I hesitate to review this book--not because I don't have an exact opinion about it, but because I love it so much that, no doubt if I don't check myself, I'd have written a 10-page review filled with nothing but exclamation points and declarations of love.

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!

Well, now that that's over with, let me give you three ways that this book became one of my favourites without even doing anything remarkably dramatic in terms of plot:

the prose

The prose is just so beautiful and flows so well and it just compulsively makes you read on and on and on. It's so simple, but it's very elegant in its simplicity. If not for the style of prose that Burnett employs in here, no doubt I'd have found the characters unbelievable and ended it before I ever even started in the first place.

the characters

Mrs. Errol! Dick! Mr. Hobbs! Mr. Havisham! Earl of Dorincourt! Little Lord Fauntleroy! Words cannot fully express how much I loved these characters. One might argue that they're horribly unbelievable, most especially in the case of the character whose name the title bears; but, in any case, I think Burnett did a really good job in showing the evolution of the Earl of Dorincourt. There's even something near the finish that shows that the Earl of Dorincourt, while certainly being more agreeable, wasn't wholly good in the end and that just struck me as a well-done move by the author.

its message

In the end, this is a children's story and it should impart a good moral, otherwise it wouldn't be a children's story. It's very clear in it's point: be good to everyone and you'll have good fortune brought to you. It's very simplistic--the 'be good to everyone' message is done to death--but it's good all the same.

So, my verdict: this is one of the greatest books that I've ever read and I'm horribly attached to it. Giving it 5 stars is an understatement.