A Little Princess

A Little Princess
Frances Hodgson Burnett

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.“Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside”A Little Princess tells the story of Sara Crewe, beloved daughter of the revered Captain Crewe. Sent to board at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, Sara is devastated when her adored father dies. Suddenly penniless, Sara is banished to an attic room where she is starved, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this exceptionally intelligent girl uses the only resources available to her, imagination and friendship, to overcome her situation and change her fortunes is at the centre of this enduring classic.First published in 1905, ‘A Little Princess’ is a heart-warming tale of hope, hardship and love set against a backdrop of Victorian England, and is one of the best-loved stories in all of children’s literature.

CONTENTS

Cover (#ufae770e3-af7f-589d-b1b4-9ff1e2979ab4)

Title Page (#uec47a5c3-faa0-5ca1-adab-a4bd824a82e0)

History of Collins (#u5381657e-921f-5671-add4-4a3cf5de8f71)

Life & Times (#u506d0071-4f91-548b-9faf-470da6c85a24)

Chapter 1: Sara (#u81956f1d-8bff-5179-a0e5-e01f98f518f9)

Chapter 2: A French Lesson (#uf78ba417-0dab-5c85-b6f7-fd629f4cfcf5)

Chapter 3: Ermengarde (#u8837e0e2-326e-5c65-b993-a8be5d35c083)

Chapter 4: Lottie (#u1d4a73a4-b03d-55f7-a564-3f7fb64f55ab)

Chapter 5: Becky (#u3a577eba-cfb0-58f5-a8a0-8e9bc0a546ad)

Chapter 6: The Diamond Mines (#ua5526448-700f-5c4b-8765-1fbb8f258dc7)

Chapter 7: The Diamond Mines Again (#u39b12370-2e6e-5e97-bc25-379ae37c418d)

Chapter 8: In the Attic (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9: Melchisedec (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: The Indian Gentleman (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: Ram Dass (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: The Other Side of the Wall (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: One of the Populace (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14: What Melchisedec Heard and Saw (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15: The Magic (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16: The Visitor (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17: “It Is the Child!” (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18: “I Tried Not to Be” (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19: “Anne” (#litres_trial_promo)

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins (#ulink_1e8031f9-7467-533a-a6d6-191d657431a6)

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books, and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner; however, it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed, and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II, took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly “Victorian” in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and ThePilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases, and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of “books for the millions” was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published, and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel, and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time, and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics, and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition—publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible, and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

Life & Times (#ulink_542cdf85-6c9c-53d7-b32e-480b9cb259a1)

About the Author

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in 1849 into an impoverished family in the slums of Manchester, England during the Industrial Revolution. Her father died when she was five years old, leaving the family in dire straits. Her mother was struggling to raise Frances and her four siblings when a considerate uncle urged them to emigrate to the USA. When her mother died, Frances was left to care for her siblings at the age of 18.

Frances turned to writing with the very specific idea of making money to feed the family. Within a year she had managed to sell her first story to a monthly magazine and begun to establish herself as a professional author. She published her first novel in 1877 and by 1886 she had written a number of novels. Her best seller, Little Lord Fauntleroy sold so well that it quickly made her a lady of independent means.

In the late 1890s Hodgson Burnett returned to England and took up residence in Great Maytham Hall, in the county of Kent. On exploration of the grounds of the property she discovered a walled garden untended for a number of years. She took it upon herself to restore the garden to floral splendour and then used the space as a place to sit and write. It was here that she conjured the idea for her children’s novel The Secret Garden, which was published in 1911.

The Secret Garden

In The Secret Garden, Hodgson Burnett imagined her home of Maytham Hall to be populated by other people. She herself claimed that a robin had shown her where to find the key for the real walled garden, so she used this as a device to allow her protagonist to discover her way into the secret garden in the story. The heroine of the narrative is an orphaned girl named Mary Lennox, who finds herself living at the home of her uncle. The girl is lonely and inquisitive, leading her to find the secret garden. She soon realises that there is another child living in the manor house; her cousin Colin Craven.

Colin is a sickly child, confined to his bedroom, but slowly a friendship forms between them and Mary begins to open up Colin’s world by taking him outside to visit the garden she has discovered. It turns out that Colin’s father is overly protective and has kept him shut away for the good of his health. He is initially displeased to discover that his son has been venturing outside, but he is soon overcome with joy at seeing his son’s subsequent recovery to good health and grateful to Mary for her part.

The theme of the book is essentially about the restorative properties of nature. On her arrival at Maytham Hall Mary was an ill-tempered and neglected child, but the garden soothes her and helps her to piece her life back together again. It has a similar calming affect on Colin, who suffers from psychosomatic illness partly brought about by the obsessive nature of his father. His father remains in mourning for his late wife, but he too eventually finds solace and happiness through the garden.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

The phrase ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ has become a byword for a boy who is spoilt and has a sense of entitlement. This idea is completely at odds however with the true nature of the child described in Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886). It seems that this misapprehension must have come from people who had never read the book or else missed the point entirely.

The boy in the story is, in fact, an American named Cedric Errol, who has lived his life so far with his mother in a downtrodden neighbourhood of New York City. He discovers that he is the next in line to become Lord Fauntleroy in England and reluctantly goes to live with his grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, who is an indefensible snob. In fact, the Earl refused to have anything to do with Cedric’s mother because she was an American. Cedric has been raised with the idea that his grandfather is a philanthropist and benefactor, when in fact he is a misanthrope and a miser. However, the old man soon falls for the child and has no wish to disappoint him and to the amazement of others, he begins to show generosity and concern for their wellbeing. Ultimately the Earl learns that his idea of aristocratic behaviour was at fault and that the boy has taught him the importance of compassion and empathy. He accepts Cedric and his mother, having realised the value and importance of tolerance and connection. So, Cedric is anything but the conceited character that the phrase ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ is used to imply.

Following the release of the novel there was a curious fashion amongst the aspiring classes for dressing young boys in ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ outfits – velvet jumpsuits with lace collars. It seems that this image persisted in the public consciousness though few ever read the story, and this led to the misconception that the character was pompous and demanding, based simply on appearance. The author was keenly aware of the differences between cultures in England and America, because she had emigrated to the US at the age of 16. The idea that Americans were brash and uncouth was commonplace among the English upper class, because the US was founded on the notion that anyone had the right and opportunity to succeed – The Land of the Free. Hodgson Burnett was evidently keen to express her view that it was the intrinsic qualities of a person that mattered and not perceived etiquette and affectations designed to divide society.

A Little Princess

In the world of schooling, books for advanced readers are known as ‘chapter books’ since they are divided into manageable chapters. A Little Princess has garnered a reputation as one of the best chapter books for children since its initial publication in 1905. Aside from Burnett’s accessible writing style, one of the reasons for this novel’s popularity is its theme of human virtue and subsequent reward that still strikes a chord over a century later.