Folio Society Published Works Number 1616
Burnett, Frances Hodgson - A Little Princess
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Burnett, Frances Hodgson - A Little Princess (Published in by The Folio Society in 2007. Introduced by Jane Gardam. Illustrated by H. Piffard. Bound in cloth, with a front board inset label based on the first UK edition by Harold Piffard. Set in Scotch Roman. 256 pages; frontispiece and 7 full-page colour illustrations. Sara Crewe is treated like a little princess by her adoring, wealthy father: he buys her everything she likes, her clothes are of the best, and she even has a French maid at Miss Minchin's select seminary in London. Yet it is Sara's ability to 'pretend' that most enraptures her classmates – the dull-witted but loyal Ermengarde, spoiled little Lottie and the unfortunate scullery-maid Becky. When her father dies with his business ventures in ruins, Sara is forced to work as a maid herself by the furious Miss Minchin. Yet, no mistreatment can cloud her powers of 'pretending', and it is in misfortune that Sara discovers that 'Whatever happens … cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside'. First published in serial form in 1887, Frances Hodgson Burnett rewrote the story first as a play and then as the extended novel we enjoy today. Elegantly written and filled with unforgettable characters, the book was an immediate success and has remained in print ever since, perennially popular with adults and children and often televised or filmed. Harold Piffard illustrated the first full-length edition, published in 1905, with seven full-colour plates and a frontispiece. His beautiful watercolours perfectly capture the little attic where Melchisedec the rat waits for crumbs and Sara pretends that she and Becky are brave prisoners in the Bastille. Reproduced with loving attention to the subtle colouring of the original illustrations, this is a gorgeous edition of a childhood favourite. )
