Daddy-Long-Legs / Dear Enemy

Daddy-Long-Legs #1-2

by Jean Webster, Elaine Showalter (Editor)

One of the great novels of American girlhood, Jean Webster's Daddy-Long- Legs (1912) follows the adventures of an orphan named Judy Abbott, whose letters to her anonymous male benefactor trace her development as an independent thinker and writer. Its sequel, Dear Enemy (1915), also told in letters, follows the progress of Judy's former orphanage now run by her friend Sallie McBride, who struggles to give her young charges hope and a new life. Full of irrepressible female characters that both recall Alcott's Jo March and anticipate the popular heroines of contemporary literature, Webster's novels are witty, heartfelt, and delightfully modern.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Young Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction, Humor, Childrens

357 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2004

About the author

Jean Webster (pseudonym for Alice Jane Chandler Webster) was an American writer and author of many books including Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy. Her most well-known books feature lively and likeable young female protagonists who come of age intellectually, morally, and socially, but with enough humor, snappy dialogue, and gently biting social commentary to make her books palatable and enjoyable to contemporary readers.

Reviews

[Zsa Zsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book as a translation when I was a teenager, I loved Judy and daddy long legs, but that was only the first book, then I found out there's a sequel and i had to have it, I got it and i read it and never had I been more touched so deeply, the only other writer who does that to me is Charlotte Bronte and Jean Webster is a true disciple.
I can't explain the softness of the feelings she has me feel, she makes my eyes well up talking about the mundane things, she breaks my heart out of sheer love I feel for the characters she makes, she makes me relive all the romance of all the centuries, and so when I got this book as a gift in English I couldn't contain myself, I rushed home to read it and because of how much I love it, I did myself the pleasure of reading it all out loud, I had to see that I love these words at 30 as much as I loved them at 13 and I did, actually i love every word more, i love the fact that it's an epistolary novel, how Sallie sits down to write her heart out before it implodes with emotions, I think I had to do the same.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Webster’s linked novels feature young, spirited ‘new’ women carving out lives for themselves, the kind that wouldn’t be out of place alongside Anne Shirley or Jo in Little Women. In Daddy Long-Legs orphan Judy Abbott's life’s changed when an anonymous benefactor sponsors her college education, the only condition that she sends letters updating him on her progress. Dear Enemy returns to the orphanage where Judy grew up but this time follows her best friend Sallie McBride who reluctantly takes over its day-to-day-management. Both stories are told through letters, Judy’s narrative is fairly light and frothy presenting a vivid picture of her years studying, reading voraciously, going to parties and starting out on a writing career, it’s engaging and entertaining even though the power dynamics of the underlying romance are more than a little dodgy from a contemporary perspective. Judy’s a likeable, forthright and fiercely independent character who reflects Webster’s own background as a socialist and a suffragette. Webster’s beliefs are more obvious in Sallie’s narrative carefully teased out through Sallie’s experiences living with children who’ve been abandoned. Her letters are full of amusing anecdotes of the children’s exploits and her attempts to juggle difficult staff and demanding sponsors. But Sallie’s plans to improve the orphans' surroundings also bring her into contact with theories about child development and provides a fascinating insight into the impact of debates that were raging over nature versus nurture, part of the early 20th century conflict between the growing eugenics’ movement and people who considered environment more important than heritage. Although by modern standards the attitudes to children with disabilities are appalling. But despite these undercurrents Dear Enemy’s still an undemanding read and the orphans themselves are great supporting characters.

[Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dearest Judy---can I call you Judy?

Forgive me for jumping ahead of myself but in my imagination we are already the best of friends. I've already let Anne, Jo and Sarah know to make room for you at our lunch table. I feel like I know you so well! Reading your letters to Daddy Long Legs (DLL) was like reading your diary and I bet it felt like that to you too, with him stubbornly refusing to reply and all. (I knew he'd cave in eventually. I mean, how could he resist? You are awesome.)

Your letters jumped right off the page showing how smart, resourceful and hilarious you are. I hate to think what might have happened to you if you hadn't written that funny paper about your life at the orphanage, cracking DLL up enough that even though he was a trustee of the very orphanage you were making fun of, he decided to send you to college. And to become an author no less! Forget being best friends, I might just want to BE you!

Getting to read all of your new and exciting experiences in the outside world was so gratifying. I rooted for you so hard, Judy! And you didn't let me down. You approached every challenge with such pluck that I couldn't help compare it to my own attitude and sad to say, Judy, but I'm often an ungrateful brat. You'll forgive me though won't you? I love to read too. And write letters! And have adventures! I already laugh at all of your jokes. You'll be such a great influence on me, I can already tell.

