A Fair Barbarian Paperback - 2006

From the publisher

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was a British-born American novelist and playwright, best known for her three children's novels, Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911). She was born in Manchester but following her father's death in 1852 the family emigrated to America, settling in New Market, Tennessee where Frances began publishing stories in magazines to help earn money for the family's upkeep. Her mother died in 1870 and two years later she married Swan Burnett who became a doctor. The Burnetts lived in Paris for two years where their two sons were born, before returning to the US and making their home in Washington, DC. Burnett began writing novels, the first of which That Lass of Lowrie's (1877), met with good reviews. The publication of Little Lord Fauntleroy made her a successful children's author, whilst her romantic adult novels published throughout the 1890s were also popular. From 1887 she made annual trips to England and in the 1890s bought a home there, Maytham Hall, whose walled gardens provided the inspiration for The Secret Garden. The death of her oldest son in 1890 caused a relapse of the depression that she had struggled with for much of her life, and in 1898 she divorced Swan Burnett. Her second marriage to Stephen Townsend also ended in divorce, after only two years, and in 1907 she returned permanently to the US, having become a citizen in 1905. A Fair Barbarian (1881) is the story of the beautiful 19-year-old American, Octavia Bassett, who arrives in the English village of Slowbridge to visit her aunt and soon sets tongues wagging with her finery, self-possession and frank independence. A silent comedy film based on the book was released by Paramount in 1917.