A Little Princess

Throughout her long and successful career, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) had a reputation for delighting readers with stories about people whose desperate situations always seemed to improve by the last chapter. This charming piece of fiction, first published nearly a century ago — and more recently the basis of an acclaimed motion picture — follows that pattern. Its young heroine, Sara Crewe, falls upon hard times at an English boarding school when her father suddenly dies. Left penniless and at the mercy of a vindictive headmistress, Sara manages — despite a multitude of adversities — to maintain her optimistic outlook and usual goodness, qualities that do not go unnoticed by a mysterious benefactor who eventually transforms her life.