Burnett, Frances H. - The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden
Inga Moore contributed other works to the series of Walkers Illustrated Classics, for example "Wind in the Willows". In addition to modern stories Inga Moore, living in England, has, in addition to illustrating mordern stories, always done classics, including the sorcerer's apprentice or parts of the jungle book. For nearly 20 years, you will find her touching drawings.
The story "The Secret Garden" is the story of a young orphan who moves to live in the house of her guardian after the death of their parents. There she lives more or less on her own and discovers a neglected garden, that had been maintained by the deceased wife of her guardian.
Together with the brother of a house-employee and the son of the landlord, Mary experiencing the magic which originates from this garden. It is a very special time.
They always called it Magic and indeed it seemed like it in the months that followedthe wonderful monthsthe radiant monthsthe amazing ones. Oh! the things which happened in that garden! If you have never had a garden, you cannot understand, and if you have had a garden you will know that it would take a whole book to describe all that came to pass there. At first it seemed that green things would never cease pushing their way through the earth, in the grass, in the beds, even in the crevices of the walls. Then the green things began to show buds and the buds began to unfurl and show color, every shade of blue, every shade of purple, every tint and hue of crimson. In its happy days flowers had been tucked away into every inch and hole and corner. Ben Weatherstaff had seen it done and had himself scraped out mortar from between the bricks of the wall and made pockets of earth for lovely clinging things to grow on. Iris and white lilies rose out of the grass in sheaves, and the green alcoves filled themselves with amazing armies of the blue and white flower lances of tall delphiniums or columbines or campanulas.
To me, the story "The Secret Garden" connects especially with the images from a
film adaptation, which I saw years ago, even though I can no longer remember which one it was. Accordingly, it was difficult to me at first, to get into the the pictures by Inga Moore.
Initially I found them being too little "photographically," to "nice", idealized in a "wind-in-the-willow"-style.
After a while I started again and then drowned in me the classic beauty of the words.
Left is the illustration from the original edition from 1911, right - for comparison - the interpretation by Inga Moore.
In the original Dickon is accompanied by a fox, who apparently followed Dickon into the house. Colin, in Mary's age, is sitting on the bed or a
sofa, covered with a red bedspread. Mary stands behind Colin. Both
look expectantly towards Dickon.
Inga Moore's scene resembles
the color of the original illustration, but otherwise the scene is much
less stiff. It seems that Colin couldn't sit on the chair quietly any more - the chair being in
red as well. He sits on the floor, the lamb in front of him. It is
fed by Dickon with a bottle. This time it is a raven and
squirrels that enriche the scene.
Dickon came in smiling his nicest wide smile. The new-born lamb was in his arms and the little red fox trotted by his side. Nut sat on his left shoulder and Soot on his right and Shells head and paws peeped out of his coat pocket.
The effect of the story is absorbing the reader quickly. And the more the magic (Burnett calls it "magic") arises, the better the illustrations by Inga Moore fit.
The
impression of "niceness" remains, because the illustrations are
simple, but they emphasize in a special way the charm of the story and
that magic that help Mary and Colin, to deal with the real trauma they have
experienced, and to answer to it with a child's strength. One can almost call it an inner healing they experience
My favorite illustration in this book - if one can say there is a favourite one - is that picture on the left, where Mary faces Dickon. On his head sits the crow, the fox crouches before him, and confidently looks up to him. The best thing however, is Mary, laughings, the head placed in the neck.
The impression the book by author Frances H. Burnett had on me,
makes it difficult to be expressed in a review only. For this reason, the review focuses
less on the content of the story itself - there are the article,
which is being published today as well.
The review rather focuses on the illustrations by Inga Moore. They are so impressive that I open the book almost every day at the moment, reading a bit and especially looking at one or the other image and enjoy them.
I particularly like the wonderful distribution of images throughout the book. They range from one-sided presentations or a strip at the outside from top to bottom, and ends with several individual images - especially of animals - that appear as small sketches every now and then. This reminds once more to children's and youth books of that era.
Wie schon im Artikel zu der Geschichte beschrieben, findet Colins Vater heraus, dass irgend etwas vor sich geht. Er kommt auf das Gut und sucht nach den Kindern.
As described in the article on the background of the book, Colin's father finds out that something is going on. He returns to the mansion to look after the children.
It was the strangest thing he had ever heard, Archibald Craven thought, as it was poured forth in headlong boy fashion. Mystery and Magic and wild creatures, the weird midnight meetingthe coming of the springthe passion of insulted pride which had dragged the young Rajah to his feet to defy old Ben Weatherstaff to his face. The odd companionship, the play acting, the great secret so carefully kept. The listener laughed until tears came into his eyes and sometimes tears came into his eyes when he was not laughing. The Athlete, the Lecturer, the Scientific Discoverer was a laughable, lovable, healthy young human thing.
For all of you who also want to enjoy the book and the illustrations, but rather prefer a
German edition, you can buy this book with German text from Urachhaus. from "The Secret Garden" by F. Hodges Burnett, published in 1911 (including one illustration)
except for this illustration all pictures by Inga Moore
Photography of F.H. Burnett: National Portrait Gallery, London
