88 pages 2 hours read

Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1905

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Important Quotes

Quotation Mark Icon

“It was respectable and well furnished, but everything in it was ugly; and the very armchairs seemed to have hard bones in them.”


(Chapter 1, Page 7)

When Sara Crewe arrives at the Seminary for Young Ladies, she thinks that the house resembles the schoolmistress, Miss Minchin. Frances Hodgson Burnett personifies the house and its furnishings with her word choices—the armchairs appeared to have “hard bones” in them and “the red cheeks of the moon face on the tall clock . . . had a severe varnished look” (7). With the adjectives “hard,” “respectable,” and “ugly,” Burnett foreshadows Miss Minchin’s character: externally respectable but internally unkind.

Quotation Mark Icon

“A flush had risen to her face and there was an expression in her green-gray eyes as if she had just recognized some one she was intimate with and fond of.”


(Chapter 1, Page 12)

Burnett describes the moment that Sara finds her ideal doll: Sara’s expression is that of someone who just recognized a friend. Sara attempts to deal with the upcoming separation from her beloved papa by imagining a doll named Emily who will serve as her intimate friend. The episode shows The Power of the Imagination as Sara’s strong imagination gives her the feeling that she knows the doll the moment she sees her in the shop window.

Quotation Mark Icon

“‘No,’ she answered. ‘I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.’”


(Chapter 1, Page 14)

Sara’s mother died when she was born; consequently, Sara has a very close relationship with her father. Sara is also an avid reader. When Sara’s papa is about to part with her and return to