A Little Princess
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| 1970 Puffin Books paperback edition cover | |
| Author | Frances Hodgson Burnett |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Warne |
| Released | 1905 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 224 pp (1970 Puffin paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
A Little Princess is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, also known for Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden. It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 work Sara Crewe.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
At the beginning of the story, seven year old Sara Crewe is about to enter boarding school. She has spent her life in India, living with her affluent father, but has been sent to London to be educated at the oppressive boarding school, Miss Minchin's Seminary for Young Ladies.
Awed by her vast fortunes, and wishing to keep her at the school as long as possible, Miss Minchin allows Sara to have far more luxuries than the average student. She has her own personal maid, a pony, a private sitting room and an extravagant wardrobe. She is permitted to do anything she pleases, and is constantly praised, complimented and shown off as the school's show pupil. When Captain Crewe becomes part owner of diamond mines--investing his life's fortune with a "dear friend"--Sara's status grows even more.
In spite of this adulation, Sara takes her situation in stride. She is bright, compassionate, and is generally well-liked by her classmates. A gifted storyteller, she can draw every student in the Seminary--even those that are not fond of her, such as Lavinia--to listen to her tales. She pretends she is a princess and strives to emulate the qualities of one: generosity, compassion and politeness. Her best friend, Ermengarde, is the "school dunce"; Sara helps her learn her lessons by weaving them into stories. Sara is the "adopted mother" of a younger student, Lottie. Sara and Lottie share a bond; neither has a mother. She also befriends Becky, the school scullery maid, and smuggles food to her.
On Sara's eleventh birthday, one of Captain Crewe's solicitors arrives with bad news: Captain Crewe has died of brain fever. Furthermore, his "dear friend" has run off with his entire fortune, leaving Sara penniless. Miss Minchin, enraged, resolves to turn Sara out into the street but is finally convinced to keep her as a servant. She immediately takes all of Sara's belongings and sends her to the attic to sleep in a squalid room next door to Becky's. From that point on, Sara becomes an all-purpose servant at the school, doing everything from teaching French lessons to cleaning and running errands. She is deprived of food and adequate clothing. Many of the other servants take delight in ordering Sara about. As Sara's situation worsens, she begins to despair. She keeps herself going by imagining that she and Becky are prisoners in the Bastille. Her friends Ermengarde and Lottie also lift her spirits by sneaking to her attic to visit her whenever they can.
One day, a seriously ill and depressed man moves into the townhouse next to the Seminary. Sara calls him the "Indian Gentleman" when she sees several objects from India being carried into his home. She meets the Indian Gentleman's lascar, Ram Dass, when she spots him through a skylight and speaks Hindi with him. She also becomes interested in the family who frequently visits the Indian Gentleman, and dubs them The Large Family.
What Sara does not know is that the Indian Gentleman is actually her father's "dear friend," Mr. Carrisford. He was ill with brain fever in India himself, and ran away after Captain Crewe died, but he neither lost nor stole the Crewe wealth. In fact, he has increased it. He is guilt-ridden because he cannot find Crewe's daughter to restore her fortune.
The father of the Large Family, Mr. Carmichael, is Mr. Carrisford's solicitor. His main duty is to locate the lost Sara Crewe. The mission takes him on extended trips to Russia and France to follow possible leads. The children of the Large Family know about Sara, and hope she is found.
Sara and Mr. Carrisford live on opposite sides of their townhouse walls for years. Sara becomes increasingly thin and shabby looking, to the point where one of the children of the Large Family, Donald, believes she is a beggar and offers her a Christmas sixpence. The Carmichael children are interested in her, but do not ask her name, and go on their way. They begin to call her "the-little-girl-who-is-not-a-beggar" and watch her as carefully as she observes them, never guessing that she is the missing Sara Crewe their father is searching for.
