He retained that judgment in the second edition of that magnum opus (1983) and in 2011 repeated it, in a retrospective review of the novel. it would be this outstandingly beautiful and absorbing book'. In Written for Children (1965), John Rowe Townsend summarised, 'If I were asked to name a single masterpiece of English children's literature since. The final reunion between Tom, still a child, and the elderly Hatty is, many have argued, one of the most moving moments in children's fiction. These time/space questions occur in other books by Pearce, especially those dealing with ghosts. We remain in doubt for a while as to who is the ghost, there are questions over the nature of time and reality and we end by believing that the midnight garden is a projection from the mind of an old lady. The book is regarded as a classic but it also has overtones that permeate other areas of Pearce's work. On the final night, she had instead been dreaming of her wedding with Barty.Īfter taking Tom home, Aunt Gwen comments on the strange way that Tom had said goodbye to Mrs Bartholomew when he left: he hugged her, as if she were a little girl. The events Tom experienced were real in Hatty's past he has stepped into them by going into the garden at the times she dreamt of them. The following morning, Mrs Bartholomew summons Tom to apologise, only to reveal herself as Hatty, having made the link when she heard him call her name. He shouts Hatty's name in desperation, before his Uncle Alan finds him and puts the events down to Tom sleepwalking. He frantically tries to find it, but crashes into a set of bins from the present–day courtyard, waking up several residents. On the final night before Tom is due to go home, he goes downstairs to find the garden is not there. Tom ingeniously obtains ice skates by having Hatty conceal her old pair in his room, where he subsequently finds them and joins her skating on the next night. Finally she grows up at a faster rate, until she is an adult and is being courted by an acquaintance of hers who is nicknamed 'Barty.' At this stage in the book, the season in the old garden tends to be winter. Gradually at first, Hatty grows up and passes Tom's age he comes to realise that he is slipping to different points in the past.

Tom writes daily accounts to his brother Peter, who follows the adventures during his recovery – and afterward, for Tom contrives to extend the stay with Aunt and Uncle. Tom sees the family occasionally, but only Hatty (and as is revealed later in the book, the gardener) sees him and the others believe she plays alone. There he meets another lonely child, a girl called Hatty, and they become inseparable playmates. He gets up to investigate and discovers that the back door now opens on a large sunlit garden.Įvery night the clock strikes 13 and Tom returns to the Victorian era grounds. Without exercise he lies awake after midnight, restless, when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely strike 13. Because Tom may be infectious, he is not allowed out to play, and he feels lonely. The elderly and reclusive landlady, Mrs Bartholomew, lives above them. The former grounds of the big house have been sold for building and are occupied by modern houses. They live in an upstairs flat of a big house with no garden, only a tiny yard for parking. When Tom Long's brother Peter gets measles, Tom is sent to stay with his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen. At night he slips back in time to the old garden where he finds a girl playmate, called Hatty. Tom is a modern boy living under quarantine with his aunt and uncle in a city flat, part of a converted building that was a country house during the 1880s–1890s.

Fantasy garden story english