Just a brief note to endorse what generations of readers already know: Little Lord Fauntleroy is a superb children's novel!
Having found the same to be true of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden - I moved on to tackle FHB's earlier, and most famous, story - but I must admit that I had to force myself. I needed to take Fauntleroy on trust - because I could not really believe that it would be much good, nor that I personally would like it...
My mind was too full of images of nauseating, cloying, simpering boys with long blond hair in velvet suits with lace collars (some depictions of LLF even cast a pretty girl in the lead role). But eventually I got myself to tackle it - and was quickly swept away by enjoyment and appreciation.
The USP (Unique Selling Point) of Fauntleroy is that he is close to being a perfect child - beautiful, tough, clever, kind, stoical, generous, athletic, brave - and everybody loves him (including other children)...
Now, saying this is one thing, but to make such a good child firstly convincing, then interesting (let alone likeable to the reader - since we are usually most inclined to resent perfection), is quite an ask: a tall order. Many have tried, and failed... But FHB does it!
The way she achieves this, is to structure the book as (mostly) a series of interactions between Fauntleroy and a sequence of contrasting people, in a variety of situations: his mother, the local grocer, a shoe-shine boy, other kids playing a game, a lawyer, sailors on board ship, the Earl his grandfather, a 'society' debutante beauty surrounded by her admirers etc.
Thus she does not just tell, but shows us the effect that a truly good child could have on the people he met. These dyadic interactions also lead to much humour of the 'talking at cross-purposes' kind - generally because Fauntleroy is immediately liked by people, and naturally assumes the best of them; so they do not want to disillusion him or let him down. Most end-up becoming better people themselves in response to F.
So, in multiple ways - small and larger - we find Fauntleroy making the world a better place, and in a way that is very believable - given the premise that he is indeed, the kind of 'perfect' child that he is depicted.
Altogether, Little Lord Fauntleroy is an unique, original, enjoyable and extremely effective novel; of the first rank in its genre. So, don't be put-off!
