Little Lord Fauntleroy is the engaging, amusing, and moving story of a boy living on the edge of poverty in New York, who suddenly learns that he is the heir to an English lord with vast lands and wealth. Travelling to his grandfather's castle, Cedric shows his trusting and democratic nature in his dealings with lawyers and clergymen, servants and farmers, but it is his relationship with his proud and unfeeling grandfather which lies at the heart of the novel, and developments there take an unexpected turn when the appearance of an unforeseen rival claimant to the title brings the book to a dramatic climax. First published in 1886, the story soon became a huge success throughout Europe and America, and achieved unjust notoriety when its hero's costume of black velvet with lace collar created a fashion for Little Lord Fauntleroy suits which were foisted upon reluctant children. Despite this reaction, however, the warmth and humour of Frances Hodgson Burnett's story have ensured its survival as a children's classic and an enduring phenomenon of popular culture. The text is that of the first English edition with significant variations from the first serialization of the story and the first American edition recorded in the notes.
By the author of The Secret Garden, the 1886 story of a curly-haired American boy who suddenly discovers he is the grandson of an English earl.
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born and grew up in Manchester, but her father died when she was three and in 1865 she emigrated with her mother to Knoxville, Tennessee, where her uncle had already opened a grocery store. Five years later her mother died and - like many other women of her time - she began writing short stories for popular magazines to support her family. Her first novel, That Lass o' Lowrie's (1877), brought her instant fame on both sides of the Atlantic.In 1873 she had married Swan Burnett, a physician, and it was for the two sons of the marriage that she wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy, which was first serialized in the children's monthly magazine St. Nicholas. When published in book form in October 1886, it went immediately on to the bestseller lists alongside Tolstoy's War and Peace and Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines . Mrs. Burnett wrote many other novels, for both children and adults, as well as plays and short stories, but she is best remembered for The Secret Garden (1911) and A Little Princess (1905).Her marriage to Dr. Burnett ended in divorce in 1898 and two years later she remarried - but, again, the marriage ended, this time in separation. She became an American citizen in 1905, though she travelled frequently to Europe. She died at her home on Long Island a few weeks before her seventy-fifth birthday.
Target age: 8 to 12
Everyman's Library
Pub Date: October 10, 1995
0.83" H x 8.28" L x 6.38" W
256 pages
Hardcover