[Ads-l] Little Lord Fauntleroy

Sun Aug 30 08:45:40 UTC 2026

The 1889 Minnesota reference is close to what I was looking for....
optimally the victim would be addressed as LLF or rudely referred to as
such in the victim's presence, à la "Little Lord Fauntleroy here thinks
he's too fancy for a jail cell, but we can cure him of that
misapprehension....."

On Sun, Aug 30, 2026 at 10:33 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Little Lord Fauntleroy was serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine during
> 1885 and 1886. In July 1886 a columnist in an Indiana newspaper
> described the main character as "priggish".
>
> Date: July 9, 1886
> Newspaper: The Indianapolis Journal
> Newspaper Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
> Article: About People and Things
> Quote Page 4, Column 6
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-journal-priggish/204826663/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> MRS. FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT'S, "Little Lord Fauntleroy," of whom the
> St. Nicholas readers all know, is in a sense photographic, the real
> boy being Herbert Hodgson, a son of Mrs. Burnett's brother. This
> brother, a jeweler, lives in Norfolk. The Fauntleroy of the story is a
> charming creature, but as priggish as was ever fond mother's son.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Below is a sampling of additional uses of Little Lord Fauntleroy.
> In 1889 a newspaper in Minnesota reviewed a local eatery used Little
> Lord Fauntleroy in a simile when referring to a "swell", i.e., a
> dandy.
>
> Date: September 15, 1889
> Newspaper: The Sunday Tribune
> Newspaper Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
> Article: New York Chat
> Quote Page 16, Column 4
> Database: Newspapers.com
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-tribune-fauntleroy/204824491/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> To eat at Beefsteak John's is a "fad."
> ...
> The swell, seated like a Little Lord Fauntleroy, on a cracker box,
> helps himself with his fingers.
> [End excerpt]
>
> In 1904 a newspaper in Vermont used Little Lord Fauntleroy in a simile
> when describing a delicate stomach.
>
> Date: December 17, 1904
> Newspaper: Vermont Journal
> Newspaper Location: Windsor, Vermont
> Article: Vermont Journal
> Quote Page 4, Column 1
> Database: Newspapers.com
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/vermont-journal-fauntleroy/204825429/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> MR. DOOLEY'S remark that a man is foolish who tries to be too kind to
> his stomach ought to set to thinking hard those who have set out to
> feed their digestive organs steadily on hashed food of a dozen
> different sorts. As the Record says: "The man who treats his stomach
> 'like a little Lord Fauntleroy,' as the Chicago philosopher says, gets
> these days to an extreme as absurd as the one who overloaded it early
> and often with all sorts of indigestibles."
> [End excerpt]
>
> In 1910 a newspaper in Minnesota used Little Lord Fauntleroy when
> describing weakness.
>
> Date: June 26, 1910
> Newspaper: The Minneapolis Journal
> Newspaper Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
> Article: Lind's Boom Is Started in New Ulm
> Quote Page 2, Column 6
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-minneapolis-journal-fauntleroy/204826083/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "The republican party of the state of Minnesota is permeated with this
> same idea, but the political leaders of the party, seeking only for
> success, were fearful of making it prominent in their platform, and in
> place of this they have substituted a weak declaration which is like a
> little Lord Fauntleroy as compared with a trained, vigorous athlete.
> It is of a pink tea variety, meaningless when closely analyzed, and
> entirely ineffective in getting hold of the hearts of the people at
> large.
> [End excerpt]
>
> In 2020 a blog on the JSTOR website discussed the negative perception
> of Little Lord Fauntleroy in the 1930s.
>
> Website: JSTOR Daily
> Date: March 26, 2020
> Article: The Masculinization of Little Lord Fauntleroy
> Author: Kristin Hunt
> https://daily.jstor.org/the-masculinization-of-little-lord-fauntleroy/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> In a 1937 column, Marian Mays Martin warned that Little Lord
> Fauntleroy was "no model for any self-respecting small boy." She
> elaborated that "boys of today are not the Little Lord Fauntleroy
> type. They may be sweet, but not sugary. They are reasonably good, but
> not priggish, and they are capable and enterprising enough to take on
> all manner of grown-up occupations."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 9:18 AM Rich Lowenthal
> <000018596069864c-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Burnett's original work certainly did not mock its protagonist--he was
> > based on her son, and contemporaries took the character, in both the
> > book and hit play, as a charming figure. I think he has undergone the
> > same kind of transformation over the years as Dickens's Little Nell and
> > other such overly sentimental Victorian characters.
> >
> > A 1954 letter to the London Times read,
> >
> > "In your issue of February 12 your Critic says: 'It is commonly believed
> > that Little Lord Fauntleroy must have come to a bad end.' That may be
> > because there are elderly men alive to-day, the sons of foolish mothers
> > who made them wear curls and 'Fauntleroy' suits and who hate his memory.
> > But as a contemporary of his and one who, as a child, loved him, I must
> > protest. In a later book, mostly of autobiographical sketches, Mrs.
> > Hodgson Burnett said that this character had been taken from her younger
> > and only surviving son and that many of 'Fauntleroy's' sayings were in
> > fact his."
> >
> > Vivian Burnett, the basis for the Little Lord, died in 1937 of a heart
> > attack after helping to rescue four people from an overturned boat in
> > Manhasset Bay. He was 61. His obituary noted that "so far from being
> > effeminate, he was rugged and delighted in manly exercises. He was an
> > athlete, writer, editor, and member of many clubs. "
> >
> >
> > ------ Original Message ------
> > From "Martin Schneider"
> > <000024dc089a88e9-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Date 8/28/2026 4:55:57 AM
> > Subject Little Lord Fauntleroy
> >
> > >I participate in a well-known trivia competition in which a recent
> question
> > >incorporated a reference to "Little Lord Fauntleroy"... in context it
> was
> > >clear that the reference was mildly pejorative. The term derives from an
> > >1886 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
> > >
> > >My interest here lies in the idea that the term is never today used in a
> > >non-pejorative sense.
> > >
> > >Presumably the original Burnett work was not putting down its little
> > >protagonist.... when did this come about? Instantaneously or did it
> require
> > >generations of moderns beaten down by World War I and Watergate and ...
> > >whatever into being unable to see Little Lord Fauntleroy as he "really"
> is
> > >and always treating him as a figure of ridicule.
> > >
> > >I remember a joke from a stand-up comedian .... "was 'whoop-de-do' EVER
> > >used in a non-ironic sense?" that is, as a genuinely heartfelt
> celebration?
> > >"Goodness lads, we won the darby! Whoop-de-do, I say, whoop-de-do!" It
> is
> > >hard for us to imagine.
> > >
> > >------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
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> >
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>
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