Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster, Puffin, 2010.ISBN: 978-0-141-33111-9
Plot Summary
Eighteen-year-old Jerusha (Judy) Abbott longs to escape the dreary confines of the orphanage she grew up in. Fortunately, after one particularly trying day, the matron calls Judy into her office where she informs her that one of the trustees wants to send her to college to become an author. Judy, of course, joyfully agrees. The benefactor even grants her a stipend so that she might enjoy a few college luxuries! The only condition placed upon Judy is that she write her benefactor once a month reporting her scholarly progress. The matron informs her that she is to receive no reply and that the trustee, as a rule, hates girls. These facts might trouble another girl but not the effervescent Judy! As she quickly settles into college she pens many letters to her benefactor (whom she affectionately names Daddy Long Legs) reporting not only her scholastic achievements and failures but informing him of her everyday trials and joys. Soon, however, Judy grows lonely and longs for a family. After he so generously sends Judy to college, can Daddy Long Legs provide her with a family as well?
Critical Evaluation
It is easy to see why Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster is a classic. Not only is Webster’s plot tightly woven but her protagonist Judy is charming and delightful. Readers cannot help but like Judy as she tells Daddy Long Legs of her unexpected troubles in school, such as thinking Michelangelo is an archangel and not knowing that Henry VIII had multiple wives (Webster, 2010, p. 17, 28). As Judy so aptly writes, “[t]he trouble with college is that you are expected to know such a lot of things you’ve never learned” (Webster, 2010, p. 17). “You know, Daddy,” she continues, “it isn’t the work that is going to be hard in college. It’s the play. Half the time I don’t know what the girls are talking about; their jokes seem to relate to a past that everyone but me has shared” (Webster, 2010, p. 22). Indeed, Judy’s initial difficulties adjusting to a private women’s college, remind readers that all branches of society, whether based on class or subculture, have their own base of common knowledge, a fact that is easy to forget.
But while Judy’s college experience is sometimes difficult she is, for the most part, cheerful even when she writes to tell Daddy Long Legs of her failing grades. In fact, part of what makes Judy so delightful is her vulnerability and self-effacing humor. Readers will be able to sympathize with her when she remorsefully asks Daddy Long Legs to disregard the mean letter she wrote when she was sick with tonsillitis and will rejoice with her when she wins the fifty-yard dash. They will laugh with her over her amateur illustrations of cows, centipedes, and houses and feel concern for her when she admits that she longs for a family of her own. Ultimately readers cannot help but love Judy as, in all her ecstasies and disappointments, she mirrors what most girls at one time were. As she writes, “Would you be terribly displeased, Daddy, if I didn’t turn out to be a great author after all, but just a plain girl” (Webster, 2010, p. 75)?
Although unintended by the author, Daddy-Long-Legs also serves as an insightful piece of historical fiction as it was initially published in 1912. Throughout the novel, Judy hints of rules, mores and historical events that readers today have little experience with. For example, Judy’s education is classical in its approach, something not often seen in today’s colleges. When she arrives at school she is enrolled in Latin, French, Geometry, English, and Physiology. And, as her schooling progresses, she takes Argumentation and Logic, History, Shakespeare, Chemistry, and Biology. The everyday details in Judy’s life are also quite different from those a girl would be writing about today. For example, her clothes are naturally quite different, especially her very modest basketball uniform and gray street suit, and the prices of her food and furnishings seem quite low (35 cents for lobster*!). Perhaps most intriguing of all is her brief mention of women’s rights: “Sallie is running for class president, and unless all signs fail, she is going to be elected. Such an atmosphere of intrigue—you should see what politicians we are! Oh, I tell you, Daddy, when we women get our rights, you men will have to look alive in order to keep yours” (p. 67-68). Overall, Daddy-Long-Legs serves as a wonderful historical piece because it was not intended as such, making the historical facts within it unassuming and natural. No doubt Daddy-Long-Legs will continue to delight readers for many years to come.
*In case you were wondering, $0.35 in 1912 equals $7.80 in 2010. Talk about inflation! Yikes!
Friedman, S.M. (n.d.) The inflation calculator. Retrieved from http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
Reader’s Annotation
Orphan Jerusha (Judy) Abbott is delighted when she learns that a mysterious benefactor is sending her to college to be trained as an author provided that she agree to write him one a letter a month updating him on her progress. While Judy happily agrees to go, she soon learns that college can be just as troubling as it is fun.
About the Author
“Jean Webster was christened Alice Jane Chandler Webster. Her mother, Annie Moffett Webster, was a niece of Mark Twain…Her father, Charles Luther Webster, was Mark Twain’s publisher and business partner. Writing was definitely in Jean’s blood, but she was a very bad speller at school…It was at the Lady Jane Grey boarding school that Alice became known as Jean. Since her roommate was also called Alice, the school asked if she could use another name. She chose ‘Jean,’ a variation on the spelling of her middle name, Jane…She continued her education, graduating in 1901 form Vassar College…with a degree in English and Economics…her first book When Patty Went to College…was one of the first novels to describe college life for women” (Puffin, 2010, p. 186-87).
