When Daddy-Long-Legs was first published in 1912, it was both a popular and critical success. Critics praised author Jean Webster’s deft characterizations and quick humor. Readers were drawn in by the orphanage setting and adored the main character. These same aspects still appeal to readers and critics today. Customer reviews on Amazon reveal that some people’s love of the book is rooted in nostalgia (“I first read Daddy-Long-Legs when I was 13. I am now 74 and . . . I have just read it again. I loved it when I was 13 and I loved it equally this time.” ---Margaret), while some have discovered it for the first time (“i am a 10 year old with an extremely high reading level and i love it! it is a very good book if you like kind of old books. the end is very interesting and i can not wait to read the second book,''Dear Enemy'' --- L. DeSoto)
The epistolary format of the novel has worked both for and against it. Both reviewers and readers have noted that epistolary novels often seem artificial and strained, but that Webster manages to make Judy’s letters seem both realistic and engaging. (“I am not usually a fan of books that are just letters, I find them a little flat, but the letters in Daddy Long Legs were written with such great feeling and energy that one simply had to love them.” ---Classic Book Lover) Although people may have initial reservations about epistolary novels as a format, one that is written well is likely to draw readers in quickly because letters come in conversational, bite-sized chunks.
The epistolary format of the novel has worked both for and against it. Both reviewers and readers have noted that epistolary novels often seem artificial and strained, but that Webster manages to make Judy’s letters seem both realistic and engaging. (“I am not usually a fan of books that are just letters, I find them a little flat, but the letters in Daddy Long Legs were written with such great feeling and energy that one simply had to love them.” ---Classic Book Lover) Although people may have initial reservations about epistolary novels as a format, one that is written well is likely to draw readers in quickly because letters come in conversational, bite-sized chunks.
The engaging and energetic voice behind the letters of Daddy-Long-Legs is a key factor for why the book has remained in print for a hundred years. For many people, letter-writer Judy Abbott is the aspect of the book they like the best. (“The main character, Judy, is very likeable. This is important to the book, because it is made up of things she wrote.” --- Sugarloafer; “Judy, despite spending her life in a rather stultifying orphanage that incessantly emphasized duty and gratitude, has a splendid sense of humor, a sense of her own self-worth and an intense desire to learn all she can about everything she can. Judy is kind-hearted without being saccharine, dutiful without being cloying, and determined without being mulish.” --- Miss Ivonne) Judy Abbott is bright, funny, honest, sincere, sarcastic, and curious. Her conversational tone often edges toward a confessional one as the reader watches her grow up over several years.
Crucially, the novel’s structure builds in both intimacy and scope, both of which encourage readers to feel proprietary toward Judy, as they’ve known her for years and have shared her feelings the whole way. When I first read the book, I certainly identified with Judy. Even rereading it more than two decades later, I found myself wondering why I seemed to share a sense of humor with a fictional orphan who was ostensibly writing more than one hundred years ago. Even if readers don’t identify with Judy themselves, they usually either want to be her friend or have her as their daughter. (“I read it as a teenager and enjoyed it more when I re-read it recently. I don't remember myself as being as wise and articulate at 17 as the heroine is portrayed but perhaps that was why I liked it so much back in the day. It was myself as I would have liked to be, not as I was. In any event, Jerusha (or "Judy" as she re-christens herself) is a delight and so is the book.” --- Shay Lynn) On Goodreads.com, the heroine of Daddy-Long-Legs is ranked on a community list of “Characters We Wish Existed” (rank as of 11/11/12: 169 out of 496).
Judy’s status as an orphan also serves to strengthen a connection between the character and the reader. As demonstrated by popularity of books like Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, Pollyanna, and even A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter, there is something appealing about orphans in children’s literature. It’s an appeal that goes back to fairy tales, where a child standing alone is a hero, a leading player, not an adult’s accessory. At the same time, there is an opening for the reader to stand alongside the child-hero because, after all, the orphan doesn’t belong to anyone else.
Even as parts of Daddy-Long-Legs are rooted in classic tropes (an orphan undergoes hardship, makes good through pluck), several aspects of the book make it seem ahead of its time. Jean Webster isn’t shy about her progressive roots and makes her heroine a proud suffragist and socialist.# (“It's always fascinating to realise that people who lived a hundred years ago were not so different from us at all, although the world itself has changed.” --- Kribu) Because Webster so perfectly captured the voice of one particular young woman, that young woman still feels so vibrant and alive today that she could step off the page.
