In one of history’s best-beloved novels for children, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Frances Hodgson Burnett emphasizes the importance of love over material wealth. Before the birth of the little lord, Cedric Errol, his aristocratic father, Captain Cedric, marries beneath himself, angering his father, the Earl of Dorincourt. He has little hope of inheriting the family fortune, as his two elder brothers stand to receive the title and property first. When Cedric’s wife proposes that they move to America, the lord becomes enraged and refuses to acknowledge his daughter-in-law. The captain sells his commission, using the funds to depart England. All that action is revealed through exposition, taking place before the plot begins, soon after Cedric’s death.

Little Cedric, a favorite in his New York neighborhood, has notable blond curls and blue eyes, along with a beautiful disposition. He has inherited his parents’ “always loving and considerate and tender” ways in a household where he never “heard an unkind or uncourteous word spoken.” The boy is especially close to Mr. Hobbs, the grocer, and Dick, a bootblack. Following a discussion with Mr. Hobbs in which he says some “very severe things” about aristocrats, including that one day “those they’ve trod on” will “rise and blow ’em up sky-high,” a representative of the earl visits Mrs. Errol. He informs her that both of Cedric’s uncles have died, and the boy has inherited the title. When Cedric reluctantly informs Mr. Hobbs of his new title, fearing a violent reaction, Mr. Hobbs recognizes that the boy remains “just a handsome, cheerful, brave little fellow in a blue suit and red neck-ribbon,” foreshadowing what will follow.

Cedric moves to England to live with his grandfather, “John Arthur Molyneux Errol, Earl of Dorincourt,” as he explains to Hobbs. The irascible old man persists in his refusal to receive Mrs. Errol, who lives nearby, but he comes to love Cedric. Cedric’s strong character allows him to remain untouched by the class-consciousness and snobbery of others of his group, as predicted by Hobbs’s earlier impression. His influence is so strong that he convinces his grandfather to end abuses of his own tenants and to come to respect the poor inhabitants of the land around his estate.

Conflict develops, however, when another woman appears, claiming to be the true Mrs. Errol, with a son she insists was fathered by Cedric’s Uncle Bevis and is the heir to the earl’s title and fortune. Cedric writes to Mr. Hobbs explaining the situation in a breathless line: “It is all a mistake and I am not a lord and I shall not have to be an earl.” Burnett retains the light tone of the story in the boy’s signature, “Cedric Errol (Not Lord Fauntleroy).”

Their sense of justice wounded, Hobbs and Dick join forces to prove the woman an impostor. In a touching scene, the earl tells Cedric, “You’ll be my boy as long as I live; and, by George, sometimes I feel as if you were the only boy I ever had.” He mends his own break with Mrs. Errol and declares Cedric will always be cared for. As the adversity brings those three closer, in America, Dick recognizes a picture of the interloper as a New York commoner. He and Hobbs engage an attorney, and they reveal her true identity as Minna Tipton. They travel to England along with Ben, father to the fake Little Lord, whose real name is Tom Tipton. Ben takes the boy home with him, and Cedric and Mrs. Errol move in with the earl. The earl graciously invests in a California cattle ranch and hires Ben to manage it, in order to support the boy “who might have turned out to be Lord Fauntleroy,” exercising the grace he learned from his grandson. Dick and Hobbs linger in England, enjoying a grand celebration with Cedric and his family, particularly the earl, who is the happiest of the group. Burnett tempers her statement of his happiness with the realistic revelation that the earl “had not, indeed, suddenly become as good as Fauntleroy thought him; but, at least, he had begun to love something.” That clear-headed view of her characters prevents the novel’s dissolving into a wholly sentimental presentation.

The book remains a classic, cherished more for its representation of a certain innocence of an era than as a realistic everyday story often read in the classroom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bixler, Phyllis. Frances Hodgson Burnett. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
Carpenter, Angelica Shirley. Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1990.

Categories: British Literature, Children's Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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