Other editions of book A Little Princess

*Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award*[Read by Johanna Ward] Sara Crewe is the brightest, richest, and most generous girl in Miss Minchin's school for girls, and her father gives her everything she might desire. But when her beloved father dies, Sarah's friends and prized possessions are suddenly taken away, and she is banished to the attic and forced to work as a common drudge. Fed only crumbs, she still saves enough to feed her pet rat, and she tells wonderful stories to comfort Becky, the kitchen maid. Using her special ability to play make-believe, she transforms her hardships into an unforgettable adventure. And soon, even her wildest wishes begin to come true, as her real identity is revealed once and for all. This touching classic has been a favorite with generations of children and adults who have delighted in Sara's happiness, wept over her sorrows, and perhaps shared her need -- to be recognized as someone unique and special -- a little princess or prince. [*The Warner Brothers award-winning production of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, starring Liesel Matthews, was nominated for two Academy Awards.]

Sara Crewe is a gifted and well-mannered child, and Captain Crewe, her father, is an extraordinary wealthy man. So Miss Minchin, headmistress of Sara's new boarding school in London, is pleased to treat Sara as her star pupil--a pampered little princess.But suddenly, one dreadful day, Sara's world collapses around her. All of her lovely things are taken from her and she is forbidden to associate with her friends. Her father has died penniless in India.Miss Minchin can now show her greedy and meanspirited nature to its fullest. The little princess is reduced to a shabby drudge. But Sara does not break, and with the help of a monkey, an Indian lascar, and the strange, ailing gentleman next door, she not only survives her sufferings but help those around her.From the Trade Paperback edition.

A Little Princess is a children's novel, first published as a book in 1905. It is an expanded version of the short story "Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's", which was serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine from December 1887, and published in book form in 1888. According to Burnett, after she composed the 1902 play A Little Un-fairy Princess based on that story, her publisher asked that she expand the story as a novel with "the things and people that had been left out before".

I do not know whether many people realize how much more than is ever written there really is in a story-how many parts of it are never told-how much more really happened than there is in the book one holds in one's hand and pores over. Stories are something like letters. When a letter is written, how often one remembers things omitted and says, ''Ah, why did I not tell them that?" Inwriting a book one relates all that one remembers at the time, and if one told all that really happened perhaps the book would never end. Between the lines of every story there is another story, and that is one that is never heard and can only be guessed at by the people who are good at guessing. The person who writes the story may never know all of it, but sometimes he does and wishes he had the chance to begin again. When I wrote the story of "Sara Crewe" I guessed that a great deal more had happened at Miss Minchin's than I had had time to find out just then. I knew, of course, that there must have been chapters full of things going on all the time; and when I began to make a play out of the book and called it ''A Little Princess," I discovered three acts full of things. What interested me most was that I found that there had been girls at the school whose names I had not even known before. There was a little girl whose name was Lottie, who was an amusing little person; there was a hungry scullery-maid who was Sara's adoring friend; Ermengarde was much more entertaining than she had seemed at first; things happened in the garret which had never been hinted at in the book; and a certain gentleman whose name was Melchisedec was an intimate friend of Sara's who should never have been left out of the story if he had only walked into it in time. He and Becky and Lottie lived at Miss Minchin's, and I cannot understand why they did not mention themselves to me at first. They were as real as Sara, and it was careless of them not to come out of the story shadowland and say, "Here I am-tell about me." But they did not-which was their fault and not mine. People who live in the story one is writing ought to come forward at the beginning and tap the writing person on the shoulder and say, "Hallo, what about me?" If they don't, no one can be blamed but themselves and their slouching, idle ways. After the play of "A Little Princess" was produced in New York, and so many children went to see it and liked Becky and Lottie and Melchisedec, my publishers asked me if I could not write Sara's story over again and put into it all the things and people who had been left out before, and so I have done it; and when I began I found there were actually pages and pages of things which had happened that had never been put even into the play, so in this new "Little Princess" I have put all I have been able to discover. FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT.

Written by british-born author Frances Hodgson Burnett and first published in 1905, A Little Princess tells the story of young Sara Crewe, privileged daughter of a wealthy diamond merchant. All the other girls at Miss Minchin’s school treat Sara as if she truly were a princess. But when Captain Crewe’s fortune is sadly lost, Sara’s luck changes. Suddenly, she is treated no better than a scullery maid. Her own fierce determination to maintain her dignity and remain a princess inside has intrigued and delighted listeners for more than a hundred years, even inspiring a sequel, Wishing for Tomorrow by Hilary McKay.

Written by british-born author Frances Hodgson Burnett and first published in 1905, A Little Princess tells the story of young Sara Crewe, privileged daughter of a wealthy diamond merchant. All the other girls at Miss Minchin's school treat Sara as if she truly were a princess. But when Captain Crewe's fortune is sadly lost, Sara's luck changes. Suddenly, she is treated no better than a scullery maid. Her own fierce determination to maintain her dignity and remain a princess inside has intrigued and delighted listeners for more than a hundred years, even inspiring a sequel, Wishing for Tomorrow by Hilary McKay.