“Once on a dark winter’s day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.”

From Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess.

Since her mother died, seven-year-old Sara has grown up in India while her father served as a captain in the British Army. In the standard practice of many British parents, Sara’s father takes her to England to enroll her in a boarding school, enabling her to gain a proper education and her father to return to work undistracted. When her father takes Sara to Miss Minchin’s London school, he pays a large amount of money above the tuition so that Sara can get special treatment, lodging, and even a maid. The kind Sara makes friends with the unpopular Ermengarde, Lottie, and Becky. At her eleventh birthday, Miss Minchin learns that Sara’s father has died, penniless. Left with a large debt, Minchin sells almost all of Sara’s possessions, moves her to the attic, and forces her to work to repay her debt. Sara is subjected to years of abuse and neglect, with only her closest friends and vivid imagination for support. Unbeknownst to Sara, the troubled man living next door holds the key to Sara’s freedom, but the only way that the two can connect is through the girl’s unending kindness.

This classic story has been reprinted and adapted into film many times, but each retelling creates an unforgettable story for audiences. Burnett’s story is built in a very historical setting and in a style that might shock readers used to happy, tidy stories, but this only adds to the story’s genuineness. A Little Princess is an unforgettable story that highlights the strength of the human spirit and the magic that can be found in the worst of situations.