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Burnett and her husband divorced in Even though Burnett's married life was not without flaw, she found she could still maintain the ideal through her fiction. She often stated, "The one perfect thing in my life was the childhood of my boys," and with the writing of Little Lord Fauntleroy, Burnett immortalized her statement. Basing the main character on her son Vivian, Burnett wrote a story about a disinherited American boy who wins back his noble title and fortune without corrupting his own innocence or debasing aristocratic values.
The tale was published first as a serial in St. Nicholas, a magazine for children, in , then as a book in The volume was a phenomenal success.
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Little Lord Fauntleroy became a best-seller, was translated into more than a dozen languages, and was produced for the stage in England and France. In addition, a variety of products were created based on the book, including toys, playing cards , writing paper, chocolate, and of course the dark velvet suits with lace collars that characterized Little Lord Fauntleroy in the book's illustrations.
Much later, in , Hollywood actress Mary Pickford starred in the first film version. Because of the success of Little Lord Fauntleroy, Burnett and her sons were soon enjoying an expensive, international life-style, including trips to such places as London, Rome, and the French Riviera. The volume also changed the course of Burnett's writing career.
From until , she wrote mainly for children. She also continued to write for the theater, although her plays were not as popular as her novels.
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Phyllis Bixler Koppes noted in American Women Writers that Burnett's "life and writing were characterized by tensions between the serious artist and the popular writer, the independent woman and the self-sacrificing wife and mother. Some claimed that she had given up serious writing in return for artificial, crowd-pleasing manuscripts that sold well.
Other reviewers claimed she had a superficial personality. Details of her life were also critiqued, including her divorce and, later, her unconventional second marriage to her business and stage manager, Stephen Townesend, who was ten years her junior. When Burnett and Townesend separated permanently in , just two years after their nuptials, the reviewers again focused on Burnett's personal life.
In more recent times, a contributor to A Reader's Guide to Twentieth-Century Authors referred to Burnett as "the image of the popular Victorian lady novelist," who wore wigs, dressed in frilly clothing, and went by the nickname "Fluffy. Not all critics were so harsh, and many praised Burnett's writing, especially her juvenile fiction.
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A contributor to the New York Times commented, "Many authors can write delightful books for children; a few can write entertaining books about children for adults; but it is only the exceptional author who can write a book about children with sufficient skill, charm, simplicity, and significance to make it acceptable to both young and old.
Burnett is one of the few thus gifted…. Burnett gives her fresh and living art to writing stories for children. Her attention to detail, her gifts as a storyteller, and her interest in children all stand her in good stead.
Burnett responded to the critics' demands for more serious writing by publishing A Lady of Quality in The heroine of the novel is a strong-willed girl raised as a boy, who later accidentally kills her former boyfriend, hides his body, and lives happily without punishment or regrets. To many reviewers, this book was a sign that Burnett was no longer interested in being taken seriously.
Her popularity with the reading public, however, continued to grow. Though her family emigrated from England largely for economic reasons, they struggled financially, and later Hodgson would engage with themes of childhood poverty and deprivation in her novels.
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She married Swan Burnett in , while her writing career was in its early days. During this period she published stories in such popular publications as Godey's Ladies Book and Scribner's Monthly. Following this first novel, Burnett wrote several more novels including Haworth's and A Fair Barbarian, as well as a play, Esmerelda, in The young family lived in Paris where her two sons were born.
After that they moved back to America, to Washington, were she started writing novels that the critics adored. Soon afterwards her oldest son Lionel suffer from tuberculosis. His death left a great mark on her and she had problems with depression for a long time.
Frances hodgson burnett: Frances Hodgson Burnett (born Nov. 24, , Manchester, Eng.—died Oct. 29, , Plandome, N.Y., U.S.) was an American playwright and author who wrote the popular novel Little Lord Fauntleroy. Frances Hodgson grew up in increasingly straitened circumstances after the death of her father in
Contact Us Privacy Policy Sitemap. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Frances Hodgson Burnett. In Hodgson had a story published in Godey's Lady's Book. Her main writing talent was combining realistic detail of working-class life with a romantic plot. She married Dr.