At age 29 I have lost count of the number of times I have read this book. A charming story for young girls and a delicious, nostalgic 'comfort read' for much older girls, this is a classic which seems unlikely to fade.
One thing about this book intrigues me - some of the characters do not seem to age. At the beginning of the story, Sara is seven years old and by the end she is eleven or twelve. We are introduced to Lottie (aged four) and Becky (aged fourteen) quite early in the story. By the end, we can assume Lottie is now eight, and Becky eighteen. Yet Lottie behaves and speaks throughout the book as if she were still the four-year-old she started the book as, even though by the end she is older than Sara was at the start. Becky, too, is still being described as a little girl in the later parts of the book, despite the fact that, even if she is 'stunted' (as Mariette the French maid describes her), she is, at eighteen, a young woman.
If we look at the theme of the story, this becomes less inconsistent. The novel is about preserving the status quo. By the end of the story, Sara has regained her place in society (as has Becky, who from being Sara's equal is once again demoted to attendant). There has been upheaval and confusion, but at the end things are returned to their proper places. For insight, we can look at the rapidly changing pace of life when the book was being written, or we could also look inward at the author's own life. Frances Hodgson Burnett began writing to help her cope with the deaths of her young sons. Could it be that by writing a novel in which things and people do not change she was remembering her own loved ones, who also would never grow any older? Was she reassuring herself that things could return to normal after extreme upheaval, even loss and death? Who can tell?
At any rate, although A Little Princess is a light and pleasant children's book, it is also a classic in that it will stand up to deeper readings.
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