Review - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

 Title: The Secret Garden

 Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

 Synopsis:

  Mary Lennox is sent from an India as an orphan to live at

 Misselthwaite Manor. She arrives as a sour-faced,

 sickly and ill-tempered little madam but becomes friends with

 local lad Dickon and her poorly cousin Colin. In their

 restoration of a secret garden all their lives are changed for the better.

My Thoughts:

When, once finished,  you close a book with the thought: "I'll definitely read this to my children one day", that's a clear testament to the book's merits.

The Secret Garden is pure magic, an ultimate feel-good retreat, a novel that shows the healing power of nature and the world around us. Though generally labelled as a children's book, it is not only for children; it warmed my poor adult heart in ways that are impossible to describe.

"Mother says as th' two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have his own way – or always to have it."

When Mary Lennox arrives to Misselthwaite Manor, she's a haughty, self-centered little girl. While before she was always surrounded with people who served her, at the manor she's left to her own devices to entertain herself throughout the day. Her uncle Craven is hardly ever at home, and Martha the maid has chores around the house therefore she cannot be with her all the time. 

When she ventures outside to the gardens she feels a change in herself that she cannot really grasp, and when Ben the gardener and Martha mention a garden that has been locked up for 10 years, she cannot help but dream about finding the key.

The Secret Garden has a history that has something to do with the soft crying of a child she hears on the corridors of the manor sometimes, and of course Mary has to go and investigate. 

Strong friendships are born in this book that bridge gaps in between classes. Martha's little brother Dickon is like a little Mowgli of the Yorkshire moors, he charms Mary very quickly with his gentle nature and ability to speak with the animals.  

"Where you tend a rose, my lad,

A thistle cannot grow."

Three children find a haven in this novel; a place where they can grow, heal and learn, and as they do, the reader does the same alongside them. Again, I say, it is a magical experience. 

Goodreads | Amazon

Review – Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Title: Rebecca

Author: Daphne Du Maurier

Rating: 3/5 

Synopsis:

Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers...

My Thoughts:

Let me just say it straight away: I didn’t care as much for Rebecca as I thought I would. I guess I had pretty high expectations, because everyone seems to adore this novel. Well, now I can say, not me. Certainly, it is a decent story with decent characters, hence I gave it three stars, but I didn’t feel the gothic atmosphere that was supposed to be there, therefore it doesn’t deserve a higher rating in my eyes.

Du Maurier’s writing is highly enjoyable, even the descriptive parts and that was what kept me reading. I also hoped that the ending would make up for what the book was lacking in the first half – I’d heard before there is a twist at the end – but unfortunately I figured out almost everything before the big ’enlightenment’.

The herorine was too naive and – frankly – dumb for my liking and I know it was necessary because of the nature of the storytelling and for plot reasons, but she made me roll my eyes so many times I’m lucky they didn’t start to hurt. She made stupid decisions and many times didn’t use her brain and was extremely timid on top of that.

Of course, she was a young thing and inexperienced, but despite that it’s hard to believe she didn’t have any natural instincts or some kind of inner alarm that would have told her it wasn’t the best idea to marry a man after two weeks of knowing him. I guess she’d never truly been loved, the poor thing.

Anyway, as I mentioned the writing was superb, the story good but not extraordinary and altogether my expectations for an unforgettable gothic novel were unfulfilled. Lesson: Never be sure that an overhyped book will affect you the same way it does everyone else. We are all different.

An additional message to you who are reading this: the fact that I didn’t adore Rebecca doesn’t mean you wouldn’t, so you might as well give it a try. It is a celebrated success after all.

Goodreads | Amazon

Review – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird
      
Author: Harper Lee

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis:

'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' 

Atticus Finch gives this advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this classic novel - a black man charged with attacking a white girl. Through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Lee explores the issues of race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s with compassion and humour. She also creates one of the great heroes of literature in their father, whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town steeped in prejudice and hypocrisy.

My Thoughts:

After a re-read I’m finally ready to put my admiration into words. Revisiting this novel is like going home, because if you read To Kill a Mockingbird once, the characters and Maycomb County will stay with you and they welcome you home should you decide to look for them again.

