A Little Princess

A Little Princess
First edition cover
Author(s)	Frances Hodgson Burnett
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's literature
Publisher	Warne
Publication date	1905
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	266
ISBN	NA

A Little Princess is a 1905 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. 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 published in St. Nicholas Magazine.

According to Burnett, she discovered that she had missed out a great deal of things when writing the novella. She had been composing a play based on the story when she found out a lot of characters she had missed. The publisher asked her to publish a new, revised story of the novella, producing the novel.^[1]

Source material

The novella appears to have been inspired in part by Charlotte Brontë's unfinished novel, Emma, the first two chapters of which were published in Cornhill Magazine in 1860, featuring a rich heiress with a mysterious past who is apparently abandoned at a boarding school.^[2]

The thread of the book is evident in the novellas, in which Sara Crewe is left at Miss Minchin's, loses her father, is worked as a drudge, and is surprised with the kindness of an Indian gentleman who turns out to be Captain Crewe's friend. However, at just over one-third the length of the later book, the novella is much less detailed.

Many of the characters in the book are loosely defined or not at all. The students are treated as a group; only Ermengarde is mentioned by name, and her interaction with Sara is limited to Sara's asking her for books. Much of the Large Family is only mentioned by name, and Sara only observes them from afar; the father is not linked to Mr. Carrisford until the end.

Generally, the novel expanded on things in the novella; Captain Crewe's "investments" are only referred to briefly and generally, and much of the information revealed in conversations in the novel is simply summarized. However, there are details in the novella which were dropped for the novel. While a drudge, Sara is said to have frequented a library, in which she read books about women in rough circumstances being rescued by princes and other powerful men. In addition, Mr. Carrisford's illness is specified as liver trouble.

After writing Sara Crewe, Burnett returned to the material in 1902, penning the three-act stage play A Little Un-fairy Princess, which ran in London over the autumn of that year. Around the time it transferred to New York City at the start of 1903, however, the title was shortened to the one with which it became famous: A Little Princess. (It was A Little Princess in London, but The Little Princess in New York.)

The play was a success on Broadway, and it is probable that this triumph is what led Burnett to revise it yet again, this time as an expanded, full-length novel. Both versions of the book remain in print, although A Little Princess is better known.

Synopsis

Sara Crewe is a very intelligent, polite, and creative young girl. Born to a wealthy soldier stationed in India, Captain Crewe, Sara was sent all the way from India (her birthplace) to London for a formal education. Sara soon meets the headmistress of the school Miss Minchin, who dislikes Sara from the start, but tries to flatter her because of her father's money. Sara spends some days with her father, and goes around town to buy clothes. She desperately searches for a doll that suits her. She finally finds one and names her "Emily". Sara's father leaves Sara and goes back to India. She is hated by Lavinia, who is jealous of her and was the former "princess" in the school, prior to Sara's arrival.

On Sara's eleventh birthday, she receives a doll from her papa, naming it as "Last doll" as she will soon be too grown up for dolls. Just then, Miss Minchin receives a letter stating that Sara's father died after his friend ran away with all his money. She cruelly tells Sara that from now on, she will have to work. Sara lives in the attic with her new animal friend Melchizedek, a rat, and Becky, who lives in the next-door attic. Her third friend, the dull Ermengarde St. John visits her.

Meanwhile, an ill man from India, Tom Carrisford, has arrived in the house next to the school, in search of his friend's daughter, hoping to find her in Paris or Russia. The story takes a turn as the friend of Mr. Carrisford was Captain Crewe and he is currently searching for his daughter, Sara. He does not guess that she is there in the next building. One day, his assistant, Ram Dass, happens to see Sara after his monkey goes into her room. He climbs the roof to retrieve the monkey, and sees the condition of Sara's room. He tells Mr. Carrisford about it and they make Sara's life better by presenting gifts and surprises. Sara, who is very thankful to the "mysterious friend", cannot figure out who the "friend" is. Then, one day, the monkey goes into her room again in the middle of the night and she decides to return it the next morning. In the morning, she slowly gets to know the truth and the book ends on a happy note as Sara truly proves that she is a "Princess".

