A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett

December 23, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Project Gutenberg, 2012. Originally published 1896. 256 pgs. Free download. In 1690, the wife of Sir Jeoffry, Daphne, dies soon after giving birth to her ninth child. Her husband is disappointed with the birth of a ninth daughter and refuses contact with the baby, banishing Clorinda to the other side of the castle with her only living siblings, Anne and Barbara. Blessed with better health than either of her sisters, Clorinda grows up to be an […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Classics, Classics Club, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett

December 20, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Project Gutenberg, 2012. Originally published 1906. 522 pgs. Free download. The book’s title refers to ships shuttling back and forth over the Atlantic, carrying wealthy Americans heiresses to England in search of titled husbands and impoverish, titled Englishmen in search of wealthy women. (Think Cora Crawley from “Downton Abbey” and her marriage to Lord Grantham.) According to Persephone Books, it would later be estimated that more than five hundred American women married titled foreigners and some […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Classics, Classics Club, Europe, Feminism, Fiction, New York, North America, Persephone Books, United States • Tags: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett

April 9, 2015 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Donada Peters. Tantor Media, 2008. Originally published 1877. 5 hours, 19 minutes. Library copy. According to Peters’ introduction to the text, the lace collared suit worn by young Lord Fauntleroy in this children’s novel was so well-described by Burnett and then drawn in Reginald Birch’s accompanying pen and ink illustrations that the “Fauntleroy suit” became the height of fashion for young boys in the era. This probably had less to do with Burnett’s description of […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Audiobook, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Juvenile, United Kingdom • Tags: Donada Peters, Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett

September 3, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Persephone, 2008. Originally published 1901. 308 pgs. Library copy. Emily Fox-Seton is, unfortunately, an impoverished young women with limited opportunities and largely depends upon the kindness of friends to carve out an existence in the world. But she is well liked by friends and acquaintances, who appreciate her good nature by largely taking advantage of her, and manages to land an invitation to Lady Maria Bayne’s house party at Mallowe Court where she meets a the Marquis, […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Persephone Books, United Kingdom • Tags: Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

January 15, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — print. Scholastic, 1987. Originally published 1911. 298 pgs. Purchased. After the death of parents, ten-year-old Mary Lennox is sent from India to live with a distant relative at Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire Moors. Left alone to her own devices, Mary stumbles across a secret garden that has also been left to its own devices. But it’s not the garden that holds all the secrets, but rather the house that is now Mary’s home because at night she […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Classics, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

January 21, 2010 by Christina

Once upon a time, I was obsessed with the 1995 film version of “A Little Princess.” So obsessed that I watched it over and over again during the eleven-hour drive from Dallas to St. Louis to the point that my father, who has never seen the movie, can recite lines from the film verbatim. It was until several years later that I knew my beloved movie was actually a beloved children’s classic originally published in 1904. I picked up a […]

Categories: 2010 Reads, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Juvenile, United Kingdom • Tags: Frances Hodgson Burnett