Books like “The Secret Garden”

What to read after “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Anne of Green Gables
L. M. Montgomery · 1908
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert mean to adopt a boy to help on their farm, but the orphan who arrives is Anne Shirley, a talkative red-haired girl with a vivid imagination. Over years of scrapes and small triumphs she wins over the village of Avonlea and finds a place she can finally call home.
2
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · 1868
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Coming of Age
Four sisters grow up in a modest New England home while their father is away at war. They argue, make art, fall in love and learn to support one another through loss and change. A warm coming-of-age story about family, ambition and becoming yourself.
3
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame · 1908
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Found Family
Mole leaves his underground home for the riverbank, where Rat, Badger and the reckless Mr. Toad become his friends. Their quiet days of boating and picnics are broken when Toad's craze for motorcars lands him in real trouble, and the four of them must set things right.
4
I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith · 1948
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Coming of Age
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain writes her diary in a crumbling English castle where her family lives on almost nothing. When two wealthy American brothers arrive to claim the estate, love and money unsettle the household, and Cassandra grows up fast.
5
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle · 1902
Similar setting: “Windswept Moors” and “Gothic Manor”
- Windswept Moors
- Gothic Manor
Legend says a demonic hound haunts the Baskerville family on the Dartmoor moors. Holmes and Watson look into the death of Sir Charles and protect his heir from whatever stalks the fog-bound landscape.
6
The Enchanted April
Elizabeth von Arnim · 1922
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Four British women, strangers to one another, answer an advertisement to rent an Italian castle for April. Away from husbands and habit, each is quietly changed by the sun, the sea and the company of the others, and returns to her old life seeing it anew.
7
Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons · 1932
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Practical Flora Poste, newly orphaned, moves in with her gloomy rural relatives at Cold Comfort Farm. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she sets about tidying their tangled lives, one absurd cousin at a time, in a comic send-up of romantic country novels.
8
Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy · 1874
Similar setting: “Windswept Moors”
- Windswept Moors
- Coming of Age
Bathsheba Everdene inherits a farm and runs it herself. Three men want her: the steady shepherd Gabriel Oak, the wealthy neighbour Boldwood, and the dashing soldier Troy. Her choice and its consequences reshape all their lives in the farming country of Wessex.
9
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Found Family
Writer Juliet Ashton begins a friendship in letters with the people of Guernsey, an island still marked by the German occupation. Through their stories of a secret reading group, she finds a community, a purpose and a reason to cross the sea herself.
10
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens · 1861
Similar setting: “Gothic Manor”
- Gothic Manor
- Coming of Age
An orphan boy is suddenly given money by an unknown benefactor and raised into gentility. He falls for a cold, beautiful girl raised to break men's hearts, and chases a life of status he does not understand. A story about class, love and the cost of pride.
11
A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Found Family
Ove is a grumpy widower who has decided there is nothing left for him, until a noisy young family moves in next door and keeps interrupting his plans. Piece by piece, the neighbourhood draws him back into a life he thought was over.
12
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë · 1847
Similar setting: “Windswept Moors”
- Windswept Moors
On the Yorkshire moors, the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine grow up inseparable, then are torn apart by class and marriage. His long, bitter revenge consumes the next generation until their children find a way out.