Filling in the Gaps review: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
When I was about, oh, nine or ten years old one of my very, very favorite books to read was The Secret Garden, also by Hodgson Burnett. I knew she had written other books, but that was my happy place to come back to again and again. Even now, reading about little Missee Sahib Mary brings me back to being ten and almost being able to smell India -- although I mix that book up with another of my happy places, which was a Harlequin romance of a young Indian girl, and I always start thinking of tigerlilies for some reason. Anyway!
But A Little Princess, now. It's not quite what The Secret Garden is, and I suppose it never could be since so much of my childhood lives inside that book, but it is a perfectly lovely story once you get into it. The story, however, takes a long goddamn time to start, and I was kind of bored with the lack of progress in almost the full first half of the book. Allow me to spoil it for you: Sara Crewe is sent to boarding school, wears lots of pretty dresses, is a perfect, lovely child, pretends she's a princess and makes friends.
It does give you that warm, glowy feeling inside, though, about how little Princess Sara is all alone in the world and is sent out to do slave work for no gratitude just because she's unexpectedly poor. It's like every fairy tale ever told -- poor little orphaned girl who is treated horrible and gets her comeuppance in the end. It's the kind of book that leaves you with a satisfied sigh, just like a child's book is supposed to. It's a proper happy ending for everyone involved, except the bad guys. I think I would probably enjoy these books more if it weren't for the, shall we say, problematic view of the Indian natives. A product of its time, I suppose.
In the end, lovely book, makes you happy and fuzzy, but lacks a certain something in the pace department.
Grade: B-
But A Little Princess, now. It's not quite what The Secret Garden is, and I suppose it never could be since so much of my childhood lives inside that book, but it is a perfectly lovely story once you get into it. The story, however, takes a long goddamn time to start, and I was kind of bored with the lack of progress in almost the full first half of the book. Allow me to spoil it for you: Sara Crewe is sent to boarding school, wears lots of pretty dresses, is a perfect, lovely child, pretends she's a princess and makes friends.
It does give you that warm, glowy feeling inside, though, about how little Princess Sara is all alone in the world and is sent out to do slave work for no gratitude just because she's unexpectedly poor. It's like every fairy tale ever told -- poor little orphaned girl who is treated horrible and gets her comeuppance in the end. It's the kind of book that leaves you with a satisfied sigh, just like a child's book is supposed to. It's a proper happy ending for everyone involved, except the bad guys. I think I would probably enjoy these books more if it weren't for the, shall we say, problematic view of the Indian natives. A product of its time, I suppose.
In the end, lovely book, makes you happy and fuzzy, but lacks a certain something in the pace department.
Grade: B-