All 19 chapters — from Sara's arrival in the London fog to the recognition next door.
A Little Princess divides naturally into three movements. Chapters 1–6 establish Sara's life as Miss Minchin's showpiece pupil — three years of luxury, languages, and stories told to younger children in the schoolroom. Chapter 7 is the hinge: the birthday and the death of Captain Crewe arrive together. Chapters 8–14 are the long descent into attic life — the friendship with Becky, the discipline of the Bastille game, the Indian gentleman who appears in the house next door. Chapters 15–19 are the turn and the recognition: the secret transformation of the attic, the discovery of Mr. Carrisford, and the restoration. Read the attic chapters at full length. They are what the book is doing.
Sara arrives, makes friends, and learns what it means to be Miss Minchin's showpiece.
Sara and Captain Crewe arrive at Miss Minchin's seminary through a London fog. She is seven, thoughtful beyond her years, and already reading the room. He pays lavishly; she receives Emily the doll. He leaves. She speaks to Emily about missing him.
Sara's first morning in the schoolroom. Every pupil watches her; Lavinia takes against her immediately. When Monsieur Dufarge addresses her in French she answers fluently, astonishing the room. She notices Ermengarde struggling and does not laugh. At break, she goes to speak to her.
Sara and Ermengarde deepen their friendship. Sara explains that knowing French is an accident of birth, not a virtue. She also takes on the management of Lottie Legh, the school's youngest and loudest pupil, by agreeing to be her mamma. Lavinia continues to be unkind.
Sara reflects on three years of being Miss Minchin's showpiece pupil and worries that she has never been properly tested. She tells Ermengarde that perhaps she is a hideous child who simply hasn't had any trials yet. The princess idea begins to form — not as a claim to status but as a question about character under pressure.
Sara notices Becky the scullery maid peering through the railings, and later raises her voice while telling a story so Becky can hear. When Becky falls asleep by the schoolroom fire from exhaustion, Sara covers her and tells the others to let her sleep. Miss Minchin wakes and scolds her. Sara begins to understand the shape of the life below her own.
A letter from Captain Crewe brings news of a diamond-mine investment — a fortune in prospect. Sara turns it into an Arabian Nights story for Ermengarde and Lottie. The whole school is briefly enchanted. Lavinia alone is sceptical.
The birthday, the letter from India, and the first night in the attic.
Sara's eleventh birthday. Miss Minchin has organized a party; the Last Doll has arrived from Paris. Then a letter from India: Captain Crewe is dead of brain fever, his fortune lost in the speculation. Miss Minchin turns white, calculates, and begins the demotion. By the end of the chapter Sara is in the attic.
The first night in the attic. Sara lies in the dark and says: my papa is dead. In the morning Miss Minchin begins the regime — the small chair, the errands, the French lessons she gives to classes she is no longer allowed to sit in. The chapter establishes the terms of the long middle of the book.
Friendship with Becky, the Bastille game, the Indian gentleman, the bread scene.
Sara names the large rat who lives in the attic wall Melchisedec and begins leaving crumbs for him. Lottie visits and asks if Sara is as poor as a beggar. Ermengarde makes her first secret pilgrimage to the attic. Sara practices, in each encounter, the art of managing difficulty without asking for sympathy.
Sara adopts the sick Indian gentleman next door as a friend she has never spoken to. She also watches the Large Family across the square. A five-year-old from the Large Family takes her for a beggar and gives her his sixpence. Sara takes it, because grace requires it.
Sara watches a sunset from her attic skylight. The Indian gentleman's monkey escapes from the next roof and jumps to her shoulder. Ram Dass appears to retrieve it and sees the attic. They smile at each other across the slates. The machinery of what is coming is set in motion.
Sara learns that the Indian gentleman is English, was nearly ruined by mines, and survived — unlike her father. She imagines him thinking on the other side of the wall. Ermengarde listens. Sara can't explain the connection she feels, but she feels it.
The Bastille game, in full: Sara and Becky huddle under coverlets in the attic and pretend it is a prison cell in revolutionary Paris. Then the bread scene: Sara finds fourpence in the gutter, buys six buns, steps out of the bakery, and gives five to a child hungrier than herself. The baker's wife watches.
While Sara is out, Ram Dass and Carrisford's secretary climb through the skylight. They examine the attic — bare boards, single blanket, cracked basin — and note what would be needed to transform it. Melchisedec watches from his hole, too frightened to move. Sara returns and finds everything as she left it.
The magic transformation and the night Sara discovers she has a friend.
Sara returns from a winter errand and finds the attic transformed: fire blazing, thick rug, cushions, a meal under a cover, warm blankets. She sits in front of it in disbelief, pinches herself, eats. She calls Becky in. They sit by the fire and try to understand who has done this. Sara decides that someone is her friend.
Ermengarde smuggles a hamper of food up to the attic for a secret feast and finds Sara's room transformed beyond anything she could have brought. Lottie comes too. They sit by the fire and eat and are almost caught by Miss Amelia. Sara manages the close call with her usual precision.
Mr. Carrisford, Miss Minchin exposed, and the beginning of a new life.
The Carmichael children are cheering up Carrisford when Sara appears to return the monkey. He speaks to her. Something in her face and bearing strikes him. He asks her name. The recognition follows: he is the man who has been searching for her for two years. Miss Minchin arrives to take her back.
Mrs. Carmichael explains everything to Sara. Carrisford's solicitor explains the situation to Miss Minchin, who discovers that her treatment of Sara is an issue of legal as well as moral standing. Sara, asked how she has been treated, says: I tried not to be miserable.
Sara and Carrisford tell each other their stories. She tells the banquet-and-dream story; he tells the Ram Dass story. The Large Family visit constantly. A dog arrives with a collar: "I am Boris. I serve the Princess Sara." The novel ends with the bread scene retold — and the baker's wife, and what it meant.