Ram Dass tells Mr. Carrisford of Sara's miserable existence in the attic. Together, they hatch a plan to improve her life by secretly giving her gifts. While she is sleeping and working, Ram Dass and his assistants cross the roof and bring furniture, rugs, books and other presents. Every night, they kindle a fire in the fireplace and leave a huge meal for Sara and Becky. Eventually, they completely change the attic room into a comfortable, warm place. They even send expensive clothing to the school to replace Sara's rags. Sara sees this as proof that magic is real and that someone cares about her, and her spirits improve immensely. Nobody besides Becky ever discovers the transformed attic room, but Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia do notice, and are unsettled by, Sara's happier demeanor and new clothes.
One evening, Ram Dass' monkey escapes, and Sara takes him in from the cold. The next day, she brings him to Mr. Carrisford's house to return him. She casually mentions that she was born in India, and Carrisford and Carmichael discover that she is the missing Sara Crewe.
The Carmichaels explain everything to Sara, telling her that her fortune has doubled itself and that it will be kept safe until she is of age. Mr. Carrisford becomes her new guardian. Becky also escapes from Miss Minchin's school, becoming Sara's new attendant. Ermengarde and Lottie visit with her frequently. Sara regains her fortune and retains her generous nature. In the last chapter of the book, she devises a plan to donate bread to homeless children.
[edit] Characters
Sara Crewe is the "princess" of the title. She is the only daughter of Ralph Crewe, a captain in the British army. Her French mother died at Sara's birth. Sara is born in India and grows up there, and speaks Hindi in addition to English and French. She is exceptionally clever, kind and generous, in spite of the fact that she is spoiled with every luxury she could ask for. Sara is also a gifted storyteller and has a creative imagination. She pretends she is a princess and strives to emulate the qualities of one: generosity, compassion and politeness. Sara is seven when the story begins, eleven when she loses her fortune, and about thirteen when she is discovered.
While Sara is depicted as a positive character, Burnett notes that she is "no angel". She has a quick temper; in one scene in the novel she barely restrains herself from hitting Lavinia, and later she admits that she "might fly into a rage and kill Miss Minchin". She seems to perceive no contradiction in empathizing with "the populace" while personally identifying with Marie Antoinette.
Ralph Crewe is Sara's father. He shares a strong bond with his daughter and misses her desperately when she leaves for school. Captain Crewe is also young and flighty, and does not tend to be cautious with his fortune.
Maria Minchin, also known as Miss Minchin, is the owner and headmistress of the Seminary. She is rigid, given to rules and order and has a cruel streak.
Amelia Minchin, also known as Miss Amelia, is Maria's sister. She has a far kinder nature than her sister, but is too emotionally weak to assert herself to her domineering sibling. Only when Miss Minchin fails to see the error of her ways does Amelia make a stand against her.
Becky is the child scullery maid at the school. She is severely bullied and overworked by Miss Minchin, and is occasionally used as a scapegoat by other servants. Becky becomes friends with Sara while she is still wealthy and continues to support her after she is relegated to the attic.
Emily is Sara's doll. Sara treats her as a friend and confidante, and likes to imagine she is alive. When she loses her fortune, Emily is the sole possession Sara is allowed to keep--and then, only when she refuses to surrender the doll to Miss Minchin.
Melchisidec is a rat that lives in the walls in Sara's attic room. She tames him and feeds him when she can.
[edit] Students
Ermengarde St. John is Sara's best friend at school. Considered to be the "dunce of the school," she has major problems with her lessons and frequently draws the wrath of Miss Minchin. Sara helps her by weaving her lessons into interesting stories. Ermengarde is good-natured and loyal, and sneaks away to visit Sara when she is transformed into a servant.
Lavinia Herbert was the richest pupil before Sara's arrival at the seminary, and is very jealous when she is displaced. Lavinia is the only pupil Sara ever openly quarrels with. After Sara loses her fortune, Lavinia ridicules her and continues the feud.