“Jean wrote several stories for children, but it was Daddy-Long-Legs that became one of the best-loved books of all time. Her other novels include: When Patty Went of College (1903), The Wheat Princess (1905), Jerry Junior (1907), The Four Pools Mystery (1908), Much Ado About Peter (1909), Just Patty (1911), [and the sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs,] Dear Enemy (1915)” (Puffin, 2010, p. 188). Jean Webster married Glenn Ford McKinney in 1915 but she tragically died in 1916, at the age of 39, after giving birth to her little girl, Jean Webster McKinney.
As a side note, Jean Webster McKinney (now Jean Connor) lives with her husband, Ralph Connor on the New York farm that her mother Jean Webster once lived on. They donated Webster family papers to Vassar College. Needless to say, I would love to one day visit Vassar and see this remarkable collection which apparently includes everything from letters to a lock of hair to a four-leaf clover (Simpson, 2010)
Puffin (2010). Author file. In Webster, J. Daddy-Long-Legs (pp. 186-188). New York, NY: Puffin.
Simpson, A. (2010, Jan-May). Mark Twain goes back to Vassar. Retrieved from http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/exhibit-highlights/mark-twain/simpson.html
Genre
Classic, Epistolatory, Realistic fiction, Romance, School story
Tags
Old-fashioned, 1912, school story, study, boarding school, all-girls’ school, orphans, benefactors, farms, novel writing, authoress, New York, age gap
Curriculum Ties
This beautiful novel is a classic school story and, as such, could be paired with any other school story. It would also work well on a unit detailing women’s rights and the history of women’s education. It is very much a period place as Judy writes about women trying to gain the right to vote and the visiting restrictions placed on male relatives.
Booktalk Ideas
--Read one of Judy’s shorter diary entries out loud to begin the talk.
--Ask audience members if any of them have pen pals or if they write letters to anyone (granted the book talker may not receive many responses as letters are seen as out-of-date today)
Reading Level/Interest Age
Reading Level: 6th grade
Interest Level: 9th-12th grades (14-18 yrs.)
A Note on Interest Level: Although AR BookFinder has labeled Daddy Long-Legs to be of interest to upper graders it is truly difficult to determine the book’s interest level. As author Eva Ibbotson wrote in her introduction to the novel, “When I had finished the book [when she was thirteen], that first time in the Lake District, and looked for it to put it back on the shelf, I found that my mother had got hold of it…I’ve also seen a girl of nine entranced by it because, like all the best-loved books, it isn’t a book for adults or a book for children—it’s a book for people” (p. vii). As Eva Ibbotson notes, Daddy Long-Legs is a novel for all ages. In fact, it is shelved in both the children’s and adult’s section in my local library’s system and, when I worked for a children’s bookstore, it was shelved in both the children’s and young adult’s area.
Ibbotson, E. (2010). Introduction by Eva Ibbotson. In Webster, J. Daddy-Long-Legs (pp. v-vii). New York, NY: Puffin.
Challenge Issues
N/A
Favorite Quotes
There are too many to count but some of my favorites include:
“There are just three things that I know: I. You are tall. II. You are rich. III. You hate girls. I suppose I might call you Dear Mr. Girl-Hater. Only that’s sort of insulting to me. Or Dear Mr. Rich-Man, but that’s insulting to you, as though money were the only important thing about you. Besides, being rich is such a very external quality. Maybe you won’t stay rich all your life; lots of very clever men get smashed up in Wall Street. But at least you will stay tall all your life! So I’ve decided to call you Dear Daddy-Long-Legs” (p. 14).
“I’ll promise to never be horrid again, because now I know you’re a real person; also I’ll promise never to bother you with any more questions. Do you still hate girls?” (p. 43-44)
“We’re reading Marie Bashkirtseff’s journal. Isn’t it amazing? Listen to this: ‘Last night I was seized by a fit of despair that found utterance in moans, and that finally drove me to throw the dining room clock into the sea’. It makes me almost hope I’m not a genius; they must be very wearing to have about—and awfully destructive to the furniture” (p. 77).
Why Was This Included?
I decided to include Daddy-Long-Legs because it is one of my favorite books and I wanted to include more classics in my blog. I love so many things about Daddy-Long-Legs but I think one of my favorite elements is Judy’s sense of humor, especially in her self-deprecating doodles.
Just for Fun
Here's an example of Jean Webster's illustrations. This one is found on page 38.
Image from Daddy long-legs - Jean Webster. (2010, April 23). Retrieved from http://www.booksidoneread.com/2010/04/daddy-long-legs-jean-webster.html
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