性格孤僻的小姑娘瑪麗在父母雙亡後被送到壹文化教育龍罩著神秘氣氛的莊園。空曠的莊園裏有壹個關閉了十年之久，連門也找不到了的秘密花園。小說就是以這座莊園為背景，性格迥異的孩子如何尋找秘密花園並使之復活，同時自己也在大自然的懷抱中擺脫了病態心理，變得生氣勃勃了。小說充滿童趣，懸念叢生，富有教益，是世界兒童文學史上的壹部經典之作。
這是壹部需要去準備壹份感動的書。
壹座花園，因為發生了壹場突如其來的變故，花園被圍墻、被關閉的門封鎖起來。從此，變成了壹座灰色的，沒有生氣的廢園子。變成了壹個秘密的花園。同時，擁有這個花園的人家，也落入了灰色的生活。
壹個外來的女孩，壹個又幹、又瘦、又野的醜女孩，有壹天從印度來到了這個家。因為壹場瘟疫，奪去了她全家人的性命，只剩下她孤零零的壹個，只好投親到這個陌生、充滿了神秘感的遠親家中。
好大的莊園，好大的園子，灰色、陰冷的地方。這是給女孩留下的第壹印象。莊園裏只有很少的人，有100多間房子，有的房子很多年都沒人去過。半夜有時還彌漫著斷斷續續的哭聲。這壹切都使這個新來的女孩的好奇心，膨脹到了極點。
女孩的名字叫瑪麗。春天的風，春天的陽光，莊園裏的四處亂竄，園子野徑的四處奔跑，使幹瘦的瑪麗臉上開始有了血色。在壹只神秘的紅胸脯小鳥的引導下，瑪麗找到了埋在地上的花園門鑰匙。扒開被野藤遮蔽下的木門，圍墻下的花園被偷偷的打開了。
女孩瑪麗除去壹小塊荒地的枯草，綠色的春苗，就在春風下壹點點的冒出來，春之綠壹點壹點的、壹片壹片的來到了這個神秘的花園。
女孩瑪麗結識了壹個精靈式的男孩，他的名字叫狄肯。狄肯有種種神奇的能力，每當他出現時，小鳥、野兔、松鼠等等小動物，都會圍繞在他的身旁，聽他吹笛。狄肯身上還隨時帶著壹些神奇的種子，撒在清理出來的園地上，沒幾天就會冒出來壹簇簇的綠苗。
又壹個奇妙的夜晚，女孩循著哭聲發現了長期生病臥床的表弟柯林。柯林原被認為是無法活到長大的病人。可是，瑪麗在狄肯的幫助下，把柯林偷偷的帶進了花園。柯林開始對生命有了渴望。春天的綠苗，也在柯林的胸中蔓延。柯林開始用自己的腳，秘密踏上花園的土地。綠色、健康、陽光，成了他們的秘密，春天悄悄的回到了秘密的花園。
《秘密花園》是上個世紀著名女作家弗朗西斯·霍奇森·伯內特（1849~ 1924）的代表作。本書壹經出版，很快就成為當時最受關註和最暢銷的兒童文學作品，整個20世紀，人們壹版再版這本書，全世界的大人和小孩都熱愛《秘密花園》。孩提時代的人們，對於生命的發展，更是充滿了無窮無盡的好奇心。它曾經先後十幾次被改編成電影、電視、卡通片、話劇、舞臺劇。在英語的兒童文學作品裏，本書被公認為無年齡界限。
《秘密花園》在美國經常被學校老師當做英語教材，因為它的語言平易而又極為傳神，同時內涵豐富，情節精彩曲折，容易吸引孩子。幾乎任何壹個西方的兒童文學經典書目，都會收入這部小說。
伯內特出生於英國曼徹斯特市，1865年隨全家移民美國田納西州。她的父親早逝，家境貧寒。她從18歲開始在雜誌上發表故事，貼補家用。她的第壹本暢銷書是28歲時出版的《勞瑞家的那閨女》，取材於幼年她在英國煤礦的生活。讓伯內特聞名於世的，是她的兒童文學作品。1886年她發表了小說《小少爺方特羅伊》，又名《小勛爵》，這本書讓伯內特成為當時最暢銷、最富有的流行作家之壹。此書和1905年發表的《小公主》都曾被改編成話劇。1939年，電影《小公主》由當時紅極壹時的童星秀蘭·鄧波兒主演。
伯內特從小喜歡植物。她在英國的住所周圍有幾個帶圍墻的花園，其中壹個是她的戶外書房，每天在花園裏寫作。1909年，當她在紐約長島布置自己家花園的時候，突發靈感，構思出《秘密花園》。這本小說初版於1911年，並成為她最著名、最成功的作品。
伯內特於1924年在美國紐約州長島去世。
English Version
Book review
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
If you could choose, I don't suppose you would choose Mary Lennox for a playmate:
When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression.
But you would probably be disagreeable too if you had lived in India all your short life, dumped on servants while your parents busied themselves with parties and entertaining. Mary Lennox was unwanted and unloved and almost went unnoticed when cholera hit the household. Both her parents died and she was shipped off to the wild moors of Yorkshire to live with her reclusive, hunch-backed uncle.
'And you mustn't expect that there will be people to talk to you. You'll have to play about and look after yourself. You'll be told what rooms you can go into and what rooms you're to keep out of. There's gardens enough. But when you're in the house don't go wandering and poking about. Mr Craven won't have it.'
Not a very inviting start to a new life, is it? Actually, things are very different for Miss Mary. The Yorkshire housemaid, Martha, doesn't respond like her old Indian Ayah:
'Who are you callin' names?' she said. 'You needn't be so vexed. That's not th'way for a young lady to talk ...'
Ben Weatherstaff, the old gardener, doesn't take to her very readily:
'Tha' an' me are a good bit alike,' he said, 'We was wove out of th' same cloth. We're neither of us good-lookin' an' we're both of us as sour as we look. We've got the same nasty tempers, both of us, I'll warrant.'
And she's very lonely.
She takes to roaming round the gardens, because there really isn't anything else to do. And there is this queer matter of the locked garden which she must never go into:
'Mr Craven had it shut when his wife died so sudden. He won't let no one go inside. It was her garden. He locked th' door an' dug a hole and buried th' key ...'
But there is one thing at Misselthwaite Manor that Mary didn't reckon on - and neither did anyone else. There is a special kind of magic. As Mary wanders round the windy gardens the magic begins to do its work. First, the robin befriends her, and then old Ben Weatherstaff pauses for a chat. Mary finds she likes to listen to Martha the housemaid, about her mother and brothers and sisters in the cottage on the moor. And when Mary finally meets her uncle Craven, she finds a crippled man, grief-stricken at the death of his wife ten years ago, but not unkind.
I'm going to have to leave the rest of the story for you to find out for yourself. But I can tell you that Martha's got a super brother called Dickon who does live a life of pure magic out on the moor from dawn until dusk. And, to Mary's great surprise, she finds she also has a cousin. Read on ... I think you will love this book. Slowly, slowly Mary is transformed by the wholesome life that she lives at Misselthwaite Manor. It's a very emotional story, beautifully told, and comes to a happy, triumphant end.