Alice in Albion @aliceinalbion - Tumblr Blog

lamignonette

didanagy

EMMA THOMPSON as ELINOR DASHWOOD and KATE WINSLET as MARIANNE DASHWOOD

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995) dir. ang lee

greengableslover

It's a secret garden. Secrets are safe with me.

THE SECRET GARDEN (1993) dir. Agnieszka Holland

without-ado

Full Snow Moon over Ely Cathedral

l VeronicaJoPo l Cambridgeshire, England

asystolle

PRIDE & PREJUDICE + avian movement

wardengrill

The Other Bennet Sister 1.01

jeannepompadour

Lady Ottoline Morrell by Philip Edward Morrell, 1909

parisartyparisexy

Children’s band, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

00v

A Village Romeo (Ronald Chase, 1971)

violaobanion

ATONEMENT (2007) dir. Joe Wright

dianasson

Book Club: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Thank you @dvoeverie-stitches for inviting me to read this with you all this March!

It was honestly delightful to return to this book after about twenty years away from it. I'm surprised at how much of it had stuck with me, as well as how enduring Burnett's writing is.

Throughout the story, "magic" is talked about as a pervasive force of hope and growth, possibility and connection. The characters make a mention or two of "black magic" as well, but it's not explored. Burnett gives her characters "magic" as a code both for a lovely sort of non-denominational god and for the vigorous force of life itself. One relevant line which stuck with me came near the end of the book, when laying out a somewhat magical occurrence: "I do not know enough about the wonderfulness of undiscovered things to be able to explain."

There are some funny moments in the dialogue, both "funny" in the sense that I was laughing aloud and "funny" as in the sorts of racial and class tension innate to a generally benevolent book written for a very early-1900s audience. There is a way to read the story as casually racist or xenophobic, but I truly don't think it is, at its core. The lessons learned through the eyes of young Mary read more to me like an encouragement to connect to the land and get your hands dirty, get to know the everyday people around you, and communicate with the growing world outdoors, which may or may not be god. The fact that these values come in stark contrast to Mary's past as a cooped up tyrannical child colonizer in India makes an argument for a rather benevolent stance, in my opinion.

It was certainly shocking, though presumably not uncommon, how absent the father was in his son's melancholic illness. The story's approach to illness broadly seems just as ridiculous. But I'm sure there's a heap of post-Victorian context I'm missing, and I can imagine that Burnett's narrative suggestion to shoo rich spoiled brats out of the house and into the garden and to speak with real, hardworking people was quite the radical stance in her day. But by Jove, the Cravens could have paid Martha a better wage and supported her family in some simple way. Anyway, I somehow forgot that a whole bunch of the characters share my last name. That was fun.

More than these inevitable concerns, the book is bird song and budding thicket; it's a love letter to Yorkshire and to friendship. I found myself smiling and laughing and waxing a little poetic while I made my way back through the transformation of little Mary Lennox. If you have never read it, or if it's likewise been become an overgrown memory, I recommend cutting back some of the old hedge and picking it up again.

dvoeverie-stitches

I have that exact copy somewhere in my collection. I’m out and about right now, so I’ll take a closer look at your thoughts this evening @dianasson ! Right now I want to Reblog so I don’t forget.