To Kill a Mockingbird is everything; a book of important life lessons, a book about equality, friendship, hot nostalgic summer evenings and fascinating neighbours. It is also a story about fear and understanding.

Harper Lee manages to show us the cruelty of the world through children’s eyes and with their reaction to injustice she reminds us that innocence is never truly lost.

When Atticus, father of two, must defend an innocent black man at court, who was accused of raping a white woman, his children are not cushioned against the cataclysm their father’s – otherwise very noble – actions start.

Scout, the child narrator, is close to my heart not only because she’s a tomboy, like I once was, but because she’s an observer like I am. She pays attention and even though there are many things she doesn’t understand at first, she puts the puzzle together eventually. Of course, Atticus’ wise words and examples help her little mind to process what’s happening around them, but to truly understand everything, she has to ask questions and she never stops doing that. I love her for her inquisitiveness, for her thirst for knowledge.

Jem, her brother, is few years older, therefore he can grasp the gravity of the happenings in connection with Tom Robinson’s trial. Reality hits him hard and he tries to make sense of people’s behaviour, without much luck. His helplessness angers him and his disappointment in humanity motivates him to become a better adult one day. One of my favourite things about this novel really, is that the children represent hope for a better future.

And then there’s Atticus… Don’t even start me on Atticus. He’ll always be my favourite father figure ever. Many people in the book don’t like how he raises his children, they think he gives them too much freedom, but that’s just the point; he lets them experience things on their own, lets them learn about their surroundings, about people on their own account. He doesn’t abandon Scout and Jem, though: he guides them, sits down and talks to them after a long day, helps them understand what they saw, what they heard. I’d like to be as good a parent as he is when the time comes.

As for the trial and Tom Robinson’s case, it is a very sad business. You’ll see humanity at its worst in this novel and it will start you thinking how many times all this actually happened back then. But the book leaves us with confidence; confidence in the next generation, confidence in us and in our children. If we teach them right, the world will become a better place.

I will always consider To Kill a Mockingbird as one of the best pieces in literature, I’ll give it to my children and my children’s children so they can be richer with the thoughts the book will generate in them.

Goodreads | Amazon

My Dream Literary Collection (Invaluable project)

I was contacted by Invaluable.com recently, an online auction site with a huge collection of valuable books. They asked me if I felt like putting together my dream literary collection from antique books they have to offer and I thought why not.

Being a poor student these books are only eye-candies for me, but hey, who knows? Someday I might get rich and be able to bid on half or all of these books. I'll have a private library with several floors and shelves so high I'll need a ladder to reach the highest ones... Yes, it's time to dream!

When I went through the list of books on the site, I found some that I, had I the chance, would buy without a second thought. Let me show them to you:

Lot 745 (available): The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1908)

Look at this beauty! Even though the Tempest is not one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, I studied it at uni and I have several good memories of the courses where it came up. Someday I would like to own a collection of all of Shakespeare's plays and I would be glad to own copies as beautiful as this one.

Lot 450 (available): For whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'm not a big fan of Mr. Hemingway, but I love Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby to death. These are first edition books. Although The Great Gatsby is not in pristine condition, I would still be more than happy to own it.

Lot 197 (sold): The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Oh, this is a clever cover! Beautiful edition. I have a special relationship with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I wrote an essay a few years ago for a course in which I compared Stevenson's book with Mihály Babits's Gólyakalifa (The Nightmare in English) and I enjoyed the writing process a lot, because I had amaizing materials to work with. I would definitely treasure this edition.

Lot 177 (sold): Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

I  spent long days reading Winnie-the-Pooh when I was a child. Everyone has favourite childhood books, for me this is one of them. The animals who live in the Hundred Acre Wood became my friends and who wouldn't want to share their house with their friends? Even if they live on paper. I love the colours of these editions, the minimalist cover and the map and drawings on the inside of the front and back cover.

 

Lot 1906 (past lot): Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Of course I would need a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in my collection! When I saw this cover design I completely fell in love. A bit cartoonish, but I think it reflects the atmosphere of the story just fine. The green and black works together oh so well. If you take a look at the illustrations inside (you can do that on the website), you'll see that they are a bit different from that on the front covers, but still gorgeous. *grabby hands*

 If you had a huge literary collection which books would surely be part of it? Let me know in a comment below! :) Happy reading!