Lottie Legh is the four-year old baby of the school at the beginning of the book. She is a motherless girl who has been spoiled at home, and frequently throws screaming tantrums. Sara becomes her "adopted mother" at school, and is usually the only person who can calm her down. Lottie is very attached to Sara and comes to visit her in the attic.
Jessie is Lavinia's best friend and confidante. Although she is described by Burnett as being "silly," she also has a better disposition than Lavinia, and expresses her disapproval at the way Sara is treated by Miss Minchin.
[edit] The "Other Side of the Wall"
Mr. Thomas Carrisford, or The Indian Gentleman, lives next door to the Seminary. He also turns out to be Captain Crewe's "dear friend." Sara, not knowing his true identity, calls him "the Indian gentleman" because she observes several pieces of Indian furniture being carried into his house.
Ram Dass is Mr. Carrisford's lascar. He befriends Sara when he sees her across their townhouses' skylights. Ram Dass tends a small monkey which frequently runs away.
The Large Family is a happy family with eight children that Sara sees in her neighborhood. She calls them The Large Family and gives each of the children a fanciful name. They are actually the Carmichaels.
Mr. Carmichael is Mr. Carrisford's solicitor and the father of The Large Family. One of his chief duties for Mr. Carrisford is to search for Sara Crewe; this task takes him to Russia and France.
Nora, Janet and Donald Carmichael are three of the children in The Large Family. They first cross paths with Sara when Donald gives her his entire Christmas sixpence on a cold day. Her response--she initially does not want to take the coin, and calls him a "kind, kind little darling thing"--interests the children. They begin to call her "The-little-girl-who-is-not-a-beggar" and watch her as carefully as she observes them, never guessing that she is the missing Sara Crewe their father is searching for.
[edit] Other characters
Mariette is Sara's personal French maid. She is dismissed as soon as Sara loses her fortune.
Monsieur Dufarge is the Seminary's French teacher.
Mr. Barrow is one of Captain Crewe's solicitors. He comes to the school to inform Miss Minchin of Crewe's death, and gives her the idea of making Sara work in the seminary.
Anne is a beggar child Sara sees in front of a bakery one day. Seeing that she is desperately hungry, Sara gives her five out of the six buns she buys in the bakery shop. Anne finds a place to live when she is taken in by the bun woman.
The bun woman is the proprietress of the bakery. When Sara intends to buy four buns with a fourpence she finds in the gutter, the woman gives her six because Sara looks shabby and hungry. She is so shocked and touched that Sara gives five of the six buns to Anne that she decides to give the child free buns, and eventually takes her in and gives her a permanent home.
[edit] Sara Crewe
Sara Crewe, or What Happened At Miss Minchin's, the work on which A Little Princess is based, was first written as a serialized novella. It was published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1888, after a period Burnett spent travelling across Europe with her family.
The thread of the book is evident in the novella, in which Sara Crewe is left at Miss Minchin's, loses her father, is worked as a drudge, and is surprised with the kindness of an Indian gentleman who turns out to be Captain Crewe's friend. However, at just over one-third the length of the later book, the novella is much less detailed.
Many of the characters in the book are loosely defined or not at all. The students are treated as a group; only Ermengarde is mentioned by name, and her interaction with Sara is limited to Sara's asking her for books. Much of the Large Family is only mentioned by name, and Sara only observes them from afar; the father is not linked to Mr. Carrisford until the end.
Many events in the book, understandably, also do not happen. Captain Crewe's death is in the first chapter, so all of Sara's life as a show pupil - including her evident kindness even when wealthy and her gift for storytelling - is unmentioned. Indeed, the kindness of Sara in the novella is only substantiated by the incident in which she buys buns for the street urchin Anne.
Generally, the novel expanded on things in the novella; Captain Crewe's "investments" are only referred to briefly and generally, and much of the information revealed in conversations in the novel is simply summarized. However, there are details in the novella which were dropped for the novel. While a drudge, Sara is said to have frequented a library, in which she read books about women in rough circumstances being rescued by princes and other powerful men. In addition, Mr. Carrisford's illness is specified as liver trouble.
