The Secret Garden is widely considered to be a classic example of early-1900s children's literature. Like many other books in this canon, it contains elements of many of the other genres of literature that were popular for a general audience at the time.
In many ways, it is most clearly a bildungsroman, or a "novel of development." Books like this follow the growth of a central character from immaturity to experience, detailing their successes and failures and giving the reader a sense of how they became the person they are by the end. Although The Secret Garden primarily follows the story of Mary Lennox's growth, Colin Craven, Dickon Sowerby, and even Archibald Craven undergo changes from immaturity and childish selfishness to understanding and empathy.
The book is also strongly influenced by the fairy-tale genre. Mary comes to Misselthwaite Manor from an ambiguously described and fantastical Colonial India, beginning her new life in a castle on the moors occupied by cherry-cheeked and good-humored servants, a mysterious weeping sound from a distant room, and a cantankerous and absent father figure. Colorful and dreamlike descriptions of a living house and landscape bracket a classically fairy-tale structure of overcoming grief through succeeding in personal trials.
Finally, but importantly, the book also fits into the pastoral genre of English literature. The novel focuses intensely on the relationship between character and environment, with the natural world playing a significant part in the changes both children and adults undergo throughout the book. The life of the "cottage-dweller" is represented romantically and stereotypically. The relationship between the working-class and the wealthy is idealized, too, and is not troublesome to the characters it affects.
