A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

When Sara Crewe arrives at Miss Minchin's London boarding school, she seems just like a real little princess. She wears beautiful clothes, has gracious manners, and tells the most wonderful stories. Then one day, Sara suddenly becomes penniless. Now she must wear rags, sleep in the school's attic, and work for her living. Sara is all alone, but she keeps telling herself that she can still be a little princess inside, if only she tries hard enough.

A gracious hello to you, my dear readers! Today I took it upon myself to step into dreary Victorian England via one of my favorite childhood stories, A Little Princess. I have a long history with this story, but sadly I had never actually taken it upon myself to read the original novel. I loved the 1995 film version starring Hyatt Hotels heiress, Liesel Matthews (or Liesel Pritzker), and would watch it regularly when I was a youngin. I most recently watched the 1939 film version starring none other than the beautiful little Shirley Temple, which I actually didn't mind too much! The main thing to take away from all versions is that they are all drastically different from the original story, which I just found out after having read the book for the first time today.

If you don't know A Little Princess, the story follows Sara Crewe, a young girl born and raised in India who is being sent to boarding school in London. She is kind-hearted, sweet, and well-mannered although everyone expects her to be an outspoken tyrant considering how rich and spoiled she is by her father. But, that is not the case, and after a few years living in splendor and being the prize pony of her class and school, she suddenly finds herself a penniless beggar after her father is pronounced dead and financially destitute. To pay off her debts to the school, Miss Minchin has Sara reside and work at the school in all matters including household work as well as teaching the younger students. But although Sara has a roof over her head and friends who rally behind her, she struggles to remain true to herself and to not let the challenges she faces, get to her.

So I want to say that I did not expect, at all, how the original story differed from my beloved film version. I knew there would obviously be some details and scenarios that were overlooked, but a big plot point was completely rewritten for both the 1939 and 1995 film versions.

First off, in the films, Sara's father is a soldier who needs to rejoin the military and due to injury he loses his memory and is pronounced MIA since no one could identify him. He comes back to London to recover and after some hardship, reconnects with Sara and they live happily ever after! Hooray! But the original story, sorry everyone, Papa Crewe is dead indeed. Instead, he is a soldier but one who went into business drilling for diamond mines with a friend, who after investing all his money, loses it all due to his friend running away with it. But not only that, Mr. Crewe becomes ill and dies, thus leaving Sara to her poor position at Miss Minchin's.

But the story goes that the friend that her father went into business with, who after battling illness as well, went back and did, in fact, find the mines. Suddenly finding himself so rich, his guilt caused him to head back to London to recover and try to find Sara and restore her back to her previous wealth AND THEN SOME. But the problem is that Mr. Crewe never mentioned which school Sara was placed in, and now the friend must try and investigate and find her.

Overall, I actually really don't mind this version at all and don't really understand why they decided to change the story for the 1939 film version. Maybe they wanted a happier and more emotional ending with the reunion of father and daughter, which makes perfect sense, but I feel like they didn't need to. The ending in the book is just as emotional and just as intense, although on a different scale. I will forever love the film versions, but I'm happy to know that the original is just as good.

Sara as a character is really someone every person should strive to be like, someone who is headstrong and willful, but knows the difference between speaking her mind, and simply speaking what needs to be said. Regardless of whatever situation she was in, the cold nights in the attic, the lack of meals on a daily basis, or being so tired she couldn't even walk up the stairs to get to her room, she never complained and never let her anger get the best of her. She carried on and did the best she could, how she could.

Becky, the other servant girl within the school that Sara becomes close friends with, has a strong accent in the book, and it's written as such. It's an interesting way to dictate the classes and how the "lower" class and poor people had such differences in language and tone. But to see it written out so plainly was a surprise and at times I had trouble understanding what was being said. In the 1939 version with Shirley Temple they tried to get the little actress to speak much the same way and it was a cringe-fest, and I'm glad they rid the accents for the 1995 version!

Overall, this story is a lesson in perseverance and that there is no cost in being kind and sharing what you can, when you can. If you haven't seen the 1995 film, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. And if you want to take a gander at the book as well, I say go for it! It's a quick read, nothing too intense, but still just a lovely and heartwarming story!

My overall rating for the book sit's at a 4.5/5 mainly because I just love the story so much and it gives me so much nostalgia for my childhood.

If you want to purchase the book I recommend BookOutlet.com! I got my hardcover, deluxe illustrated edition for only $6! WHAT A STEAL!

Thanks for stopping by my friends, until next time 🎩