“Little Lord Fauntleroy”, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Little Lord Fauntleroy. Penguin, 1995. Print.

Since I was given a copy of The Secret Garden at the correct age, I am of course a fan of Burnett’s.  However, scanning her other titles, I don’t recognize any that I read when I was young.  I had this on my bookshelf and picked it up recently when I needed something small to carry with me, and I’m not entirely sure I ever read it before.

It’s a typical Burnett story, with a hero so improbably good that it’s difficult to believe such a boy could ever exist.  Although it’s somewhat formulaic, even as an adult I found it an amusing, quick read, and even when things happened as I expected, I found it didn’t annoy me.

I’m not sure who I would recommend this to – I’m not sure if Burnett was intentionally writing for children, or whether these books would have been considered suitable for adults in her time.  The reading level comes in at 8.4, although I’m not sure I would recommend it to the Grade 8 boy who lives here.  I can’t imagine he would find it interesting.

I know that I have an old copy of Burnett’s The Shuttle, and a rare first edition of Captain January, which has the distinction of having been made into a Shirley Temple movie.