Daddy-Long-Legs

About the book

Jerusha Abbott leaves an orphanage for college under an unusual arrangement: her unnamed sponsor asks for regular letters but does not promise to answer. Calling herself Judy, she reports discoveries, embarrassments, friendships, reading, and ambitions to the distant figure she nicknames Daddy-Long-Legs. The letters allow her voice to grow as her world expands, while their one-sided form keeps questions of dependence and knowledge in view. Gratitude does not prevent her from arguing about what she wants or noticing the social advantages other students take for granted. Webster gives the story comic momentum through Judy's observations and sketches, but its educational plot also asks what independence means when opportunity arrives through someone else's conditions. Romance develops within that uneven distribution of information.

• Education and independence
• Patronage
• Finding a voice

Why read it

For an engaging letter-writing voice that turns the experience of learning into a lively argument for self-determination.

Epistolary novel · English text