secret garden的英文介绍

The Secret Garden is an exquisite children's story, its timeless themes, precisely drawn characters, and taut narrative make it worthy of the serious discussion due any classic novel. It is a tale of redemption, rich with biblical symbolism and mythical associations. In Mr. Craven, his stern brother, and Mary's parents, readers have found evidence of a fallen adult world. Consequently, Mary and Colin are physically and spiritually malnourished, and, in the words of Burnett, downright rude. Mr. Craven's redemption at the hands of Colin and his niece ensures the return of good rule to the ancient, gloomy house and of health to the children. Dickon – constantly surrounded by fox, lamb, and bird – evokes St. Francis or Pan. His mother, Mrs. Sowerby, a plain-speaking Yorkshire woman, resembles the archetypal earth mother and embodies an ancient folk wisdom seen neither in Craven nor in Mary's deceased parents. Invoking traditional nature myths, Burnett aligns the spiritual growth of Mary and Colin with the seasons. Mary arrives at Misselthwaite in winter a dour and unhealthy child. She begins her gardening in the spring, and as crocuses and daffodils push up through the warming earth, her body begins to bloom and her manners to soften. Summer sees the complete regeneration of both Mary and Colin, and by the time Craven returns to Misselthwaite in autumn, the children are harvesting the fruits of their labor – health and happiness. Finally, the overarching symbol of the book is The Secret Garden, a lost paradise of love and happiness – a version, perhaps, of the Garden of Eden, now reclaimed and rejuvenated.

Throughout The Secret Garden, Burnett seamlessly intertwines the elements of her craft, moving easily between the teasing narrative and dialogue that speaks to a child and the strands of dramatic development, complex characters, theme, and symbolism. Indeed, it is this extraordinary balance that makes The Secret Garden not just "one of the most original and brilliant children's books of this century," as Alison Lurie says in her introduction to the Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition, but also an enduring novel of ideas.

The book tells the story of Mary Lennox, a spoiled, contrary orphan, who is sent to live in her uncle's manor in Yorkshire. She is left to herself by her uncle, Mr. Craven, who travels trying to escape from being haunted by the death of his wife, and the only one who has any time for her is the chambermaid Martha. It is Martha who tells Mary about the walled garden, Mrs. Craven's favourite garden, which nobody has seen the inside of since she died; Mr. Craven locked it and buried the key.

Exploring the grounds, Mary discovers the key to the secret garden, which has been turned up by a robin digging for worms, then the door. When she is inside the garden, she discovers that although the roses seem lifeless some of the other flowers have survived; she decides to work on the garden herself, but to keep it a secret, in case her uncle should find out and fit another lock for it. Through Martha, she recruits the assistance of Martha's brother Dickon, who is known for being good with plants and wild animals. Dickon begins by providing gardening implements, bought with money Mary gives him, and demonstrating that the roses, though neglected, are not dead. When Mary's uncle visits the house briefly (for the first time since she arrived), Mary asks him if she may have a bit of earth to make a flower garden in, and he agrees.

On several occasions, Mary hears the sound of someone crying in the night, although all the servants deny hearing it too. Shortly after her uncle's visit, she goes exploring and discovers her uncle's son, Colin, who has been a bedridden invalid all his life - shunned by his father as a reminder of his mother - and is as spoiled and as contrary as Mary. (Archibald Craven suffers from hunchback, and is convinced Colin will develop the same condition.) The servants have been keeping Mary and Colin a secret from one another because Colin doesn't like strange people staring at him, and is prone to terrible tantrums. Colin decides he likes Mary, and insists on her visiting him often. Mary tells him about the secret garden (although not, initially, that she's found the way in).

As spring approaches, Colin becomes put out that Mary is spending more time in the garden with Dickon than with him, and flies into a tantrum after Mary refuses to give way to him. Mary stands up to him (to the horror of the servants, who have been afraid of his temper), and when Colin calms down he asks if he could go out into the garden with her. Mary agrees, as she and Dickon had been planning to suggest it themselves, feeling that it would do Colin good and that in the secret garden, he would not have to worry about anyone staring at him.

Dickon comes to visit Colin in his room, bringing various moorland animals with him, and the three children make plans for taking Colin to see the secret garden. Colin's doctor agrees that it might do him good to have Dickon and Mary taking him around the grounds in a wheelchair, and Colin gives instructions that the gardeners are to keep out of the way while they are outside. Colin is delighted with the garden, and goes out to it with Mary and Dickon whenever the weather allows. As the garden revives and flourishes, so does he.

The first person to find out what the children are up to is the old gardener Ben Weatherstaff, who was a favourite of Colin's mother, and has been secretly visiting her garden once or twice a year since it was locked up by scaling the wall with a ladder. When he visits the garden for the first time since Mary's arrival (having had to miss several visits because his rheumatism wouldn't let him go up and down ladders as easily as he used to), he is initially angry with the children until he sees what good they've done the garden, and what good they've done Colin. Colin orders him not to tell anybody, and he agrees.

Colin becomes determined that not only will he get better, by the next time his father returns from abroad he will be able to walk and run like a normal boy. He apparently accomplishes this solely through positive thinking; he refuses to think of himself as crippled, and he invents a kind of mantra to keep himself in the right, or "magic", frame of mind. He makes great progress, but keeps it hidden from everyone but Mary and Dickon and Ben, wanting it to be a surprise.

When Mr. Craven next returns home, he arrives while the children are outdoors. He goes out to see Colin for himself, and finds himself drawn to the secret garden, where he is astonished first to hear children's voices and then to find Colin not only racing Mary and Dickon around the garden, but winning. They take Mr. Craven into the secret garden to tell him what has been going on, then walk back to the house, astonishing the servants (to the delight of Ben Weatherstaff) by how healthy Colin is and how much happier his father has suddenly become.