Before You Begin

Before you begin.

There are many dreary and dingy rows of ugly houses in London, and on the morning this story begins a dark, silent boy of twelve stands at the iron railings of the worst of them. His name is Marco Loristan, and he has crossed half the kingdoms of Europe in shabby third-class carriages, always ready to be wakened in the night with the words, "Get up — dress yourself quickly. We must go at once." Marco does not yet know what his patient, kingly father is truly working toward — only that his own whole existence is a secret, and that somewhere there is a torn little country called Samavia waiting for a sign.

Frances Hodgson Burnett, the beloved author of The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy, wrote The Lost Prince in 1915 at the height of her storytelling power. Here she trades the walled garden for the open road, sending two boys — the grave young Marco and a fierce, crippled street captain who calls himself The Rat — on a daring journey across Europe to carry a single word that could end five hundred years of bloodshed. It is a tale of loyalty, courage, and a half-legendary prince who vanished out of history singing.

The book endures because it believes, utterly, in the secret nobility of children — in the idea that ordinary-looking boys may carry extraordinary destinies, and that patience, discipline, and love can topple thrones. Generations have followed Marco from the fog of Philibert Place to the mountains of Samavia, holding their breath as the Sign passes from hand to hand.

Turn the page and step into the illustrated gallery that follows: meet the cast, trace the map of Marco's great journey, and see the world of The Lost Prince brought to life plate by plate, just as it was first imagined.