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Title: A Little Princess
Series:
----------
Authors: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Children's Lit
Pages:
167
Words: 67K
From Wikipedia.org
Captain
Ralph Crewe, a wealthy English widower, has been raising his only
child, Sara, in India where he is stationed with the British Army.
Because the Indian climate is considered too harsh for children,
British families living there traditionally send their children to
boarding school back home in England. The Captain enrolls his
seven-year-old daughter at Miss Minchin's boarding school for girls
in London and dotes on his daughter so much that he orders and pays
the headmistress for special treatment and exceptional luxuries for
Sara, such as a private room for her with a personal maid and a
separate sitting room (see Parlour boarder), along with Sara's own
private carriage and a pony. Miss Minchin openly fawns over Sara for
her money, but is secretly bitter toward her for her wealth.
In
spite of said wealth, Sara is not self-centered, rude, or snobbish,
but rather kind, generous, and compassionate. She extends her
friendship to Ermengarde St. John, the school dunce; to Lottie, a
four-year-old pupil given to tantrums; and to Becky, the lowly,
stunted scullery maid. When Sara acquires the epithet "princess",
she embraces its favorable elements in her natural kindheartedness.
After
some time, Sara's eleventh birthday is celebrated at Miss Minchin's
with a lavish party, attended by all her friends and classmates. Just
as it ends, Miss Minchin learns of Captain Crewe's unfortunate demise
due to jungle fever. Furthermore, prior to his death, the previously
wealthy captain had lost his entire fortune; a close friend from his
schoolboy days had persuaded him to cash in his investments and
deposit the proceeds to develop a network of diamond mines. The
scheme fails, and the preteen Sara is left an orphan and a pauper,
with no other family and nowhere to go. Miss Minchin is left with a
sizable unpaid bill for Sara's school fees and luxuries, including
her birthday party. Infuriated and pitiless, she takes away all of
Sara's possessions (except for some old frocks and her doll, Emily),
makes her live in a cold and poorly furnished attic, and forces her
to earn her keep by working as a servant. She also forces Sara to
wear frocks much too short for her, with her thin legs peeking out of
the brief skirts.
For
the next two years, Sara is abused by Miss Minchin and the other
servants, except for Becky. Miss Minchin's kind younger sister,
Amelia, deplores the way that Sara is treated, but is too weak-willed
to speak up about it. Sara is starved, worked for long hours, sent
out in all kinds of weather, poorly dressed in outgrown and worn-out
clothes, and deprived of warmth or a comfortable bed in the attic.
Despite her hardships, Sara is consoled by her friends and uses her
imagination to cope, pretending she is a prisoner in the Bastille or
a princess disguised as a servant. Sara also continues to be kind to
everyone, including those who find her annoying or mistreat her. One
day, she finds a coin in the street and uses it to buy buns at a
bakery; despite being very hungry, she gives most of the buns away to
a beggar girl who is hungrier than herself. The bakery shop owner
sees this and wants to reward Sara, but she has disappeared, so the
shop owner instead gives the beggar girl bread and warm shelter for
Sara's sake.
Meanwhile,
Mr. Carrisford and his Indian assistant, Ram Dass, have moved into
the house next door to Miss Minchin's school. Carrisford had been
Captain Crewe's friend and partner in the diamond mines. After the
diamond mine venture failed, both Crewe and Carrisford became very
ill, and Carrisford in his delirium abandoned his good childhood
friend Crewe, who died of his "brain fever." As it turned
out, the diamond mines did not fail, but instead were a great
success, making Carrisford extremely rich. Although Carrisford
survived, he suffers from several ailments and is guilt-ridden over
abandoning his friend. He is determined to find Crewe's young
daughter and heiress, although he does not know where she is and
thinks she is attending school in France, as her late mother was a
Frenchwoman.
