What Would Nicola Read?

[owl]

Has anyone ever read a book because Nicola (or Lawrie or Ginty) did first? For me it was Ramage and Brat Farrar.

It also happened the other way around in my case; I was thrilled to find that Nicola in Autumn Term was reading The Flight of the Heron, as the only other person I'd found who'd done so was my mother.

Comments

Re: Sara Crewe

[elizahonig.livejournal.com]

I actually own a copy of *Sara Crewe* and can tell you from the copyright page that it was written in 1888 and was still in print at least until 1918 (my edition) even though *A Little Princess* was first published in 1905. The latter is indeed a very thorough revision of the former. In *Sara Crewe* the heroine is a spoiled and unpleasant girl who gradually learns from her misfortunes, very unlike the introspective and semi-saintly heroine of the later version.

*Little Princess* has, I'm certain, never gone out of print in the USA. I'd guess that it's always been one of the great best-selling early children's books, right next to (Canadian) *Anne of Green Gables,* also about a plucky orphan. But perhaps that's because Burnett, although one somehow thinks of her as English, was actually an American writer. Wiki readers will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think she lived for a time in England and set her books there, but in fact she views England with the romanticizing eye of a foreigner. Sorry--I teach this stuff (as a hobby) so it's on my mind.

It certainly makes sense that if Nicola saw a copy of the old version at Oxfam it wouldn't ring bells for anybody. Not many people would have heard of the book under that title.