Diary of a Nobody and Little Lord Fauntleroy

[osprey_archer]

On another classic books kick. Read George and Weedon Grossmith's Diary of a Nobody, which is the fictional diary of a slightly pompous London clerk with an affinity for puns in late Victorian England.

It's a fascinating record of the era, and I daresay if I were a late Victorian I would find it terribly funny, but reading it from this remove it's hard to feel the humor. It depends, I think, on having met people just like this, and while there are doubtless still pompous, pun-loving, socially aspiring people, their traits don't manifest the same way as they would have back then so there isn't the shock of recognition and accompanying hilarity.

Also reading Little Lord Fauntleroy, which is by Frances Hodgson Burnett who also wrote The Secret Garden (which is everyone else's favorite) and A Little Princess (which is mine, but other people think Sara Crewe is too awesomely awesome, or something, who knows).

The titular Little Lord Fauntleroy, the bright, charming, good-looking, athletic eight-year-old Cedric, makes Sara Crewe look like a seething cauldron of faults. She at least has a temper; I believe Cedric descended fully formed from heaven. But doubtless the suffering he'll soon experience before melting the heart of his selfish grandfather will illumine new sides of his character.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

A Little Princess is my favorite too--I liked it way better than A Secret Garden (which I did like, but just not nearly as much).

Sara Crewe was *awesome* and I wanted to be just like her and tried hard to be.

I did read Little Lord Fauntleroy: I remember reporting it as a book I'd read in third grade and having the teacher exclaim, "Little Lord Fauntleroy?!" (Ah, Mrs. Ray. I suspect I was a trial for you in some ways.) Now, though, all I can remember about it are the pictures.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! I wanted to be JUST LIKE Sara Crewe. (Except it always bothered me that her name had no H. I feel the same way about it as Anne without an E.)

Heeheehee, I can just hear your teacher saying that. But surely she was PLEASED to have a child interested in classic literature! If one of my students were reading Little Lord Fauntleroy -

- (well, if one of my students read Little Lord Fauntleroy I would wonder how they came to be in remedial reading) -

- but aside from that, I would be overjoyed.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I liked A Little Princess best, too! I thought Sara was wonderful, but not at all perfect - anyone who thinks she is has only seen the movie versions. I remember reading LLF and being pleasantly surprised, but I've never reread it.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! She's wonderful, but she's got plenty of faults: she has a temper and she's very proud, sometimes to the point of stupid stubbornness - like how Sara feels about Ermengarde right after she (Sara) loses her fortune.