I heard that you had a recent opening for a penpal and well, might as well just come out and say it---I'd like to apply for the job. What do you say, Judy? Will I do?

Affectionately,
Noelle

See the full feature Maggie and I did about Daddy Long Legs at Young Adult Anonymous.

[Susan's Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Judy and Jervis will live forever in my heart - I believe this was the first serious "romantic" novel that I read in middle school (and reread in high school!) The book was DEFINITELY better than the movie starring Leslie Caron and Fred Astaire. (You can pick up many of Jean Websters books for free on Amazon.)



Highly recommended!

[Anna Petruk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I own this beat-up Penguin Classics copy of Daddy-Long-Legs. I think it was the first book I've ever read in English. It's right up there among my all-time favorite classics. Want to re-read it sometime. I wasn't as into Dear Enemy - it was a bit boring at the time. But maybe I should give it another chance.

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely charming!
Where has Jerusha Abbott been all my life? As a devotee of plucky heroines like Anne Shirley and Jo March, I am so surprised that I never discovered this book when I was younger. I'm happy to run across it as an adult, though. I have the two-book collection and have only read 'Daddy-Long-Legs' so far, but 'Dear Enemy' is waiting on my bedside table, so I may edit this review.

'Daddy-Long-Legs' is in epistolary novel told from the perspective of the letters between a young orphan, Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, and her mysterious benefactor, dubbed Daddy-Long-Legs from her only half-glimpse of him: his shadow on the wall making his tall figure appear even taller. As he funds her college education and 'delivers' her from life in an orphanage, she writes him on a regular basis, which was his only stipulation in putting her through school. Along the way, she gains experience and confidence and becomes quite an independent heroine. I loved her humorous, cutely-awkward outlook on life and her irreverent letters to Daddy-Long-Legs. There were a few (although obvious to me) twists & turns in the story and it has a neat little happy ending, but I absolutely adored it.

[Suad Shamma · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is only about Dear Enemy:

Very disappointed. I honestly couldn't finish this book, because I found many parts of it offensive. I realize that the period it was written in, these prejudices were normal, but my mind would just not let me accept it. It made me lose respect for Sallie's character, and also for Jean Webster.

I couldn't believe no one else has noticed these things, or if they have, they're very few indeed. The strongest theme in this story is that of mental disabilities and special needs - "defective" children, Sallie called them. The way Sallie refers to them and speaks of them with such huge disregard is shocking and quite upsetting. The way they are easily discarded with because they are taking the places of more able-bodied, healthy children is really disappointing. And yes! That's exactly how they were treated and what Sallie said when she referred to finding institutions for them. Again, I realize those were different times, but my "modern", "progressive" mind could not accept it as OK. When Sallie blatantly mentions how she thinks people with mental illness, or "developmental delays" should not be allowed to procreate so that they don't allow for their genes to spread, or when she discovers one of her girls is an "idiot" and tries to find different accommodations for her, or worse! When she continuously gets angry with the doctor - her Dear Enemy - and demands that he come back and stop treating those mentally ill people he's gone to care for...no. Just no. I cannot read this and be OK with it. To interweave all this wrongness with a love story? Give me a break. It's shameful. It really ruins the whole idea of Daddy-Long-Legs for me, especially the fact that Jean Webster framed herself as socially progressive and a feminist in her first book.

Disappointing.

[Wirepuppy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just remembered "Daddy Long-Legs", a book that I really loved as a young teen. My mother gave this to me when I was something between 12 and 14 because she had read it when she was younger and she thought I might like it. I read this book quite a few times when I was younger (I read it in German back then and I've never actually read the original). I just really liked the character of Judy Abott and the way she had this whole new world to explore after spending her whole life in an orphanage, how there was so much for her to learn and so many books to read. I just checked on Wikipedia and it was actually written in 1912, which is so weird, because when I was young I always thought it was written in the 50s - I guess because the edition I had was published in the 50s. I have this image in my head of Judy sitting in her room in college in this tower in her window seat, reading (and it's snowing outside). It's strange sometimes, how certain images just stick with you even if you don't remember much about the book (although I remember this one quite well because I read it so many times). I didn't have a clue at the time what the word "Communist" meant, but I was convinced that I was one because Judy wrote in one of her letters to Daddy Long-Legs that she thought she was a Communist.
It all just came back to me somehow, I'm not even sure why. But I'm definitely buying the English version sometime soon. :)
It's really cute and probably a rather a girlish book - it's an epistolary novel about a girl named Jerusha Abott (nicknamed Judy) who is taken out of an orphanage and sent to college by one of the orphanage's trustees because she is really talented at writing and he wants to offer her the chance of getting a good education, despite the fact that she's really poor and has been brought up in an orphanage. The only thing she has to do in return is to send him a monthly letter. She's not even supposed to know who he is (he never answers her letters, either), so she decides to call him "Daddy Long-Legs" because the only time she actually saw him was from far away and she only saw his back and his shadow (which had those long legs, hence the nickname).
I just loved discovering the world through Judy's eyes and I think this is well worth a read.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely preferred the main characters voice in Daddy-Long-Legs, however the progress of the orphanage in Dear Enemy was very satisfying. I kept flipping between liking and hating Sallie so I guess that makes her a complicated charatcer. Also, the sort of romantic 'plot twists' in each book were predictable, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing - in Daddy-Long-Legs, it was all the more exciting because I had thought it would happen for so long.

