Daddy Long Legs - book review

[watervole]

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!)

Comments

[pensnest]

What a charming book! I opened it just to see, and have got to the first summer holidays already - it is delightful.

[watervole]

Yay! Enjoy.

I stayed up far too late finishing it, and I hadn't even the excuse of wanting to know how it ended as I already knew.

I just love the way Judy writes and her witty portraits of her friends.

[coth]

One of my favourite childhood books. Still have my extremely old and battered copy round here somewhere, I think.

[watervole]

Lucky you to have the illustrations. The Project Gutenberg version is sadly missing them, and they are part of the fun.

[igenlode]

Interesting -- I'd no idea there was a sequel. (To be honest, I had absolutely no recollection of studying it at school, but we evidently did.)

[watervole]

I don't think I studied it at school, I think I just read it from the library for fun. I do miss the pictures in the free ebook, but you can't win them all.

Half way through the sequel at present. Fun, though not quite as good as the origiaal.

[catalenamara]

I remember hearing about this book but never read it. I just downloaded it.

[watervole]

Enjoy!

[msilverstar]

sounds fab!