Showing Little Lord Fauntleroy/A Little Princess/The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

THE ESSENTIAL WORKS OF FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT includes four classic young reader novels by beloved British author Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924): THE SECRET GARDEN, THE LITTLE PRINCESS, LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY, and THE LOST PRINCE.

THE SECRET GARDEN tells the story of Mary Lennox, a spoiled, contrary orphan, who is sent to live in her uncle's manor in Yorkshire. She is left to herself by her uncle Mr. Craven, who travels most of the time, trying to escape from memories of his wife. The only person who has any time for Mary is the chambermaid Martha. It is Martha who tells Mary about the walled garden, Mrs. Craven's favorite garden, which nobody has seen the inside of since she her death; Mr. Craven locked it and buried the key.

In A LITTLE PRINCESS, Sara Crewe, a pupil at Miss Minchin's London school, is left in poverty when her father dies, but is later rescued by a mysterious benefactor.

In LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY, a young American boy named Cedric is told that he is the sole heir to a British earldom, and so leaves New York to take up residence in his ancestral castle, where, after some initial resistance, he is joined by his middle-class mother, ''Dearest'', the widow of the late heir. His grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, intends to teach the boy to become an aristocrat, but Cedric inadvertently teaches his grandfather compassion and social justice, while the artless simplicity and motherly love of Dearest warms his heart.

THE LOST PRINCE is a tale with the glamor of medieval romance, which centers about the mystery that five hundred years before Marco's day, the young prince of the kingdom of Samavia had walked away over the mountains, singing, and had never been heard from. And Marco, a lad of twelve, pledged to the future service of Samavia, lives an unpretentious, wandering life, trained in all worthy things by his father, til his journey as Bearer of the Sign is ended, and his appointed time has come.