[Anne Rioux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had a lot of fun discussing this book with my students in a course on the female Bildungsroman. Two of them read it as children, and although it is known today as a children's novel, it was read by adults as well when it was first published in 1912. My adult graduate students enjoyed reading it and particularly loved the heroine, Judy (Jerusha) Abbott, who is spunky and really comes into her own over the course of the novel. Daddy Long Legs is a novel in letters, all of them written by Judy to her unknown benefactor, who has provided her with a college education.

The book participates in a tradition of women's college novels that implicitly addressed the concerns many (male) authorities had about women gaining access to higher education. Daddy Long Legs celebrates college and the growth that it allows women. The big question for many readers is whether or not the heroine will continue to grow after the end of the book. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that through our class discussions, most of my students felt that Jean Webster portrayed a progressive heroine who refuses to allow others to direct her fate.

We especially enjoyed comparing her to Jo March in Little Women. My students felt that in many ways Judy was able to find her voice to a greater extent than Jo. As one student put it, Judy was recording in her letters her "authentic self" rather than pursuing and "ideal self," as Jo was. T

he book is also a Kunstlerroman, as it narrates a young writer's development of her creative identity. There are some lovely passages in which she is reveling in her freedom to write, as Jo did. For instance, "Isn't it fun to work . . ? It's especially fun when your kind of work is the thing you'd rather do more than anything else in the world." It's wonderful to see a 1912 twenty-year-old girl/woman devoting herself to her writing and never once feeling guilty about it! For that reason alone, I would strongly recommend it.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

How is it that I'm 32 years old and just discovering Daddy-Long-Legs? Such a delicious book: girlish and feminist, secretive and frank, old-fashioned and progressive, all at the same time. How exciting to know that there are still so many wonderful books waiting to be discovered. (And so many of them freely available via Project Gutenberg!)

I feel as happy as the delightful Judy Abbott felt at the end of Daddy-Long-Legs.

ETA: Good heavens, I do believe that I enjoyed the second volume even more than the first! What a delightful pair of novellas.

[Zahraa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daddy-Long-Legs

" I like to pretend that you belong to me, just to play with the idea, but of course I know you don't. I'm alone, really."

[Books I'm Not Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give Daddy Long Legs four stars and Dear Enemy two stars. You can check out my mini-rant on my Youtube video for Friday, March 10, 2023.

[Eman · Rating 5 out of 5]

يعلم الله كم أحب هذين الكتاببن 🥹❤️ يوقظان مشاعر رقيقة حلوة بداخلي.

[Tyrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read Dear Enemy, but I really enjoyed Daddy-Long-Legs! Judy made me laugh out loud so many times, I loved all her little drawings along the way! Would recommend:)

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read the first book in this collection. I remember reading Daddy Long Legs when I was younger and being thrown by the ending. It’s still a little odd but fun to read about such a plucky protagonist (very little women!).

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is confined to Dear Enemy. Discussion of ableism follows.

GOD. This is a book so mired in its time that it's impossible to read it for the joys of the determination of Sallie toward growth as a person through honest hard work, because she sees her work - and the narrative does - as exclusively about helping only white able-bodied attractive children.

In some ways I wish I didn't know this book came after the charming and poignant and big-hearted Daddy-Long-Legs. In some ways I'm glad I read it in this first blush of love for that book, for the insistent reminder that eugenics was considered a vital and positive topic of interest among "progressive" social workers of the early 20th century. In a small part of me I selfishly wish I could have read this unknowing when I was younger, so I could have just appreciated it for Sallie's effervescent writing and the gruff romance with the orphanage's doctor; the larger part of me is very glad I didn't.

