Cranford: Secret Garden (Sprayed Edges)

The Secret Garden is a classic children’s novel about a disagreeable young orphan Mary Lennox, whose hidden garden helps heal her own sickly soul when she moves from British India to the wild Yorkshire Moors and makes friends while rebuilding a hidden garden there after finding a mysterious key. It was first published in 1911, after being serialised in The American Magazine the year before.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England, in 1849 but moved to America in 1865 after her father died and her family fell on hard times. There she began writing stories to earn money and soon became a successful novelist, playwright, and children’s author. She wrote several classic novels apart from The Secret Garden, including Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess. However, The Secret Garden was quite a departure from her earlier works, as two of the main characters are quite unlikable, hence the story’s original distribution via an adult magazine.

There are many editions of this book available, so this collector’s guide focuses on those editions that are the most lavishly illustrated, beautifully designed or otherwise noteworthy to help you choose a volume for your own library. All the editions in this list are beautiful, but in case you’d like a bit more direction, my personal top picks are marked with a ★.