Little Lord Fauntleroy

Summary

Cedric Errol is a curly-haired American boy of seven, living with his widowed mother in a modest side street of New York. He calls her Dearest, as his father did, and his best friends are Mr. Hobbs, the corner grocer who rails against earls as grasping tyrants, and Dick Tipton, a bootblack. One summer day Mr. Havisham, an English lawyer, arrives with astonishing news. Cedric's father, Captain Errol, was the youngest son of the Earl of Dorincourt, who cast him off for marrying an American. Both of the Captain's elder brothers, Bevis and Maurice, have now died, and Cedric is Lord Fauntleroy, heir to the earldom. The Earl, a gouty, bad-tempered old man of seventy who is hated by his tenants, sends for the boy but refuses to receive his mother; she is to live apart at Court Lodge near the castle. Mrs. Errol accepts for her son's sake and does not tell Cedric that his grandfather despises her. Before leaving, Cedric uses money the Earl has authorized to pay Bridget's rent while her husband Michael recovers from rheumatic fever, to buy out Dick's quarrelsome partner Jake, and to help an old apple-woman. At Dorincourt Cedric walks up to the Earl and his great dog Dougal without a trace of fear, thanks him for his kindness to Bridget and Dick, and takes it for granted that his grandfather is a good and generous man. Charmed in spite of himself, the Earl lets the boy write a letter forgiving the poor farmer Higgins his rent, gives him a pony, and, when Cedric describes the fever-ridden cottages of Earl's Court, orders them pulled down and rebuilt. The tenants begin to love the little lord and his mother, and the Earl finds himself growing fond of a child for the first time in his life. Then a woman named Minna appears, claiming to be the widow of Bevis and the mother of the true heir. The Earl, in agony at losing Cedric, goes to Court Lodge, apologizes to Mrs. Errol, and finds comfort in her company. In New York Dick sees Minna's picture in a newspaper and recognizes her as the wife of his own brother Ben. Dick, Ben and Mr. Hobbs cross to England, confront Minna at the Dorincourt Arms, and expose the fraud; Ben takes back his son Tom. The Earl brings Mrs. Errol to live at the castle, Cedric's eighth birthday is celebrated with a great party for the tenantry, and Mr. Hobbs sells his New York store to open a shop in the village. Burnett's story ran in St. Nicholas Magazine from November 1885 to October 1886 and was published as a book by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1886 with Reginald Birch's illustrations, whose velvet suit and lace collar set a fashion in boys' clothing.

Top Lessons

• Trust that calls out goodness

  Cedric believes from the first evening that his grandfather is kind, and thanks him for gifts the Earl gave only to buy the boy's loyalty. Because the child expects goodness, the old man begins, a little at a time, to supply it: Higgins is spared, crutches are made for Hartle, and Earl's Court is rebuilt. Burnett suggests that innocent trust can be a moral force.

• Power is for the people under it

  Mrs. Errol teaches Cedric that a rich man must remember those who are not fortunate, and that an earl has power to help or harm everyone on his land. Cedric's questions about Newick and the tenants turn the estate from a source of rents into a household of people.

• A mother's quiet strength

  Mrs. Errol gives up her son's daily company, never tells him that the Earl despises her, and spends her time visiting the sick and poor. Her restraint keeps the boy's love for his grandfather unspoiled and in the end wins the Earl's respect.

• Old friends are kept, not traded

  Cedric does not forget Mr. Hobbs, Dick, Bridget or the apple-woman when he becomes rich. His loyalty to his poor friends is rewarded when Dick's sharp eyes save his inheritance.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Illness sits at the edges of the story but shapes its moral world. The Earl suffers from what Mr. Havisham calls inflammatory gout, and his temper rises and falls with his foot; in Chapter IX the narrator remarks that his doctor was surprised to find him healthier once he had something to think of besides his pains, a Victorian view of mood and chronic illness that a modern reader can note without diagnosing. Fever runs through the book: Maurice died of fever in Rome, Michael has rheumatic fever in New York, the Higgins children have scarlet fever, and the damp, crowded cottages of Earl's Court breed fever that kills children. The rebuilding of Earl's Court reflects late-Victorian sanitary reform, which tied disease to drainage, damp and overcrowding. The lame boy Hartle and his crutches show the ordinary rural disability of the period, met by charity rather than medicine.

• Chapter V

  The Earl sits with his gouty foot on a stool through his first evening with Cedric, and the boy offers his shoulder for the walk to dinner.

• Chapter VI

  Mr. Mordaunt reports that Higgins's children have had scarlet fever and the doctor has ordered wine and nourishing food the family cannot afford.

• Chapter VIII

  Cedric gives up his pony to the lame boy Hartle and later brings him a pair of crutches in the Earl's name.

• Chapter IX

  Cedric describes Earl's Court, where houses are falling down, the rain comes in, and children die of fever; the narrator lists bad drainage, damp walls and leaking roofs.

• Chapter IX

  The Earl's doctor finds his patient's health improving as the old man's interest in his grandson grows.