A Little Princess

A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Being Told for the First Time,  written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and first published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1905, is a children’s novel that follows Sara, a young girl whose father sent her to boarding school in England. Despite being very privileged, Sara remains kind and generous and befriends several of the more ‘undesirable’ girls at the school. In a cruel twist of fate, Sara is left alone and penniless, working tirelessly at the boarding school she once attended. Through the support of her vivid imagination and friends, she survives until a mysterious benefactor emerges. Sara finally escapes her dire circumstances and spreads joy with her giving nature.  It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 serialized novel entitled "Sara Crewe: or, What happened at Miss Minchin's boarding school," which was first published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1887. After she Burnett composed the 1902 play  A Little Un-fairy Princess  based on that story, her publisher asked that she expand the story as a novel.  The widely acclaimed book has since been adapted into several movies, TV shows, musicals, and other theatre adaptations. Sara was played by Mary Pickford in the 1917 film, and Shirley Temple in 1939 version. 

Read More: Identifying first editions of A Little Princess

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