A Very Naughty Girl

Title: A Very Naughty Girl
Genre: Fiction/Children’s
Author: L. T. Meade, a.k.a. Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (1844-1914)
Illustrator: Unknown
Publisher: A. L. Burt, New York, New York
Series: Part of A. L. Burt’s “Books for Girls” series.
Year: None listed. Wikipedia lists a publication year of 1901—given the Art Noveauishness of the cover illustration, that sounds about right.
Pages: 410
Format: Hardback with illustrated linen cover.
Provenance: Inside front cover and first page contains the names of four previous owners (a 4CC record!). Last two pages contain various notes written in erased pencil and fountain pen.
Chapter Title Examples: Sylvia and Audrey; Arrival of Evelyn; “I Draw the Line at Uncle Ned”; Frank’s Eyes; Jasper Was to Go; Hunger; The Fall in the Snow; A Red Gipsy Cloak; “Not Good Nor Honourable”; One Week of Grace; Uncle Edward; The Strange Visitor in the Back Bedroom; The Loaded Gun; For Uncle Edward’s Sake.
Opening Sentence: “It was a day of great excitement, and Audrey Eynford stood by her schoolroom window and looked out.”
Random Passage: “‘It depends on you, my dear. I have heard a great deal about schools. Some are nice and some are not. In some they give you a lot of freedom, and you are petted and fussed over; in other they discipline you. When you are disciplined you don’t like it. If I were you—’” (from Change of Plans)
Goodreads Review: “A lesson in Victorian morals and ethics. Nobody dies, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some severe rounds of fainting and shooting, not necessarily in that order.” — Data, September 16, 2012.
Notes: In A Very Naughty Girl, a spoiled teenage heiress arrives at a British estate from Tasmania, scandalizing the prim-and-proper residents and staff with an inheritance claim. Also in this post, I'm including the illustrated cover from one of A.L. Burt’s boy-oriented series, The Boy Allies Under the Stars and Stripes (1918).