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emma_in_dreamThis novel was incredibly popular – it basically made Frances Hodgson Burnett’s fortune. And yet it is so mediocre. I get the attraction of a rags to riches story, in which the little boy in downtown New York turns out to really be the enormously wealthy heir to an earl.
What I find irritating is that Cedric is so resolutely and invariably good. Always plucky and cheery, always obedient and prone to ‘cute’ wise sayings. He just makes me want to whack him on the head. Which is a feeling which must have been widespread among young boys following the popularisation of velvet ‘Fauntleroy’ suits and curling long hairdos for boys after the publication of this novel. Ditto the popularisation of the name Cedric.
Does this kid look happy?
I find it interesting that only a few years later Ethel Turner took *Little Lord Fauntleroy* off in *The Little Larrikin* (1896). There is one scene in particular, where the sweet, curly headed boy coaxes the governess into giving them a treat by saying that such a beautiful lady must also be good and kind. In *Little Lord Fauntleroy*, Cedric would mean it. And the governess would become, if not beautiful, then at least good and kind. In *The Little Larrikin* he says it entirely cynically, in order to get what he wants.
When I consider that Hodgson Burnett also wrote such gems as *The Lost Prince*, *The Little Princess* and *The Secret Garden*, I am amazed that this was her first success. Because it is a stinker.
What I find irritating is that Cedric is so resolutely and invariably good. Always plucky and cheery, always obedient and prone to ‘cute’ wise sayings. He just makes me want to whack him on the head. Which is a feeling which must have been widespread among young boys following the popularisation of velvet ‘Fauntleroy’ suits and curling long hairdos for boys after the publication of this novel. Ditto the popularisation of the name Cedric.
Does this kid look happy?
I find it interesting that only a few years later Ethel Turner took *Little Lord Fauntleroy* off in *The Little Larrikin* (1896). There is one scene in particular, where the sweet, curly headed boy coaxes the governess into giving them a treat by saying that such a beautiful lady must also be good and kind. In *Little Lord Fauntleroy*, Cedric would mean it. And the governess would become, if not beautiful, then at least good and kind. In *The Little Larrikin* he says it entirely cynically, in order to get what he wants.
When I consider that Hodgson Burnett also wrote such gems as *The Lost Prince*, *The Little Princess* and *The Secret Garden*, I am amazed that this was her first success. Because it is a stinker.
