A Little Princess (by Frances Hodgson Burnett)

(Amazon UK link)

As a child, I had a short book called ‘Sara Crewe’, which I read regularly. It wasn’t until I was in my teens that I learned that the author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, had written a much longer novel called ‘A Little Princess’. I read it then, and don’t recall if I read it again as a young adult. The last time I know I read it was in 2004. 

Since I had a version of this book on my Kindle, and like re-reading children’s classics from time to time, I decided to read ‘A Little Princess’ again over the past few days.  It was first published in 1905 and is set in Victorian England. 

The general story, unsurprisingly, was familiar to me. The wealthy Captain Crewe works in India as a businessman. His wife died some years earlier, but his young daughter Sara has been his constant companion. She’s seven, and quite mature for her years,  having lived so much in adult company. 

But the climate of India was considered dangerous for children. So with much reluctance, Captain Crewe enrols his daughter in a boarding school for girls in London. He orders every extravagance, including a French maid, even though neither he nor Sara much like Miss Minchin, the headmistress. Their parting is poignant, but Sara is quite self-contained and doesn’t allow herself to cry.

Sara is also generous and altruistic, and quickly makes friends with some unlikely people. Her first friend is Ermengarde, a slow and overweight girl who has been spurned by the other girls. Then Sara befriends Becky the scullery maid who has to do all the hardest menial work, with almost no pay and only small amounts of food. She also becomes close to a younger girl called Lottie who cries a lot. 

All goes well, on the whole, for a few years. Sara and her father correspond regularly, and she is a good student who learns quickly and is happy to help others, such as Ermengarde. Sara has a gift for story-telling, using her imagination and verbal skills to bring history alive in a way that was not common in the early 20th century. She is also fluent in French, as  her mother had been French. 

Some of the older girls dislike her, jealous of her wealth and favoured position. Yet Sara is not spoilt despite all the possessions lavished upon her. She responds to jealousy or unpleasant comments from others with a dignity and generosity that is often difficult for her. She tries to live as if she were a princess with the responsibility of being kind, avoiding angry or spiteful remarks. 

Then, on Sara’s 11th birthday, disaster happens out of the blue. It would be a spoiler to say much more. But for the next section of the book she is reduced to the level of a serving maid, despised by the other students, treated appallingly by Miss Minchin. Her internal poise and gentleness are severely challenged, but even in her straitened circumstances she manages, on the whole, to exercise her imagination. She thinks of herself as an imprisoned or exiled princess and does what she can to help others, even when she has so little herself.

It’s a children’s book, so there’s a little of what Sara calls ‘magic’, in the sense of serendipity or circumstances conspiring to make things better. Not that it happens quickly. There are some quite traumatic situations described; not gratuitously, but also not leaving out the cold and dirt of London in winter, or the hunger felt by those with little or no food. 

Despite knowing that things were mostly going to turn out well, I found the last section of the book compulsive reading. The writing is excellent, in my view; typical of the era, with some authorial input, but bringing the young characters to life in such a way that I had tears in my eyes during most of the last chapter.

Although Sara is seven at the start of the book, I wouldn’t recommend this to children of less than about nine or ten. Some of the situations described could be quite disturbing to a younger or sensitive child. Apparently there were several films made of this book, most of which bore little resemblance to the novel. I’m fairly sure I saw one of them at some point, and it rather sanitised Sara’s life, as well as giving an extra (unlikely) happy circumstance at the end.  

I understand, after reading about them, that the only film adaptation that is true to the story is a BBC mini-series made in 1973, which, unfortunately, is not available on DVD. 

Frances Hodgson Burnett is best known for ‘The Secret Garden’, but my favourite of her novels for children is ‘A Little Princess’.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews