Dreaming of your perfect garden? Why not take inspiration from the classics? There are plenty of famous gardens in literary history in books for both kids and adults. Often they’re a place of romance with some of the most famous romantic novels using them as locations. In others they’re a place of magic, where wondrous things happen. If your own garden isn’t quite as interesting, why not escape to one of the gardens in the books below…
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Tom is kept under quarantine after his brother gets the measles and is sent to live in an apartment created from a converted Victorian house. Feeling isolated and frustrated, Tom is unable to sleep. Whilst lying awake, he hears the clock strike thirteen. He investigates and finds a door to a magical garden in the past, where he finds a girl who becomes a play mate.
The Secret Garden
Spoiled and bratty Mary Lennox becomes an orphan when her parents die in India and she is forced to go live with an uncle she has never met in Yorkshire. There she learns about the death of her aunt and the beloved garden that she kept, which has now been locked away out of grief. Mary finds the garden and begins to bring it back to life whilst also trying to find the origin of the mysterious crying noise.
Romeo and Juliet
One of the most famous scenes in theatrical history takes place in the Capulet garden, with a balcony, two young teens and the beginning of one of the greatest romances put to paper.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
This modern classic begins with protagonist Christopher, a 15 year old boy with Asperger’s, finding a dead dog on his neighbour’s front lawn. Coming under suspicion due to his behavioural differences, he vows to uncover the mystery whilst learning about his own history and the lives of others on the street.
His Dark Materials
Phillip Pullman’s epic fantasy trilogy comes to a poignant conclusion in the Oxford Botanical Gardens. Separated by parallel worlds to avoid the destruction of humanity, Lyra and Will take an hour every Midsummer’s Day to sit side by side on a bench. Though not able to see or touch each other, they sit in the hope that the other can feel their presence.
Sense and Sensibility
After Marianne is humiliated by the rejection of dashing cad Willoughby she listlessly wanders the grounds at Cleveland. But when a rainstorm comes and she does not return to the house sister Eleanor begins to worry. Decent, but reserved Colonel Brandon who has immense affection for Marianne gallops off into the storm to rescue her. When Marianne pulls through after an awful fever she begins to see Colonel Brandon in an entirely new light, with a brand new outlook on love.
Jane Eyre
The grounds of Thornfield Hall are the home to a very important Chestnut tree in the relationship between the eponymous Jane and Mr Rochester. It is by the tree that Rochester finally reveals his true feelings for Jane and they become engaged. But the tree is soon struck by lightning, and splinters in two, a symbolic indicator of trouble to come for the couple.
Alice through the Looking Glass
Alice talks to the flowers in the sequel to well known story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice climbs through a mirror and back into Wonderland where she walks through a garden of talking flowers. There she is challenged to a chess match by the Red Queen, who will make her a Queen if she can get to the other side of the board.
