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The Secret Garden (Puffin Clothbound Classics)

Author(s): Frances Hodgson Burnett

Classic Literature | Historical Fiction

The illustrations for this series were created by Scott McKowen, who, with his wife Christina Poddubiuk, operates Punch & Judy Inc., a company specializing in design and illustration for theater and performing arts. Their projects often involve research into the visual aspects of historical settings and characters. Christina is a theater set and costume designer and contributed advice on the period clothing for the illustrations. Scott created these drawings in scratchboard #65533; an engraving medium which evokes the look of popular art from the period of these stories. Scratchboard is an illustration board with a specifically prepared surface of hard white chalk. A thin layer of black ink is rolled over the surface, and lines are drawn by hand with a sharp knife by scraping through the ink layer to expose the white surface underneath. The finished drawings are then scanned and the color is added digitally. Born in India, the unattractive and willful Mary Lennox has remained in the care of servants for as long as she can remember. But the girl's life changes when her mother and father die and she travels to Yorkshire to live with her uncle. Dark, dreary Misselthwaite Manor seems full of mysteries, including a very special garden, locked tight for 10 years. With the help of Dickon, a local boy, Mary intends to uncover its secrets.


Product Information

"It is only the exceptional author who can write a book about children with sufficient skill, charm, simplicity, and significance to make it acceptable to both young and old. Mrs. Burnett is one of the few thus gifted."--The New York Times

Frances Hodgson Burnett lived from 1849 to 1924. She was born in Manchester and lived in great poverty after the death of her father in 1853. She escaped the horror of her surroundings by writing stories and often returned to a rags-to-riches or a riches-to-rags theme. In 1865 her family accepted a relative's invitation to emigrate to America. They were still poor but the wide open spaces of Tennesssee were better than the slums of Manchester. Frances had to earn money so began writing short pieces for American magazines. In 1873 she married Dr Swan Burnett, and it was under her married name that she became a world-famous children's writer. Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote over forty books; the two that are best-known today are The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy. In later life she became rather eccentric, turned to spiritualism and mystic cults and took to wearing frilly clothes and titian-coloured wigs - this earned her the nickname 'Fluffy'.

General Fields

  • : 9780141336534
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : Puffin Classics
  • : 0.378
  • : December 2007
  • : 184mm X 138mm X 34mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : December 2013
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Frances Hodgson Burnett
  • : Hardback
  • : 912
  • : Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini
  • : English
  • : [Fic]
  • : 10-13
  • : 368
  • : YFA
  • : b & w line