Book Review - Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs
Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
Published by: Everyman's Library
Publication Date: 1912
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy
Here we go people! Another orphan story! Can't say my mom wasn't consistent! She liked unconventional families, be they big and rambling, or the families you found after being an orphan. And isn't it the time of year for orphans? It's very bleak Dickensian Christmas to be one... Anyway, my mom became obsessed with this book because of the 1955 film starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron. Now usually it's me that falls in love with books after first seeing the movie, but I guess that turns out to be hereditary... The thing is she had issues with the movie, she thought it odd that a young girl would fall in love with her benefactor and the age difference she found creepy. So she read the book to see how much was changed and fell in love with the book, which is quite different and told in a wonderful epistolary style. In fact she was so obsessed with Daddy-Long-Legs that when she learned there was an out of print sequel, Dear Enemy, she spent months scouring shelves of used bookstores for a copy. So one year, for Christmas, I found a copy online, a first edition inscribed "Christmas 1915" and gave it to her. I think she liked it. She oddly didn't read it for quite a few years. I think by that point she was worried it would disappoint her and then it came back into print and I found her reading a paperback copy one day but she wouldn't comment on it being good or bad. So I at least know the first book in the series is a classic... the second is up in the air.
Post a Comment