A Little Princess

Sara Crewe arrives at a London boarding school rich, indulged and clever; her father dies bankrupt, and the same headmistress who fawned on her sends her to the attic to work for her keep. Burnett had written the story as a novella in 1888, then rebuilt it as a play, then wrote this longer version from the play — which is why every scene is staged so exactly. Sara's refusal to stop behaving like a princess is not pride; it is the only thing she is left holding. Fifty-five plates of Victorian childhood by painters including James Tissot and Mary Cassatt, from farewells to children on a beach, mirror Sara's own story of loss and endurance.