# A Little Princess — Character guide

> Key figures in A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

- [Sara Crewe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/sara_crewe.md): Sara arrives at Miss Minchin's seminary rich, French-fluent, and adored, her father's idolatry making her both envied and beloved. Her defining tension is the promise she made to bear separation bravely, a discipline she
- [Miss Minchin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/miss_minchin.md): Miss Minchin runs her select seminary as a business, and Sara is her showpiece — paraded before visiting parents as proof of the school's grandeur. When the money vanishes, her calculation hardens into something colder: 
- [Becky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/becky.md): Becky exists at the bottom of the seminary's hierarchy, invisible to Miss Minchin and used to being ordered about. Her friendship with Sara — begun when she woke terrified in a comfortable chair — survives on snatched mo
- [Ermengarde St. John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/ermengarde.md): Ermengarde is the school's dunce, embarrassed by her own slowness and by a father who prefers his library to her company. Sara's tales of India and dolls who walk when humans leave the room open a door in her imagination
- [Lottie Legh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/lottie.md): Lottie is the baby of Miss Minchin's establishment, prone to tantrums and accustomed to being the center of any room she enters. Sara's willingness to play mother — to soothe her, invent for her, and treat her as a perso
- [Mr. Carrisford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/mr_carrisford.md): Mr. Carrisford lives in the grand house beside the seminary, tended by servants and haunted by the diamond mines that ruined his friend. He loves nothing more than the memory of "the little princess in rags and tatters,"
- [Ram Dass](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/ram_dass.md): Ram Dass serves the ailing Mr. Carrisford, but his true attention belongs to the attic child across the roof — a girl he has never met yet knows 'all her life each day.' He is the one who first imagines the transformatio
- [Lavinia Herbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/lavinia_herbert.md): Lavinia rules Miss Minchin's pupils through haughty charm until Sara Crewe arrives and effortlessly eclipses her. Her jealousy hardens into petty persecution once Sara is reduced to a servant, giving the school its sharp
- [Captain Crewe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/captain_crewe.md): Captain Crewe adores Sara with a reckless generosity, indulging her with a French maid, lavish clothes, and the nickname 'Little Missus.' His love is real but his judgment is not: he invests everything in a diamond mine 
- [Emily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/emily.md): Sara's beloved doll whom she treats as a friend and confidante.
- [Jessie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/jessie.md): A minor student at the boarding school, often seen with Lavinia.
- [Mr. Carmichael](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/carmichael.md): A lawyer who assists Mr. Carrisford in searching for Sara.
- [Mr. Barrow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/mr_barrow.md): A lawyer who informs Miss Minchin of Captain Crewe's death.
- [Mariette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/mariette.md): Sara's French maid during her wealthy days at the school.
- [Melchisedec](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/melchisedec.md): A rat living in the attic who becomes Sara's pet and friend.
- [Guy Clarence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/guy_clarence.md): Mr. Carrisford's young neighbor who briefly interacts with Sara.
- [Miss St. John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters/miss_st_john.md): Ermengarde's aunt who visits the school briefly.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_little_princess_se/characters