Crucially, the novel’s structure builds in both intimacy and scope, both of which encourage readers to feel proprietary toward Judy, as they’ve known her for years and have shared her feelings the whole way. When I first read the book, I certainly identified with Judy. Even rereading it more than two decades later, I found myself wondering why I seemed to share a sense of humor with a fictional orphan who was ostensibly writing more than one hundred years ago. Even if readers don’t identify with Judy themselves, they usually either want to be her friend or have her as their daughter. (“I read it as a teenager and enjoyed it more when I re-read it recently. I don't remember myself as being as wise and articulate at 17 as the heroine is portrayed but perhaps that was why I liked it so much back in the day. It was myself as I would have liked to be, not as I was. In any event, Jerusha (or "Judy" as she re-christens herself) is a delight and so is the book.” --- Shay Lynn) On Goodreads.com, the heroine of Daddy-Long-Legs is ranked on a community list of “Characters We Wish Existed” (rank as of 11/11/12: 169 out of 496).
Judy’s status as an orphan also serves to strengthen a connection between the character and the reader. As demonstrated by popularity of books like Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, Pollyanna, and even A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter, there is something appealing about orphans in children’s literature. It’s an appeal that goes back to fairy tales, where a child standing alone is a hero, a leading player, not an adult’s accessory. At the same time, there is an opening for the reader to stand alongside the child-hero because, after all, the orphan doesn’t belong to anyone else.
Even as parts of Daddy-Long-Legs are rooted in classic tropes (an orphan undergoes hardship, makes good through pluck), several aspects of the book make it seem ahead of its time. Jean Webster isn’t shy about her progressive roots and makes her heroine a proud suffragist and socialist.# (“It's always fascinating to realise that people who lived a hundred years ago were not so different from us at all, although the world itself has changed.” --- Kribu) Because Webster so perfectly captured the voice of one particular young woman, that young woman still feels so vibrant and alive today that she could step off the page.
This strong character seems to translate well across cultures, too. The books has been translated into many languages (see [page 3]), and it also shows up on Amazon and Goodreads as being one of the first English-language books for some. (“This is the first book I read in English; I was about 15-16 years old at the time. I studied the language with my beloved teacher, Galina Vasilievna, in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).” ---Victoria Evangelina; “I read Daddy Long Legs ages ago as a young teenager in a wonderful translation into my mother tongue, Greek.” ---Dr. Kyvelie Papas) Readers have also discovered the book through sources as disparate a the Fred Astaire musical and an anime television adaptation.
Critics and librarians have also noticed that Daddy-Long-Legs has held up well over the last one hundred years. In 1998, the book was on a list of “Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults,” compiled by the ALA. The list appeared in School Library Journal under the heading “Feel-Good Books.”
There has also been a small but vehement critical push recently to place Daddy-Long-Legs more firmly in the canon of “classic” children’s literature. Academics have written about Webster’s novel in the context of early feminist literature and the legacy of Emerson- and Alcott-era New England socialism, and it has been compared side-by-side with Anne of Green Gables and Huckleberry Finn. In her article “If Mark Twain Had a Sister,” Karen Alkalay-Gut laments the fact that “while Huckleberry Finn has been canonized by authoritative figures as Hemingway, Fiedler, Chase, Smith, Trilling and the rest, Daddy-Long-Legs has been relegated to the children’s shelf” (91). Although Alkalay-Gut is probably right in declaring the book an underappreciated classic, there is no doubt that it is a classic. New readers discover it all the time, sometimes in unexpected ways, while returning readers come back to it and are charmed all over again. True, Jean Webster may not currently be a household name, but she left a strong legacy; Judy Abbott and her letters are something more personal than a name-dropping canon, anyway --- they’re a joy you share with your friend, a rope you throw to your niece, a secret you pass on to someone to say, “Here, this is me. This is us.”
Resources
[Web sources current as of 12/9/12.]
Alkalay-Gut, Karen. "`If Mark Twain Had A Sister': Gender-Specific Values And Structure In `Daddy Long-Legs'." Journal Of American Culture (01911813) 16.4 (1993): 91. Academic Search Premier.
Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Daddy-Long-Legs-Jean-Webster/dp/1463684339/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352771322&sr=1-1&keywords=daddy+long+legs
Freeman, Gillian. “Orphan-Appeal.” New Statesman. 3 November 1967. ProQuest: Periodicals Archive Online.
GoodReads.com. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/688906.Daddy_Long_Legs
"Popular Paperbacks For Young Adults 1998." School Library Journal 44.3 (1998): 113. Academic Search Premier.
Alkalay-Gut, Karen. "`If Mark Twain Had A Sister': Gender-Specific Values And Structure In `Daddy Long-Legs'." Journal Of American Culture (01911813) 16.4 (1993): 91. Academic Search Premier.
Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Daddy-Long-Legs-Jean-Webster/dp/1463684339/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352771322&sr=1-1&keywords=daddy+long+legs
Freeman, Gillian. “Orphan-Appeal.” New Statesman. 3 November 1967. ProQuest: Periodicals Archive Online.
GoodReads.com. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/688906.Daddy_Long_Legs
"Popular Paperbacks For Young Adults 1998." School Library Journal 44.3 (1998): 113. Academic Search Premier.