New musical versions

Due in part to the novel's public domain status, several musical versions of A Little Princess have emerged in recent years, including:

• A Little Princess, Princess Musicals [1] Book and Lyrics by Michael Hjort, Music by Camille Curtis.
• Sara Crewe, premiered May 2007 at Needham (Boston, MA) Community Theater, first full production November 2007 at the Blackwell Playhouse, Marietta, Georgia; music, lyrics, and book by Miriam Raiken-Kolb and Elizabeth Ellor
• Sara Crewe: A Little Princess, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston, 2006. Music and libretto by Susan Kosoff and Jane Staab
• A Little Princess, TheatreWorks, Palo Alto, California, premiered 2004. Music by Andrew Lippa; book by Brian Crawley; directed by Susan H. Schulman
• A Little Princess, Wings Theatre, New York, 2003. Book and Direction by Robert Sickinger; music and lyrics by Mel Atkey, musical director Mary Ann Ivan
• A Little Princess, Children's Musical Theater San Jose, May 2002. Book and lyrics by Tegan McLane, music by Richard Link.
• A Little Princess, Bodens Youth Theatre, London, premiering February 2012. Music and lyrics by Marc Folan, book by Adam Boden.^[3]

Some of these productions have made significant changes to the book, story and characters, most notably the Sickinger/Atkey version, which moves the action to Civil War-era America.

• Princesses, a 2004 musical currently in development for Broadway, features students at a boarding school presenting a production of A Little Princess. Music and book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner; lyrics and direction by David Zippel.

Related books

In 1995, Apple published a series of three books written by Gabrielle Charbonnet. The "Princess series" was an updated version of the classic, with the title character named Molly, rather than Sara. Molly Stewart's father was a famous film director who left his daughter in a posh upscale boarding school. There were three books in the series, which ended in a similar way as the original.

• A Little Princess
• Molly's Heart
• A Room on the Attic
• Home At Last
• A sequel to A Little Princess was written by Hilary McKay and was published in 2009. The story is titled "Wishing For Tomorrow" and tells the story of what happened to the rest of the boarding school girls after Sara and Becky left.

Film and television adaptations

Film

• 1917 version: Mary Pickford as Sara and Katherine Griffith as Miss Minchin.

• 1939 version: Shirley Temple as Sara and Mary Nash as Miss Minchin, this adaptation notably differs from the original, in that Sara's father is wounded and missing in action in wartime, and later is reunited with his daughter.

• 1995 Filipino version: entitled Sarah... Ang Munting Prinsesa (lit. "Sarah, the Little Princess") which starred Camille Prats as Sarah and Jean Garcia as Miss Minchin. It was inspired by the entry of the anime version Princess Sarah, which became a hit in the Philippines. The movie was partly filmed in Scotland. It was produced by Star Cinema and ABS-CBN.

• 1995 version: Liesel Matthews as Sara and Eleanor Bron as Miss Minchin, this adaptation notably differs from the original and more closely resembles the 1939 version, in that Sara's father is wounded and missing in action in wartime, and later is reunited with his daughter.

• 1997 Russian film Malenkaya printsessa (ru): Anastasiya Meskova as Sara and Alla Demidova as Miss Minchin.

Television

• 1973 version: Deborah Makepeace as Sara and Ruth Dunning as Miss Minchin. This was very faithful to the novel.
• 1986 version: Amelia Shankley as Sara and Maureen Lipman as Miss Minchin. This was also a faithful adaptation.
• Princess Sara: a 1985 Japanese anime series, which was featured as part of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater staple. The series spanned 46 episodes, including a few new characters and adventures along the way. It was considered to be the best of the adaptations featured in the series. Sarah, the main character, was voiced by Sumi Shimamoto.
• Sōkō no Strain, a 2006 anime that completely reworks the story into a mecha series about "Sara Werec", whose ability to pilot a mecha is taken away when her brother, Ralph, betrays and disgraces the family.
• Princess Sarah, a Filipino 2007 remake.
• Shōkōjo Seira a 2009 remake with the main character Japanese and named Seira, aged 16 when her father dies, and as an Indian Princess. Becky is changed to a male and a romantic lead.
• "The Penniless Princess" (2012), a Veggietales episode

References

1. ^ Wordsworth edition of A Little Princess
2. ^ Emma Brown by Clare Boylan - Reviews, Books - The Independent
3. ^ http://www.alittleprincessthemusical.co.uk/

External links

• A Little Princess at Project Gutenberg