Daddy Long Legs - book review

One of my Dreamwidth friends recently mentioned "Daddy Long Legs" in her journal.  My brain went "You can get it free on Project Gutenberg!" and about half an hour later, I had it on my ebook reader. 

It's an absolutely delightful book. I originally read this when I as young and never forgot it.  I was pleased to discover that I enjoyed it even more as an adult.

It's a series of letters from an orphan to the mysterious benefactor who is paying for her college education.  She doesn't know what his name is, but the deal is that he supports her education as long as she writes him a regular letter about what she's doing.  As she's only even seen his elongated shadow, she nicknames him "Daddy Long Legs".

She tells him about what she's learning, what she thinks of it, cheerfully berates him for never writing back, tells him of what she gets upto with her friends, comments on all kinds of things with a cheerful irreverence.  (She knows that one of the reasons he chose to help her is that she wrote a humorous school essay mocking the trustees' annual visit to the orphanage)

 

It's partly a wonderful window into the world of 1912, from the social attitudes to orphans, to the clothes worn by young women, but it's also very funny.   I laughed out loud several times while reading it.

There's a romance that develops between Judy and a relative of one of her college friends, but she is concerned about her background and the fact that he comes from an upper-class family.  (Orphans really were low status back then)

 

It reminds me a little of "84 Charring Cross Rd". There's the same love of literature, and the same cheerful, humorous, slightly disrespectful but fond  attitude towards the correspondent.

You can get it for free!  Read it.  Far more fun than most classics.

(Just discovered that there is a sequel - "Dear Enemy", back to Project Gutenberg!)