Frances Hodgson Burnett’s **Little Lord Fauntleroy **was one of the great literary blockbusters of 19th century America. It sold an enormous number of copies up through the eary years of the 20th century. But nobody reads it now. Its purple prose, saccharin sweetness, and old-time sensibilities are too much over-the-top for contemporary readers. However, I just finished reading it! And I got to thinking that I may be the only SDMBer who has read it. So I have two questions. Has anyone else ever read Little Lord Fauntleroy? Is there any other book which you think you may be the only SDMBer to have read?
Yes, I like it. It’s very sweet.
Read it!
I haven’t read Little Lord Fauntleroy, but I have read probably a near contemporary book, Ivanhoe. I setted down to read it thinking it would be XIXth Century Literature with a capital “L,” and was surprised just how much of a schlocky romance novel it turned out to be.
Yes, and A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. However, now that I’m looking at her oeuvre, I see how much of hers I haven’t read. Where can one procure A Fair Barbarian? The Fortunes of Philippa Fairfax? The Little Hunchback Zia? That is, without paying premium prices at antiquarian bookshops.
I am sure there are many, many that I am the only SMDBer to have read, but that isn’t fair, because I review books. I’m trying to think of obscure books I’ve read of my own accord.
I had to read Ivanhoe when I was in high school more than 50 years ago. It is one of the books on my list of books I want to re-read to see what I think of it now.
I’ve not only read it, I’ve read it aloud to one of my kids (who liked it).
Here’s one nobody’s read: Canoe Boys and Camp Fires. A family favorite, starring Ned, who was fearless in water.
As to books no one else has read, I don’t know how many Dopers have read the Mahabharat and the Ramayan. There may be a couple, I don’t know. But you didn’t specify Western classics.
Yep, I’ve read it–back in college. And my 10yo daughter has too. IMO it’s not really as saccharine as its reputation claims, but that whole velvet suit/lace collar thing was a criminal thing to do to unhappy little boys everywhere.
Is that one of those old series from the 20’s? We have “The Outdoor Girls at a Winter Camp,” which may be a similar sort of thing.
I love A Little Princess and The Secret Garden - is it similar, or is distastefully saccharin? (I definitely prefer The Secret Garden because it’s much less sappy, and I always forget about the sappy second half. I like the bitchy little girl in the scary Gothic house tramping around the moors all by herself much better.)
I read RK Narayan’s retelling of the Ramayana, in university.
I’ve read most of The Dream of the Red Chamber (translated)
Yes, I have! And Fauntleroy is actually a pretty cool kid, a red-blooded American who goes over and shakes up the stifling English town he and his widowed mother are sent to. I was surprised at how less saccharine it was than I thought it would be.
The kid is a bit of a Mary Sue at times, and it can be overly sweet, but it’s a good read and it’s not exactly long. I’d compare it more to Little Princess but it doesn’t have the dark times our little Sara Crewe did.
I’ve read it. It was very saccharine compared to Secret Garden and Little Princess; I can’t say that I ever want to read it again.
Another book by Burnett, A Lady Of Quality, is the bravest, most exciting, most shocking Victorian novel I’ve ever read. It was exhilarating to read something so against 19th century literary conventions. I highly recommend it and don’t understand why it isn’t more popular, especially in university literature programs. One could say SO much about it.
Why are we throwing out names of random unrelated books we’ve read?
When I was in middle school, around sixth or seventh grade, the art teacher read it to us.
Because the OP asked us to.
Grew up reading it and the other FHB children’s classics, and still occasionally reread all of them. I love them.
Yeah, and when it turns into, “Look! We can cure diseases by thinking good, happy, pure thoughts,” is when I really turn off and tune out. Agree that the moors were awesome, though. And the whole idea of having a secretly ill hidden cousin–frightfully romantic. 
Count me in as another who has read it. It’s my least favorite of the three (Secret Garden, A Little Princess), but still a fun, relaxing, sweet book.