When looking for your next good book to read, you might not think about books on homes and gardens. Sure, if you are going to re-decorate your house or do new landscaping in your yard, you might look for books to help you with that. But a book about houses and gardens for pleasure reading?
Well, think of Tara in “Gone with the Wind” or Manderley in “Rebecca.” The opening line in “Rebecca” is “Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” And the closing lines in “Gone with the Wind” start with Scarlett saying, “I'll think of it tomorrow, at Tara.”
Houses and their surrounding gardens have been major settings for many literary works. They are often so important they can be considered characters in the book. It may be a “house,” but it is home to the major characters in these works of literature. In our homes, and even in our yard and garden, we seek peace and quiet, refuge from the daily grind, and they can represent so much about us.
Charles Dickens uses the imagery of gardens throughout “Great Expectations” to create atmosphere and theme. The scholar Pauline Dewan states that the home is “a child’s first universe.” We realize that so much of storytelling begins in this universe. Here are some books that elevate the home and garden to a formidable character in its own right.
1. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Many of us may have read “The Secret Garden” as a youth, but a re-reading of this classic book may bring back many joyful memories. When a spoiled, young English girl named Mary Lennox is orphaned as a child in India, she goes to live with her mysterious uncle at his English estate, Misselthwaite Manor. Left mostly to her own devices, Mary explores the manor and begins hearing the screams of a child at night. Assured by the staff that it’s only the wind, Mary also hears rumors about a hidden garden. Spurned on by these mysteries, Mary sets out to find the garden and bring it back to life. In so doing, she discovers the secrets surrounding this home and its garden.
2. The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
After losing her husband in a car accident, Lilian Girvan suffered a mental breakdown and fought off suicidal thoughts. She spends most of her time each day in front of the TV after barely managing to get her two girls off to school. After three years of this, she is bored with being bored. She’s a textbook illustrator and decides to work from home until her boss signs her up for a vegetable gardening class. He has chosen her to illustrate a series of boutique vegetable guides and she must get her hands dirty as her class wallows around in compost and dirt! Her kids and her amazingly supportive sister join her and, together with the patient instructor and a quirky group of gardeners, Lilian realizes there is sunshine in her life after all.
3. The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl (author), Billy Renkl (Illustrator)
This literary devotional with 52 chapters follows the seasons and the plants and animals in the author’s backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the chapters, we get a sense of the life cycle of the various life forms — the crows seen on New Year’s Day, the songbirds who build their nests and lay their eggs in the spring, and nurture their chicks till they leave home, plants that grow and wither — all a portrait of joy and grief, joy in new life and grief at the passing. Along with the 52 original pieces of artwork by Renkl’s brother, this lovely book reminds us of the changing rhythms of human life and gives us hope that the life cycle is never-ending. It is, of course, the circle of life.
4. The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
Emma Lovett is a gardener who loves nothing more than restoring neglected gardens. She is thrilled when she is invited to work on the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, originally designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. Little does she know that she will uncover secrets hidden within the gardens for decades. As she does, she learns the stories of several women through these many years whose lives are all connected by this garden.
5. The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, 1) by TJ Klune
This is an adult fantasy romance novel that reminds us why we loved fairy tales as children. Linus Baker, a strict case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, oversees the welfare of children in the government-run orphanages. He is mysteriously assigned by Extremely Upper Management for a highly classified assignment at the Marsyas Island Orphanage. There are six dangerous magical children living there who may bring an end to the world, but Arthur Parnassus, the master of the orphanage, will do anything to protect the children even if it destroys the world. As Linus and Arthur work together to face this challenge, secrets are discovered. They become friends and allies in this mission and discover that family can emerge in unlikely places.
6. Jane Austen at Home: A Biography by Lucy Worsley
And then there’s Jane Austen! Somehow, she shows up in many of my articles. Romance novels, classics, here she is again in home and garden books! We can take a trip to Jane Austen’s world with historian Lucy Worsley, known for her popular PBS shows. She introduces us to Austen’s childhood home, her schools, and her holiday homes. Along the way, Worsley shows us many of the items that Austen treasured, and which often appeared in her novels. We meet a passionate Jane Austen, a woman before her time who fought for her freedom, turned down at least five marriage proposals, and refused to accept anyone less than Mr. Darcy. Throughout this beautifully illustrated book, we learn more about the Jane Austen who brought us so much joy with her stories.
Diane Parfitt is a retired pediatric nurse and former assistant professor of nursing education. She owns City Center Gallery & Books in downtown Fayetteville. She can be reached at citycentergallerybooks@gmail.com.
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