I can't look at the book as a narrative on its own apart from its faults, and not least because it's so clearly meant to advocate Webster's vision of social justice. The book makes determined pleas for better orphanages, and I imagine it got many of its contemporary readers interested in causes they didn't know about before reading, but it couches all social justice in a lens of weeding out "defective" children so that society might become more ordered. Sallie "jokes" about how children of alcoholics ought not to be brought awake from their own first insensate drinking, but readers are meant to take not just laughter but also pathos from her plea to not call a doctor for a boy who is thus drunk. She also advocates - oh, so carelessly! such an aside of a thought, but that her letters keep returning to the burden "idiots" place on her nice clean modern orphanage - the segregation of developmentally delayed people onto farms to do easy menial tasks, and to not be allowed to have children, so that the issue of "sub-normality" could take care of itself within a generation.

This is a book OBSESSED with heredity (a very imperfect understanding, obviously), and the fact that Sallie's heart cannot include anyone outside her narrow world view reveals the lie of Webster's progressivism, as well as serving as a good reminder of the seeds of so much early "progressive" activism. I had so looked forward to enjoying this book, but it'll be a long, long time before I'll even be able to look at Daddy-Long-Legs again.

[Jeslyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though Daddy-Long-Legs is the superior book of the two, this is the best format to read Webster's two classic tales of Jerusha "Judy" Abbott and her experiences growing up in an orphanage from which she departs for college and the wider world, thanks to the funding of an anonymous Trustee of the John Grier Home - who doesn't like girls. The two conditions of his grant are that his identity remain anonymous, and that Jerusha will write a monthly letter to him with a report of her performance. The letters will not be read, it must be understood, but are instead designed as an exercise that will stimulate her to become an author. From these laughable beginnings (oh yes, writing letters no one will read must be so motivating for anyone, let alone a person who is expected to become an author!) the reader is taken through this curious one-sided correspondence, delightfully loaded with Judy's observations on college, her sheltered life in the orphan asylum, money, friendships, and her ever-increasing interest in knowing the identity of her benefactor and establishing a friendship with him. Dear Enemy continues the fun, but curiously its multiple correspondents makes this one a bit less appealing than DDL - still worth the read, however.

And here again, as with so many of the books I enjoy the most, these century-old novels can still strike a chord in the 21st century.

Regardless of which copy of these stories you settle on, please note that not all contain the original illustrations - and their absence would leave a huge hole in the reading experience. Insist on a copy with illustrations! You're welcome.

[Francesca Tripiedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ringrazio Cristina D'Avena per avermi condotto sin qui.
Cristina cara, eri già la fonte primaria della mia ossessione di ventitré anni per Sailor Moon (sebbene, per amor di onestà bisogna ammettere che una parte del merito è da attribuire agli occhi blu di Marzio).
E ora questo.
Mi vergogno un po' ad ammettere di non aver mai letto "Daddy Long Legs" prima di adesso e al momento non riesco a ricordare com'era la mia vita prima di imbattermi in Jerusha "Judy" Abbott. E sì che l'ho conosciuta soltanto ieri a mezzogiorno! Credo che sia diventata la mia amica letteraria migliore di sempre, di certo la più incantevole che sia mai stata tratteggiata con penna e calamaio, e - ho il sospetto - quella il cui conforto cercherò più spesso. (Sarà divertente, Judy! Berremo tè e parleremo di Shakespeare fino a notte inoltrata! Io, te e Sally, che è adorabile quanto te).
Insomma, Cristina, ti devo quasi tutto quello che sono come individuo pensante. Ti strapazzerei di coccole!

[Qt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a fun book, light and charming--I loved reading the protagonist's letters (they made me want to write better letters!) and her bubbly descriptions of college life were delightful. I had skimmed this book years before, so much of its content wasn't new to me, but I'd forgotten many of the details, and it was fun to revisit.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book growing up. Especially fun was my grandmother's copy, which was the version released with the Mary Pickford movie version, and had marvelous pictures from the movie in it.

[Jennifer Fluegge · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been quite some time since I read these books, but I just remember loving them! Interesting and very well-written.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Daddy-Long-Legs way back in the 80s when I was young, as I loved old-fashioned books by Louisa May Allcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Remembering it fondly, I decided to give it a re-read and also read the sequel for the first time. Big mistake.

