Write your own A Little Princess story

Sara Crewe

A clever, imaginative seven-year-old brought from Bombay to London by her father to attend Miss Minchin's school as a pampered 'show pupil' and parlor boarder, complete with a pony, carriage, and French maid Mariette. After her father's sudden death leaves her penniless, she is demoted to an unpaid drudge and errand-girl living in a freezing attic, but she survives by 'pretending' and telling herself stories, sharing food and friendship with the scullery maid Becky. She is eventually revealed to be heiress to a fortune in diamond mines and adopted by her father's friend Mr. Carrisford.

Captain Crewe

Sara's young, handsome, wealthy father, an army officer who raised Sara alone in India after her mother died in childbirth. He places Sara at Miss Minchin's school as a parlor boarder and invests his entire fortune in a friend's diamond mine scheme. He dies of brain fever in India believing the scheme has ruined him, leaving Sara believed penniless.

Miss Minchin

The stern, status-conscious headmistress of the Select Seminary for Young Ladies, who fawns over Sara while Captain Crewe's money flows in but turns cold and cruel once Sara is left penniless, forcing her into servitude rather than losing a useful unpaid worker. She is thwarted at the end when Sara is adopted by the wealthy Mr. Carrisford and refuses to return to the school.

Miss Amelia

Miss Minchin's softer, less clever younger sister who helps run the seminary, unpacks Sara's lavish trunks upon her arrival, and is later tasked with breaking the news of Captain Crewe's death to Sara. She is intimidated by her sister and often pitied by the pupils.

Becky

The school's exhausted, poorly-fed scullery maid and between-maid, who sweeps grates and hauls coal. She secretly listens to Sara's stories, becomes Sara's closest friend and fellow attic-dweller, and shares in the mysterious feasts and gifts that later appear in their rooms. She calls Sara 'miss' and is amazed to be treated as an equal.

Ermengarde St. John

A plump, slow, book-hating pupil who is thought stupid by her scholarly uncle and aunts, but becomes Sara's devoted friend, sneaking up to the attic at night wrapped in a red shawl to visit and to have Sara secretly help her with French and history lessons. She sends a box of cakes and treats to feed a starving Sara after a punishment.

Lottie Legh

The youngest pupil at the school, only four years old, motherless and prone to violent tantrums of screaming and kicking. Sara calms her by simply sitting beside her unmoved, and Lottie subsequently adopts Sara as a substitute mother, following her everywhere and being helped secretly with her lessons in the attic.

Lavinia Herbert

The oldest and most senior pupil, nearly thirteen, who had considered herself school leader before Sara's arrival and is jealous of Sara's fine clothes and popularity. She mocks Sara's shabby appearance after her fall in fortune and delights in spreading gossip and mischief.

Mr. Carrisford (the Indian Gentleman)

A wealthy Englishman who lived in India, formerly Captain Crewe's schoolfellow at Eton and his partner in a diamond-mine investment scheme that seemed to fail catastrophically, driving him to brain fever and near-ruin. He moves into the house next door to Miss Minchin's school, wracked with guilt over believing he ruined and indirectly killed his friend, and searches obsessively for Crewe's lost daughter, not realizing she is the shabby girl next door. Once the mines prove immensely profitable and he discovers Sara's identity, he adopts her and restores her fortune.

Ram Dass

Mr. Carrisford's devoted Indian manservant, who tends his master's pet monkey and secretly crosses the rooftop slates between attic skylights to leave gifts, light fires, and furnish Sara's room anonymously on his master's orders. He observes Sara's kindness to the household's forgotten creatures and calls her one 'of the blood of kings' despite her rags.

Mr. Carmichael

Mr. Carrisford's solicitor and friend, who helps search London and Paris for Captain Crewe's missing daughter, mistakenly believing she was schooled in France. His own large, warm family (dubbed 'the Large Family' by Sara) live nearby and befriend Sara during her hardship.

Mr. Barrow

A solicitor from the firm Barrow & Skipworth, representing the failed diamond-mine investment, who informs Miss Minchin that Captain Crewe has died penniless and bluntly advises her to keep Sara as unpaid labor rather than risk a scandal by turning her out.

Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies

A fashionable London boarding school occupying a large townhouse, where wealthy families send their daughters to be educated in a rigid, status-conscious atmosphere. It features grand schoolrooms and parlors for paying pupils alongside bare, freezing servant attics under the roof, and pupils are marched two-by-two to church on Sundays to show off the school's prestige.

The Attic (Sara's Room)

A bare, whitewashed garret room with a slanting roof, rusty grate, hard iron bed, and a skylight showing only a strip of gray sky, where Sara is banished to sleep and live once she becomes a servant. It becomes the setting for secret feasts, imaginative 'pretending' games recasting it as the Bastille or a fairy palace, and the mysterious nightly visits of Ram Dass, who transforms it with fire, food, and furnishings while Sara sleeps.

The House Next Door

A grand townhouse adjoining the seminary, rented by the reclusive, ailing Mr. Carrisford, whose attic window sits close enough to Sara's for Ram Dass to cross the rooftop slates between them. It becomes Sara's new home once her true identity and inheritance are discovered.

India (Bombay and the diamond mines)

Sara's birthplace and childhood home, remembered through images of Lascars on ships, blazing sun, and a bungalow full of servants who called her 'Missee Sahib.' The diamond mines there are the source of both Captain Crewe's ruin and, later, Sara's restored fortune, having initially seemed worthless before proving immensely profitable.

The Large Family

Sara's affectionate nickname for a large, happy, boisterous middle-class family living nearby, whom she watches through windows and befriends in small ways, particularly the youngest boy she calls 'Guy Clarence.' Their father turns out to be Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Carrisford's solicitor, linking them to the main plot.

Emily

A large doll bought for Sara by her father before he left her at school, intended as a substitute companion and confidante. Sara treats Emily as almost alive, sometimes fancying she can understand and sympathize, especially during her loneliest hours in the attic, though she never actually answers.

The Diamond Mines

An investment scheme in India that Captain Crewe poured his entire fortune into, alongside his friend Carrisford, which appeared to collapse and ruin both men, contributing to Crewe's death. The mines later turn out to hold 'millions and millions' in diamonds, restoring the Carrisford fortune and making Sara, as Crewe's heir, immensely wealthy.

Melchisedec

A rat living in the walls of Sara's attic, whom she names and gradually tames by leaving crumbs, eventually bringing his mate 'Mrs. Melchisedec' and their young to visit. He becomes one of Sara's few companions in her loneliest days and a symbol of her gentleness toward all creatures.

The Mysterious Gifts and the 'Magic'

A series of anonymous nighttime transformations of Sara's and Becky's attic—blazing fires, hot suppers, warm blankets, and later parcels of fine new clothing addressed 'To the Little Girl in the right-hand attic'—orchestrated secretly by Mr. Carrisford through his servant Ram Dass. Sara calls this unexplained kindness 'the Magic,' a source of hope during her hardest days before its source is revealed.