Audiobook · read by volunteers
Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin’s Boarding School
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924)
Read by Patricia Oakley · 7 chapters · 1 h 55
About the book
Sara Crewe arrives at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies as a rich, bright and much-admired pupil. She has fine clothes, a doll of her own and a head full of stories. Then her fortunes turn, and the girl who once sat at the head of the school finds herself cold, hungry and ordered about by the people who used to flatter her. How does a child keep her dignity when everything is taken from her? Frances Hodgson Burnett’s tale shows how imagination, kindness and quiet pride can carry someone through hard times. First published as a magazine story in 1888, it is the original version of the novel later known as A Little Princess. A moving, absorbing listen of under two hours for young and old.
Introduction
Frances Hodgson Burnett, who lived from 1849 to 1924, is remembered for several classic stories for young readers. The tale told in her novel A Little Princess was first written as a serialised novella, Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s, and published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1888. The text recorded here is that original shorter version, in seven chapters.
It tells the story of Sara Crewe, an intelligent, wealthy young girl at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies. Her fortunes change when her father dies, and she goes from being a show pupil and parlour boarder to a drudge in the attic of the school, left to work for her keep. The interest of the story does not lie in surprises so much as in character: Sara’s inventiveness, her friendships with the people around her and her way of treating even the unkindest people with a sort of princess-like courtesy.
Burnett later expanded the tale into a full-length novel, but many readers still prefer the compactness of the first version, which moves straight to its subject and keeps its focus on Sara. The recording lasts about two hours and is well suited to being heard over a couple of evenings.
The reading was made by LibriVox volunteers. It is a story that has been loved by generations of children and remains a fine choice for family listening, for fans of Victorian school stories and for anyone curious about how a favourite novel began.
Public domain
Frances Hodgson Burnett died in 1924: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text