You guys, sit down. If you're already sitting (which, come to think of it, I assume you are, because blog-reading while standing up would be weird), you might consider lying down, 'cause this is BIG:
The Secret Garden is REAL.
Yes. That Secret Garden. The titular character of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. Burnett LIVED in the adjoining manor, and she FOUND the garden, and she planted ROSES there, and on the first Wednesday of the month, April through October, you can go SEE it! Holey sock puppetz! That's spectacular!
The real Secret Garden. Fo' sho.
I found out about this amazingness from a Julie Buxbaum article over at Red Room, and I have been trippin' ever since, because I'm going, obviously. Burnett lived at Great Maytham Hall, which has been converted into condos for seniors and is now part of the fab National Garden Scheme, in which private gardens in the UK are open to the public on specific dates. And I just need to say, one more time: The Secret Garden is REAL!
So. Cool.
While we're waggin' our chins about Burnett, I just want to say that I'm still diggin' A Little Princess, which I have been reading and rereading since 1989. My parents gave me a totally awesome hardcover edition that year with beautiful watercolor illustrations by Graham Rust, and I blame it (and my matching copy of The Secret Garden) for my embarrassing obsession with British English, because the book wasn't Americanized at all, which is to say that gray is "grey," color is "colour," and single quotes (inverted commas, if you will) are used.
Like any other bookish little girl, I was entranced by the copious descriptions of finery—Sara was always up to her ears in beribboned silks and satins, and fine little kidskin gloves, with fur muffs and lace petticoats, and, my favorite, rose-coloured frocks. But above all, I always, always envied Sara Crewe her incredible emotional control and her storytelling ability. (Yeah...I was a seven-year-old who admired emotional control above all things...'cause I don't have any.)
Anywho, fast-forward to the era of audiobooks: I recently listened to an oh-so-fab, oh-so-free version of A Little Princess over at LibriVox, which is a non-profit online org whose members record public domain books. Karen Savage's delivery is excellent, and she does a sobbing Lottie, bitchy Miss Minchin, and overwrought Indian Gentleman with great finesse. Check it out here.
Rose-coloured frocks sold separately.
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