mentioned. My memory had this much later, after more time was spent on Mary's loneliness in the house.

It's indeed interesting to go back and re-read a book one hasn't visited for decades!

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travelighter wrote:
I was thinking at the end of chapter 6 how many characters had been introduced...but not seen. We know about Mr. Craven, but we haven't seen him. We know about Dillon, but, again, we have not seen him. (I'm listening the book, so I may spell some names wrong.)

I enjoyed the skill with which FHB set the stage for us in these chapters. We see how isolated Mary is, despite being surrounded by her servants in India. We see how ugly and yellowed she is, then watch as the Yorkshire air and a little bird begin to change her.

FHB has already offered us so many tantalizing things to think about: the locked garden, the crying heard in the hallway.

I am enjoying the author's skillfulness at her craft.

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[emmajane]

Hello everyone

When reading the first couple chapters, I wanted to give Mary a huge hug. She is such a sad little person with everyone constantly comparing her to her awful mother. What a terrible way to be. I love, love, love Martha. She is such a character. I am glad that Mary finds someone like her. Someone who will care about her.
I think it was Bells who said this first but I completely agree. Frances's descriptions are amazing and not at all too much. Every once and awhile there are author's who spend way too time explaining the atmosphere for no reason. Frances's is meaningful and with a purpose, which makes it amazing.
And even though we all know what it is, the crying in the night affect makes the story so much more interesting.

[ConnieAnnKirk]

I like Martha, too, emmajane!  She's like a breath of fresh air in that dusty, old manor house. 

~ConnieK

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emmajane wrote:
Hello everyone

When reading the first couple chapters, I wanted to give Mary a huge hug. She is such a sad little person with everyone constantly comparing her to her awful mother. What a terrible way to be. I love, love, love Martha. She is such a character. I am glad that Mary finds someone like her. Someone who will care about her.
I think it was Bells who said this first but I completely agree. Frances's descriptions are amazing and not at all too much. Every once and awhile there are author's who spend way too time explaining the atmosphere for no reason. Frances's is meaningful and with a purpose, which makes it amazing.
And even though we all know what it is, the crying in the night affect makes the story so much more interesting.

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