[edit] The books and the play
After writing Sara Crewe, Burnett returned to the material in 1902, penning the three-act stage play A Little Un-fairy Princess, which ran in London over the autumn of that year. Around the time it transferred to New York at the start of 1903, however, the title was shortened to the one with which it became famous: A Little Princess. (It was A Little Princess in London, but The Little Princess in New York.)
The play was a success on Broadway, and it is probable that this triumph is what led Burnett to revise it yet again, this time as an expanded, full-length novel, published in 1905. Both versions of the book remain in print, although the later novel is by far the better known.
[edit] New musical versions
Due in part to the novel's public domain status, several musical versions of A Little Princess have emerged in recent years, including:
- Sara Crewe, will premiere April 2007 at Needham Community Theatre (Boston); music and lyrics by Miriam Raiken-Kolb; book by Elizabeth Ellor and Raiken-Kolb
- Sara Crewe: A Little Princess, Whetlock Theatre, Boston, 2006. Music and libretto by Susan Kosoff and Jane Staab
- A Little Princess, Theatreworks/USA, premiered 2004. Music by Andrew Lippa; book by Brian Crawley; directed by Susan H. Schulman
- A Little Princess, Wings Theatre, New York, 2003. Book and Direction by Robert Sickinger; music and lyrics by Mel Atkey, musical director Mary Ann Ivan
- A Little Princess, Children's Musical Theater San Jose, May 2002. Book and lyrics by Tegan McLane, music by Richard Link.
Some of these productions have made significant changes to the book, story and characters, most notably the Sickinger/Atkey/Ivan version, which moves the action to Civil War-era America.
- Princesses, a 2004 musical currently in development for Broadway, features students at a boarding school presenting a production of A Little Princess. Music and book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner; lyrics and direction by David Zippel.
[edit] Related Books
In 1995, Apple published a series of three books written by Gabrielle Charbonnet. The "Princess" series was an updated version of the classic, with the title character named Molly, rather than Sara. Molly Stewart's father was a famous film director who left his daughter in a posh upscale boarding school. There were three books in the series, which ended in a similar way as the original.
- Molly's Heart
- A Room in the Attic
- Home At Last
[edit] Film and television adaptations
[edit] Film
Some of the film versions made significant changes to the story, setting, and characters. In the 1939 version, for instance, an entire subplot is devoted to Sara's abetting of a forbidden romance between the school's riding master and an under-teacher. The 1995 version moves the action to New York during World War I and generally follows the storyline of the 1939 version. In both the 1939 and 1995 films, Miss Minchin becomes aware of Sara's transformed attic room and tries to have her arrested for theft. Additionally, both versions change the book's ending completely, revealing that Sara's father is alive and having him recover from amnesia on sight of her.
- 1917 version: Mary Pickford as Sara and Katherine Griffith as Miss Minchin.
- 1939 version: Shirley Temple as Sara and Mary Nash as Miss Minchin.
- Filipino Version (1995): Camille Prats as Sara and Jean Garcia as Miss Minchin.
- 1995 version: Liesel Matthews as Sara and Eleanor Bron as Miss Minchin.
[edit] Television
- 1975 version: Deborah Makepeace as Sara and Ruth Dunning as Miss Minchin.
- 1986 version: Amelia Shankley as Sara and Maureen Lipman as Miss Minchin. This was by far the version most faithful to the original story.
- A 1985 Japanese anime series, Princess Sarah, which was featured as part of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater staple. The series spanned 46 episodes, including a few new characters and adventures along the way.
- A 2006 anime, Sōkō no Strain, completely reworks the story into a mecha series about "Sara Werec", whose ability to pilot a mecha is taken away when her brother, Ralph, betrays and disgraces the family.
[edit] External links
[edit] Book:google books
[edit] Book:HTML
- A Little Princess, available freely at Project Gutenberg
- Full text of A Little Princess' novel at U Virginia
