When I first bought my kindle, I wanted some books on it, but I didn’t want to pay for them (since I had just spent a bunch on the kindle). I was going through the free book list on kindle, and I saw some books by one of my favorite childhood authors, Frances Hodgson Burnett. Of course, I grabbed The Secret Garden, just to have it, but I also downloaded a book of hers that I had not yet read, The Lost Prince. (It’s still available for free on kindle, by the way.)

The main character, Marco, is a boy (early teens) who lives with his father in a poor area of London. The pair is in exile from their home country, Samavia, which is in political turmoil. Marco’s father, Stefan, has raised him to be a patriot, even though Marco has never been to Samavia. Marco meets and befriends a crippled boy known only as “The Rat.” Together, the two boys imagine fighting for Samavia and concoct intricate plots involving restoring The Lost Prince, a mythical figure who is the rightful heir to the throne of Samavia.

By now you have probably guessed the “big surprise” of the book. Nonetheless, I’ll continue the review. It is impossible for me to review this book other than with reference to Burnett’s other, better-known books that I loved as a child: The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and A Little Princess. The common theme of these books is a child in wretched circumstances who, by the end of the book, is in a situation better than could have ever been imagined by anyone anywhere. This book follows that same pattern. The difference is first that there is no suspense whatever. Second, the children in her more popular books (at least the girls) grow through their difficulties. Marco is perfect throughout the book, so he isn’t very interesting. The Rat is much more interesting, but he is never allowed to be more than a supporting character.

The other major flaw in the book is the intrusion of some strange religious beliefs. Burnett herself was a well-known religious seeker, especially after the death of her oldest son. She was, at different times, a Christian Scientist and a spiritualist. The religion that crops up in this book wasn’t recognizable to me, but it had to do with a spiritual source of power known as “The One” and implied (perhaps Buddhist?) doctrines of peace, fearlessness, and destiny. There are sections of the book that go into these beliefs in an almost sermon-like way—not quite as bad as Ayn Rand, but nearly so.

In spite of the problems I’ve mentioned, I found myself caring what happened to the boys and looking forward to the revelation of the “secret” which every reader knows from the first few pages (or before, if you have read this review). The real payoff of Burnett’s books is the ending, where “happy” would be a severe understatement, and this book didn’t disappoint. I was reading the final few chapters while on the elliptical, and in spite of my exertion, I actually found myself with chills at one point. Any book that can give me chills must have something to recommend it! Bottom line: Don’t read this book until you have read her better books that I mentioned earlier. If you still haven’t got enough Burnett, this one is fine. It would be fine for kids, as long as you don’t mind your kids praying to The One now and then.

It seems disloyal to write this about such a beloved author - I kept reading and hoping for better- but in vain...

This book was a complicate read.

Why? Maybe because I was expecting more after reading from the same author that wrote the Secret Garden, maybe because each time I wished that something went actually wrong, that the Game the Rat had come up with would actual face reality and have them think hard how to overcome the difficulty. But no, everything went more or less smooth every single time they had to pass on the messages. I need to order their lucky star 'cause that's apparently the real deal.


Starting from the things I liked: the relationships.

I loved the relationship that bloomed between Marco and The Rat, how from apparent enemies they set off together to save the future of a country already filled with bloodshed. How Marco never left him behind and the devotion of The Rat ready to follow him everywhere around Europe.

The other relationship I loved, probably even more than Marco x The Rat, was the one between Stefan and Marco. The father x son bond they share was so sweet, the way Marco wanted to feel the warm hands of his father on his shoulder, or how he immediately exited the car at the end running towards the house to get reunited with his father as fast as possible.

That I didn't like:

I was pretty sad when we saw no more of the Lovely Person, how her character completely died

Spoiler

after Marco met with the Chancellor, everything would have been way more interesting if she'd been an actual villain trying to stop the two lads from delivering the message.

But not a single whiff of her, which made me loose a lot of interest in the book.

The ending was predicable, as in deep down everyone knew with the confirmation arriving

Spoiler

first with the priest announcing the arrivar of Ivor and then when Stefan Loristan left London to go to Samavia after Marco and The Rat delivered the message everywhere.

at the end.

Again I was pretty disappointed with the read. One more nice thing I would like to add are the illustrations that my edition had, made the story wayyy much nicer.

at the end 2.5 ⭐️ rounded to 2 here on GR.

I would have given this book 5 stars as a kid, and I still have a soft spot for it. But I’ve outgrown it in so many ways, and I’m giving it 3 stars as a compromise between both versions of myself.

I had a seriously hard time getting through this, not going to lie. The story is quaint and lovely, although very predictable.

I read this when I was a child and it remained my favorite book for a long time. I was a little hesitant to possibly ruin childhood memories by rereading it, but it lived up to them (except for the father worship, which is hard to stomach). I'm not into children's tales as much anymore, but the theme of triumph over bad rulers and circumstances is still desirable as an adult.

Got tired of the boy soldier talk. Yada yada yada.

Well I didn't love it.

I have all kinds of respect for Frances Hodgson Burnett, but this is miles behind Secret Garden and Little Princess.

If you love this book I have no wish to take that away from you, but I'm going to indulge in some ranting that you're not obligated to read.

There's a reason kid protagonists are frequently orphans. It allows them to go on dangerous adventures without the parents being neglectful. In this story, the dad literally sends two thirteen year-old kids (who worship him) to travel across Europe on their own, begging for their livelihood and delivering secret messages while dangerous spies who are willing to harm them are on their trail. Every adult who discovers this arrangement is a little shocked, but then decides it must be okay because the dad "Mr. Perfect" said so.

And yet for all the spies and intrigues this story is actually quite dull (and repetitive). This may be because the author's priority is to present her belief system rather that make it exciting.
When I read stories that are this didactic about messages I actually believe, I feel a little second-hand embarrassment at the lack of subtlety. I didn't feel so much embarrassed with this book because I don't believe in the saving power of self-will or the "god within" but I eye-rolled a bit at how awkwardly these messages were inserted into the story.

The Rat could have been an interesting character. He's got flaws, a tragic backstory/situation, cleverness and great leadership instincts, but after meeting our main characters he very quickly loses every shred of his dignity and actually begs to clean Loristan's boots. I'm not sorry that the Rat becomes less resentful and less inclined to approve of torture, but if he could also retain a shred of self-respect I would have appreciated that.


Additional observations:

Seeing how easy it was to save Somavia in the end, I feel like it shouldn't have waited hundreds of years to do it.

The Dad letting his kid frequently go without food because he was too proud to accept the money his supporters offered him is bad parenting.

There's a lot of hero worship/monarch worship that frequently made me cringe (and I'm a monarchist).

If you're going to save your big reveal for the very end of the book maybe don't make it obvious in the first chapter and repeatedly hint at it nearly every page? It makes the characters seem severely stupid and their supposed to be unusually clever.

Lazarus (and others) are super mean to the land lady. She's just concerned about getting her rent okay? Just because you're secretly royalty doesn't give you the right to be offended and aggressive to the extent of actually scaring her!

This was a slow start for me and didn‘t really pike my interest until I began to realise who the characters were becoming and where the story might eventually be heading to. Being a story with mainly male characters and seldom a female was a bit difficult to adjust to knowing Frances Hodgson Burnett‘s other classic stories. The farher was almost too good to be true, the naivety of the two boys got to me alittle and their adventure across Europe was perhaps a bit farfetched, all in all it had some fairytale qualities to it and did keep me mesmerized towards the end.