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A Little PrincessA Little Princess is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, better known for Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden. It concerns the troubles of a wealthy young girl, Sara Crewe, who is sent to an oppressive London boarding school during her father's campaign in India. Thanks to Capt. Crewe's money, Sara is treated as a little princess until, one day, word comes of her father's tragic death. Miss Minchin, the school's greedy headmistress, wastes no time in putting the now-penniless Sara to work for her room and board. It is only through the friendship of two other girls, her own resolute nature, and some astonishing luck that Sara eventually finds her way back to happiness. The books and the playThe story was first published as the novella Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin's in 1888, after a period Burnett spent travelling across Europe with her family. This version of the tale, while not differing in plot or characters, is only just over one-third the length of the later novel expansion. It lacks much of the detail and character development that makes the novel so charming to audiences today. Burnett returned to the material in 1902, penning the three-act stageplay A Little Un-fairy Princess, which ran in London over the autumn of that year. Around the time it transferred to New York 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, published in 1905. Both versions of the book remain in print, although the later novel is by far the better known. Film and TV adaptationsA Little Princess has been made several times into a full-length feature film. Numerous versions have taken significant liberties with the plot.
The second, released in 1939, featured child star Shirley Temple as Sara Crewe. It introduced a number of new characters, including Hubert Minchin, played by actor Arthur Treacher. Temple and Treacher had a showcase musical number together, performing the song "Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road." The film also altered the story to include the return of Capt. Crewe, Sarah's father, at the end. In the book, his death is not just a rumor. A British film of the story was released in 1975, as well as a Filipino version in 1995. Neither are easily available today. Also in 1995, director Alfonso Cuaron returned to the story for a live-action Warner Brothers film. Once more, liberties were taken; the action was moved to New York during World War I, the servant Becky was changed from Cockney to African-American, and again, the ending was altered to have Capt. Crewe return for Sara. Although elegantly filmed, with British comedienne Eleanor Bron as Miss Minchin, the film was a disappointment for many of the book's fans. To date, the only proper adaptation of the book has been for television, a 1986 mini-series co-produced by LWT in Britain and PBS in the United States. The mini-series featured child actress Amelia Shankley ably filling the role of Sara, supported by British character actors Maureen Lipman, Miriam Margolyes, and Nigel Havers. The resulting production was faithful to the book in almost every respect. The only other major television production was a 1985 Japanese anime series, A Little Princess Sara , which in turn formed a single season of World Masterpiece Theatre (an anime series that featured a different children's classic each year, including Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, and Peter Pan). The story was stretched out over forty-six half-hour episodes, including a few new characters and adventures along the way. External links
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