books

A Little Princess: Book cover

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Refuse to allow the hardships of life to stop you from the joys it holds. In this charming story, through the character of the heroine, we find grace, kindness and generosity in the face of ugliness and cruelty.

With simplicity and succinct clarity Burnett wrote, drawing the reader, involving them emotionally to her characters.

Our heroine, Sara is a lovely girl of seven with dark hair and green grey eyes. At first we meet a pampered Sara, loved by her dear father who lavishes on his daughter all he could afford. In the hands of a school mistress, he places Sara, trusting the woman to care for his treasured daughter. The child demonstrates generosity of spirit and befriends those who have no one, making friends of the less fortunate and less popular.

Far away, across many miles, he dies in India, leaving his daughter orphaned and poor.

Life takes a sharp downward turn for the delightful child who uses her imagination to overcome the meanness of her caregiver.

Through several situations during her ill use, she demonstrates once again her kindness and generosity to those in even lower positions than her own.

Using her imagination and mind, Sara keeps her flagging spirits and those around her elated as best she could. Mistreated she still finds her imagination salvation to her situation.

The story has a happy ending and I found myself unable to stop from finishing the book in one sitting. It is easy to read or wonderful to follow. A charming fairy tale even adults can enjoy.

Sonia Rumzi

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top

“But a thought that has often occurred to me in selling rare editions may interest you. The customer’s willingness to part with his money is usually in inverse ration to the permanent benefit he expects to derive from what he purchases….. Folks will pay a darned sight more to be amused than to be exalted. Look at the way a man shells out five bones fo a couple of theater seats, or a spends a couple of dollars o a week on cigars without thinking of it. Yet two dollars or five dollars for a book costs him positive anguish.

“The mistake you fellows in the retail trade have made is trying to persuade your customers that books are necessities. Tell them they’re luxuries. That’ll get them! People have to work so hard in this life they’re shy of necessities. A man will go on wearing a suit until it’s threadbare, much sooner than smoke a threadbare cigar.”

The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley (1919)