The Secret Garden in English with translation

Name: The Secret Garden
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden is Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel about Mary Lennox, a sour young orphan sent to a gloomy Yorkshire estate. There she finds a locked, hidden garden and slowly changes her life alongside two unlikely friends. Burnett's English is clear and descriptive, with plenty of everyday vocabulary and repetition that helps a reader keep the thread. In the original you get her narrator's voice and early-twentieth-century word choices that a retelling smooths away.

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Language: English
First published: 1911
Levels: A2 · B1
Original: B2
Pages: 505

Languages you can read it in: 22

The opening, phrase by phraseExcerpt adapted to B1

CHAPTER I.THERE IS NO ONE LEFT

When Mary Lennox was sentto Misselthwaite Manorto live with her uncle,everybody saidshe was the most unpleasant-looking child¹they had ever seen.

It was true,too.

She had a small thin faceand a small thin body,thin light hairand a grumpy expression.²

Her hair was yellow,and her face was yellowbecause she had been bornin Indiaand had always been sick³in one way or another.

Her fatherhad held a position⁴under the English Government⁵and had always been busyand sick himself,and her motherhad been a great beauty⁶who cared onlyabout going to partiesand enjoying herselfwith cheerful people.⁷

She had not wanteda little girlat all,and when Mary was bornshe gave her⁸to the care of an Ayah,who was toldthat if she wishedto please the Mem Sahib⁹she must keep the childout of sight¹¹as much as possible.

So when she wasa weak, complaining, ugly little baby¹⁰she was keptout of the way,and when she becamea weak, complaining childwho was just learning to walk,she was keptout of the wayalso.

Phrase notes

¹she was the most unpleasant-looking child
Literallyshe looked more unpleasant than any other child
WhyBurnett wrote "the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen". Disagreeable was the ordinary word of the time for an unpleasant look or temper.
²and a grumpy expression.
Literallya bad-tempered face
WhyThe original has "a sour expression": sour for a sulky, ill-tempered face, a use that now sounds slightly literary.
³and had always been sick
Literallyhad always been unwell
WhyBurnett wrote "ill". British English of the period used ill for being unwell; the retelling's sick is the more American choice.
⁴had held a position
Literallyhad had an official post
WhyTo hold a position is to occupy a post; the past perfect places it before Mary was sent to England.
⁵under the English Government
Literallyworking for the English Government
WhyUnder here means in the service of. Her father was an official in British India.
⁶had been a great beauty
Literallyhad been a very beautiful woman
WhyA beauty as a countable noun for a beautiful person — a usage with a period flavour.
⁷with cheerful people.
Literallywith merry company
WhyThe original says she liked to "amuse herself with gay people": in 1911 gay meant merry and pleasure-loving, which is why the retelling replaces it.
⁸she gave her
Literallyshe gave the baby away
WhyBurnett's phrasal verb is "handed her over to the care of an Ayah" — hand over suggests giving up responsibility, not only passing something.
⁹to please the Mem Sahib
Literallyto keep the lady of the house happy
WhyMem Sahib was how servants in colonial India addressed a European married woman; Ayah, a few words earlier, is the nursemaid.
¹⁰a weak, complaining, ugly little baby
Literallya weak, whining, plain baby
WhyThe original reads "a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby". Fretful — constantly upset and whimpering — is now mostly a written word.
¹¹out of sight
Literallywhere no one could see her
WhyKeep out of sight: keep hidden. The same phrase lives on in the proverb out of sight, out of mind.

In the reader, every phrase has a breakdown: what it means and why.

About the text and the author

The novel appeared in 1911; our text is Project Gutenberg #113, unabridged. Sentences are of moderate length, but the vocabulary belongs to its time: disagreeable, sickly, fretful, gay in its old sense of merry. The first chapter is set in colonial India, hence the words Ayah and Mem Sahib, and the early chapters carry the colonial attitudes of the period. The excerpt on this page is the first page retold at level B1.

The description and phrase notes were written by AI and checked by a second model, November 13, 2026.

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The Secret Garden in English with translation

About the text and the author

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