A Little Princess

A Little Princess

First edition cover
Author Frances Hodgson Burnett
Illustrator Ethel Franklin Betts
Country United States
Language English
Genre Children's literature
Publisher Charles Scribner's Sons
Publication date
 1905
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 266

A Little Princess is a British children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published as a book in 1905. It is an expanded version of Burnett's 1888 short story entitled Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's, which was serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine from 1887 to 1888. According to Burnett, after she composed the 1902 play A Little Un-fairy Princess based on the story, her publisher asked that she expand the story as a novel with "the things and people that had been left out before".[1] It was published by Charles Scribner's Sons with illustrations by Ethel Franklin Betts and the full title A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Being Told for the First Time.

Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".[2] In 2012 it was ranked number 56 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience.[3] It was the second of two Burnett novels among the Top 100, with The Secret Garden number 15.[3]

Plot

Seven-year-old Sara Crewe and her father, Captain Crewe, arrive at Miss Minchin's boarding school for girls in London. Captain Crewe is very wealthy and prepares her for a lavish future. The Headmistress, Miss Minchin, is secretly jealous and dislikes Sara, who embraces her reputation as a Princess given by the other students. Sara befriends Ermengarde, the dunce; Lottie, a four-year-old student; and Becky, the scullery maid.

Four years later, Sara is thrown a luxurious birthday party. Just as it ends Miss Minchin learns of Captain Crewe's unfortunate demise, leaving Sara a pauper due to him pouring all his fortune on a diamond mine. Miss Minchin then takes away all of Sara's possessions except for some old frocks and a doll, and she must become a scullery maid to avoid being turned out to the street.

For the next several years Sara is abused, by Miss Minchin and the others, but is consoled by her friends and uses her imagination to cope with her issues. Sara also continues to be kind and polite to everyone including her offenders, and is even witnessed by a baker-woman giving buns to a beggar-child.

It's revealed that Mr. Carrisford, the man in the house next door, was Captain Crewe's partner. During their time with the diamond mines they thought everything was lost, and Carrisford abandoned Captain Crewe and nearly died from several ailments. The mines turn out to have not all gone away, and he became very rich. He then makes it his duty to find Sara, though he does not know where she is. Ram Dass, Mr. Carrisford's assistant, climbs across the roof into Sara's room to retrieve his pet monkey whom Sara has befriended and sees the poor condition of her room. Ram Dass tells Mr. Carrisford of Sara. She is sent gifts by a mysterious benefactor though she doesn't know it is the working of Carrisford.

One night, the monkey again enters Sara's room through a skylight; Sara decides to return the monkey to Mr. Carrisford the next morning. He learns that Sara is Captain Crewe's daughter; Sara also learns that Mr. Carrisford was her father's friend. When Miss Minchin visits to collect Sara, she is informed that Sara will be living with Mr. Carrisford and her entire fortune has been restored. Miss Minchin, still wanting to take advantage of Sara, threatens her if she does not return to the school, she will never see any of her friends again and the law will interfere, but Sara refuses and is taken in by Carrisford. Becky is invited to live with Sara. With her newfound wealth Sara makes a deal with the baker, proposing to cover the bills for food given to any hungry child.

Source material

The novella appears to have been inspired in part by Charlotte Brontë's unfinished novel, Emma, the first two chapters of which were published in Cornhill Magazine in 1860, featuring a rich heiress with a mysterious past who is apparently abandoned at a boarding school.[4]

The thread of the book is evident in the novellas, 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.

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 summarised. 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.

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 City at the start of 1903 with title was shortened to A Little Princess. (It was A Little Princess in London, but The Little Princess in New York.)

Burnett said that after the production of the play on Broadway, her publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons asked her to expand the story into a full-length novel and "put into it all the things and people that had been left out before."[5] The book was illustrated by Ethel Franklin Betts[5] and published in 1905 under the full title A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Being Told for the First Time.[6]

Related books

In 1995, Apple published a series of three books written by Gabrielle Charbonnet. The "The Princess Trilogy" 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, The Room on the Attic, and Home at Last.

A sequel to A Little Princess was written by Hilary McKay and was published in September 2009. The story is titled Wishing For Tomorrow[7] and tells the story of what happened to the rest of the boarding school girls after Sara and Becky left.

Film, television, and theatre adaptations

Film

Television

Musicals

Due in part to the novel's public domain status, several musical versions of A Little Princess have emerged in recent years, including:

Some of these productions have made significant changes to the book, story and characters, most notably the Sickinger/Atkey version, which moves the action to Civil War-era America.

In addition, 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.

Other theatre

References

  1. ↑ Wordsworth edition of A Little Princess.
  2. ↑ National Education Association (2007). "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  3. 1 2 Bird, Elizabeth (7 July 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com). Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  4. ↑ Emma Brown by Clare Boylan – Reviews, Books – The Independent
  5. 1 2 Shaw, Albert. "The Season's Books for Children". The American Monthly Review of Reviews (Review of Reviews Company) 32 (July–December 1905): 764.
  6. ↑ Brown, Marian E. (1988). "Three Versions of A Little Princess: How the Story Developed". Children's Literature in Education 19 (4): 119–210.
  7. ↑ McKay, Hilary (3 September 2009). Wishing for Tomorrow (Hardcover ed.). Hodder Children's Books. ISBN 0340956534.
  8. ↑ A Little Princess - A New Musical by Marc Folan
  9. ↑ A Little Princess The Musical Off-Broadway and US Premiere

External links

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