After the death of her parents, the neglected and spoiled Mary Lennox is sent to her uncle's large and lonely house on the Yorkshire Moors. There she discovers a secret garden and with the help of her strange, animal-charming friend Dickon, not only restored the garden but in the process transforms herself from a sullen, unhappy child to an unselfish, happy one, and helps to cure her sick cousin and to rehabilitate his gloomy, grief-stricken father. Frances Hodgson Burnett's passionate belief in the redemptive forces of renewal is shown nowhere more clearly than in The Secret Garden, her most sensitive and popular children's novel. First published in 1911, it lies in the best tradition of the family story developed by such writers as E. Nesbit in Britain and Louisa M. Alcott and Susan Coolidge in America.

弗朗西丝·霍奇森·伯内特（1849年-1924），一位影响了整个20世纪的英国女作家，是最早使用现代心理描写手法进行少儿文学创作的作家之一。出于曼彻斯特，你亲早逝，家境贫寒。16岁时，弗朗西丝随全家移民美国；18岁时，开始发表作品；28风时，出版了她的第一部畅销书《劳瑞家的闺女》；62岁时，他作了她最著名最成功的作品《秘密花园》，奠定了她在英国文学史上举足轻重的地位。此外还有代表作品《小公主》、《小少爷方特罗伊》等，广爱欧美国家青少年的喜爱，都是世界文学宝库中的经典著作。