Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden are bestsellers, but the lesser-known adult novel The Making of a Marchioness remains a much-loved favorite among many. Unjustly out of print for years, this neglected classic deserves its place alongside Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

Part one, the original Marchioness, is in the Cinderella tradition, while part two, called The Methods of Lady Walderhurst, is an absorbing melodrama—a realistic commentary on late-Victorian marriage.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) grew up in Manchester. In 1886, Little Lord Fauntleroy was a huge popular success; from then on Burnett wrote for both children and adults.