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LiddyGally: Both books share a good-hearted (and intelligent) female protaganist who is forced to attend a boarding school she does not like and face the loss of a father.
So slow. I wanted to like it as it's a classic. Yet I know the story and don't like it. Sara is too perfect as a child and what saves her in the end is money. I don't like the message. ( )
Elitist smug and judgemental. Sure it's a tale about triumphing in the face of adversity. But it's also a tale that calls the other children "fat" "ugly" and "dull." It praises the "largesse" that the upper classes distribute to the poor. And while it's probably part of a valuable conversation about the obligations of the wealthy to society, it's classist approach feels dated and problematic. Feelings of superiority are not what I want my child to learn from her books. ( )
Alone in a new country, wealthy Sara Crewe tries to settle in and make friends at boarding school. But when she learns that she'll never see her beloved father again, her life is turned upside down. Transformed from princess to pauper, she must swap dancing lessons and luxury for hard work and a room in the attic. Will she find that kindness and generosity are all the riches she truly needs?
Now that I am older, I can see how classist this is, and of course how problematic the entire "diamond mine in India" story actually is.
Still I have to admit that "A little princess" will always be in my heart, has been since I read it the first time all those years ago. I love Sara and her tendency to adopt children (which I started doing as well getting older), her love for books and stories and the vicious determination she makes up stories with.
And the way the author wrote, the magic of the room, for me always felt magical itself. So in summary: I do love this book. ( )
Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father, and was driven rather slowly through the big thorough-fares.
Quotations
When people are insulting you, there is nothing so good for them as not to say a word - just look at them and think...when you will not fly into a passion, people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage and they are not, and they say things they wish they hadn't said afterwards. There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in - that's stronger.
Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage.
If Nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that -- warm things, kind things, sweet things -- help and comfort and laughter -- and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.
"Perhaps," she said, "to be able to learn things quickly isn't everything. To be kind is worth a great deal to other people. If Miss Minchin knew everything on earth and was like what she is now, she'd still be a detestable thing, and everybody would hate her. Lots of clever people have done harm and have been wicked. Look at Robespierre -- "
Last words
And, somehow, Sara felt as if she understood her, though she said so little, and only stood still and looked and looked after her as she went out of the shop with the Indian gentleman, and they got into the carriage and drove away.
Sara Crewe, or What Happened At Miss Minchin's, the work on which A Little Princess is based, was first written as a serialized novella. It was published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1888.
Sara Crewe, a pupil at Miss Minchin's London school, is left in poverty when her father dies but is later rescued by a mysterious benefactor.
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Book description
A kind and wealthy Anglo-Indian girl in a posh British boarding school becomes impoverished after the death of her father and is forced to become a servant at the school, living in an unheated garret, overworked and underfed. Then a mysterious benefactor comes to her rescue.
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A Little Princess Discussion
Wikipedia in English (1)
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