"Sara Crewe" Frances Hodgson Burnett

I have been gathering or collecting and then rereading the books that I used to have as a child.  "Sara Crewe" was a Scholastic Books purchase I made while at Holy Rosary School, and it is well worn and close to falling apart.  I wonder where I got the money to buy books at school.  This one only cost 35 cents, but that would have still been hard to come by when I was growing up.  But we must have gotten the money somewhere, because we had a good-sized collection of Scholastic Books.

Burnett also write "The Secret Garden" and "Little Lord Fauntloroy," neither of which I have read.  While the latter is a rags-to-riches story, "Sara" is more a riches-to-rags-to-riches story.  Subtitled "What happened at Miss Minchin's," the book tells of the time while Sara was at Miss Minchin's boarding school.  She started out as one of Miss Minchin's favorites because of Sara's wealth, and she had expensive clothes and toys.  Unfortunately, she was orphaned when her father died, and Miss Minchin kept Sara on as a servant rather than student.  She worked hard, studied hard and was lonely.  She lived in a cold attic and dreamed of being rescued by some rich patron.

I could connect with Sara because, even though my life was not as hard as hers, as a child I dreamt of having the money to buy nice clothes and toys and to be able to travel.  I also liked Sara because she was a good person. Instead of turning bitter, she continued to dream of a better life, and she shared what she had with others less fortunate.  It is her generosity that gets her noticed outside of Miss Minchin's school and finally helps Sara recover the family fortune.

Besides the nostalgia of revisiting my youth, I was prompted to reread "Sara" because I saw Burnett mentioned as a woman author who used writing as a means of income in the 19th Century.  Rereading this story as an adult, I am still charmed by it even though it sounds a little contrived now, but it is reminiscent of other stories from my childhood, like "The Count of Monte Cristo," where fortunes are suddenly changed, or the "Madeline" books set in a boarding school.   I am reading Gilbert and Gubar's "Madwoman in the Attic," and can see how the images of 19th Century literature are echoed in this children's story.