Ram
Dass befriends Sara when his pet monkey escapes into Sara's adjoining
attic. After climbing over the roof to Sara's room to get the monkey,
Ram Dass tells Carrisford about Sara's poor living conditions. As a
pleasant distraction, Carrisford and Ram Dass buy warm blankets,
comfortable furniture, food, and other gifts, and secretly leave them
in Sara's room when she is asleep or out. Sara's spirits and health
improve due to the gifts she receives from her mysterious benefactor,
whose identity she does not know; nor are Ram Dass and Carrisford
aware that Sara is Crewe's lost daughter. When Carrisford anonymously
sends Sara a package of new, well-made, and expensive clothing in her
proper size, Miss Minchin becomes quite alarmed, thinking Sara might
have a wealthy relative secretly looking out for her, and begins to
treat Sara better and allows her to attend classes rather than doing
menial work.
One
night, the monkey again runs away to Sara's room, and Sara visits
Carrisford's house the next morning to return him. When Sara casually
mentions that she was born in India, Carrisford and his solicitor
question her and discover that she is Captain Crewe's daughter, for
whom they have been searching for two years. Sara also learns that
Carrisford was her father's childhood friend and her own anonymous
benefactor and that the diamond mines have produced great riches, of
which she will now own her late father's share. When Miss Minchin
angrily appears to collect Sara, she is informed that Sara will be
living with Carrisford from now on and her entire fortune has been
restored and increased tenfold. Upon finding this out, Miss Minchin
unsuccessfully tries to persuade Sara into returning to her school as
a star pupil. She then threatens to keep Sara from ever seeing her
school friends again, but Carrisford and his solicitor tell Miss
Minchin that Sara will see anyone she wishes to see and that her
friends' parents are not likely to refuse invitations from an heiress
of diamond mines. Miss Minchin goes home, where she is surprised when
Amelia finally stands up to her. Amelia has a nervous breakdown
afterward, but she is on the road to gaining more respect.
Sara
invites Becky to live with her and be her personal maid, in much
better living conditions than at Miss Minchin's. Carrisford becomes a
friend and father figure to Sara and quickly regains his health.
Finally, Sara—accompanied by Becky—pays a visit to the bakery
where she bought the buns, making a deal with the owner to cover the
bills for bread for any hungry child. They find that the beggar girl
(now named Ann), who was saved from starvation by Sara's selfless
act, is now the bakery owner's assistant, with good food, clothing,
shelter, and steady employment.
When I read The
Secret Garden back in '12, I kept telling myself that I
also needed to read Burnett's A Little Princess. Well, it only
took me 10 years, but tada!
Honestly, this didn't hold a candle to The Secret Garden. Part
of it was that this was a little rich girl, who while not spoiled,
was given everything her father could. It didn't ruin her, but the
sympathy factor started much lower than in SG (that's Secret Garden,
NOT Star Gate SG1). Her riches to rags to riches story, while
heartwarming, didn't have the same depth as the kids in SG had, as
they had to work at stuff while Sara just has to get through each day
of being a servant. The idea of a benevolent, all encompassing
“magic” was much more present here and almost made Sara's riches
to rags story feel like it had no impact, because “the magic”
would take care of it all.
What I most remember about this story is the 1987 tv mini-series. We
watched it in school (it was 6 episodes so we would have watched one
part each time) and reading it now brought it all back. There is a
scene where there is a pie gone missing that was reserved for the
head mistress and the cook blames the scullery maid. The scullery
maid knows full well the cook gave it to her boyfriend but nobody
believes her. In the movie the headmistress is going on about the
missing pie and demanding to know what happened and the cook just
lifts her eyebrow and nods over her shoulder at the scullery maid. I
didn't even realize that scene from the movie had stuck in my head
until I read it again in the book and bam, I could see it all again
crystal clear. It so weird how images like that get stuck in your
brain without even realizing it.
To end, if I had to choose between A Little Princess and The
Magic Garden, TMG wins hands down. Doesn't make Princess a bad
book, but at most it gets a Participation Trophy, not a Winner's
Trophy.
★★★☆☆
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