One day, they are visited by a British lawyer named Liam with a message from young Cedric's paternal grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, a millionaire who despises the United States and was very disappointed when his youngest son married an American woman.

With the deaths of his father's elder brothers, Cedric has now inherited the title Lord Fauntleroy and is the heir to the earldom and a vast estate.

The classic Fauntleroy suit was a velvet cut-away jacket and matching knee pants, worn with a fancy blouse and a large lace or ruffled collar.

During a period when sentimental fiction was the norm, and in the United States the "rags to riches" story popular, Little Lord Fauntleroy was a hit.

[7] Edith Nesbit included in her own children's book The Enchanted Castle (1907) a rather unflattering reference: Gerald could always make himself look interesting at a moment's notice (...) by opening his grey eyes rather wide, allowing the corners of his mouth to droop, and assuming a gentle, pleading expression, resembling that of the late little Lord Fauntleroy who must, by the way, be quite old now, and an awful prig.The first stage adaptation of Hodgson's novel, titled simply Little Lord Fauntleroy, opened at the Prince of Wales' Theatre in London on 23 Feb 1888.

Seebohm, the piece in three acts was "suggested by Mrs F. H, Burnett's story",[9] starred Annie Hughes as Cedric and played only a short season of matinees.

After discovering her novel had been plagiarized for the stage, Burnett successfully sued and then wrote her own theatrical adaptation titled The Real Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Opening on 14 May, at Terry's Theatre in London it played for 57 matinees[10] and was subsequently presented in the English provinces, France, Boston and New York City.

[14] In 1994, an Australian open-air/site specific theatre production of Little Lord Fauntleroy, adapted by Julia Britton and directed by Robert Chuter, was presented in the historical gardens of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) property Rippon Lea.