Daddy-Long-Legs

Published in 1912, the story is written in letter format as orphan Judy Abbott writes letters to her anonymous benefactor who pays her way through college. The letters detail her life as a budding writer, her new friendships and the possibility of two romances. That one of the men is secretly her benefactor comes as no surprise, despite the 14-year age gap and inequality of the relationship. Remember I grew up thinking it was romantic that the Prince of Wales became engaged to a teenage Diana, so I didn't question (too much) how Jervis manipulated Judy. I accept this story is a product of its time, and still enjoyed my re-read of it. Rating: 4/5

Dear Enemy

This sequel centers on Sallie McBride, Judy's best friend, who is surprisingly given the job of running the orphanage that Judy grew up in. Judy and her rich husband Jervis are patrons and support Sallie's reforms. This story is also written in letters, some to Sallie's "enemy" the staid local doctor, some to Judy and others to her fiance. Again, I tried to remember this story is a product of its time, but what Sallie shared about the "feebleminded", her support of euthenics and her joke about her wish to poison one of the girls completely took me out of the story and spoiled the entire narrative. In addition, her late-in-story romance with the doctor was unbelievable so I ended up hating on the second story. Rating: 1/5

Combining the two gives it a 2.5 rating, which I rounded up to a 3 (how I wish we could give half stars on Goodreads!)

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it would be a better idea to read a 2-in-1 book, and not each book separately. Boy was I wrong.

DADDY-LONG-LEGS ~ 4☆
Jerusha is an orphan, that one day gets to go to college thanks to a mystery man that funds it for her, but she must in return write him monthly letters. So this book is written in a form of letters addressed to this mystery man. They were very witty and wholesome and kind of reminded me of Anne of Green Gables a tiny bit (if she had written letters to someone), but after some time the letter format does get a bit old. Everything's all well and dandy, and the real identity of her funder is very predictable, thanks to the author's hints. But when i got to the ending, I couldn't help myself but feel a bit disturbed (therefore 1star was torn off the rating). I can't say any more without any spoilers, so I shall say no more. Otherwise it was quite and enjoyable and quick read.

DEAR ENEMY - 2✩
So the author decided to write a sequel talking about one of Jerusha's friends (that takes place right after the previous story's end) who gets a job at the orphanage and there's a doctor there, who she names Enemy. She addresses letters to Judy, a friend Gordon, and Enemy interchangeably. 99% of the letters' content is about the orphanage and the kids there, and how she hates working there and I'm so sorry to say, but I couldn't care less. If you know my opinion of children, I think you understand. I read a little less than half of it, and couldn't bring myself to finish it, as by the time I reached the point I had, I was skimming through the pages so fast I wasn't even reading anymore. Plus, it's twice the length of the previous story? No thanks.

[Mrs. Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This is for Dear Enemy. I have a separate review for Daddy Long-Legs.)

Aw, man. When I had 2 pages left, I didn’t want to keep going. I knew I was going to love the ending, and I didn’t want the story to end! Some might consider the story overly saccharine, but sometimes you just need a lovely story. And a love story. Love is all over this story, and not just the overly-saccharine romantic kind.

Although not all is lovely. You can definitely see the time frame and possibly the author’s, um, philosophy when eugenics regularly comes up. At one point, when one of the orphans has alcohol poisoning, our heroine even says, “If I were a physician, I’d let such cases gently slip away for the good of society[.]”. Fortunately, the physician fought on and saved the life of a 16-year old who made a stupid decision, although our heroine does not concede the stupid decision. She believes his life is pre-ordained and will be ugly and brutish.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel book to Daddy Long Legs and follows Sally McBride, one of Judy’s friends from collage and her appointment of running the John Greer home.

I will admit that it’s not as good as Daddy Long Legs, but it does have its own charm. It picks up about half way through, although I thought it was plenty enjoyable throughout. The version I have has rather small print that made it a little difficult to read large portions at a time so took me a long time to read, adding to its slower pace feeling.

I will admit, eugenics was rather new for the time and it pops up in this book now and then in rather horrifying ways. However, it’s not talked about but so much, and can be easily put to one side and forgotten about (it’s less about race and more about alcoholics, criminals and mental illness).

I would recommend this book if you liked Daddy Long Legs and the formatting of a book told through letters.

[Tamara York · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is two books in one, all told in letters. I reread Daddy-Long-Legs and enjoyed it again. The only downside is a slightly icky age difference in a romantic relationship and some controlling actions by a dominant character. (I can’t be specific because it will give away a major plot point.)
The sequel, Dear Enemy had no such issues. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at an orphan asylum and it’s practices in the 1910’s. It reminded me of favorite orphan stories of that time period (Anne and Pollyanna).

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this point, I have only read the "Daddy-Long-Legs" part of the book. It was a quick, really delightfully fun read! I liked the format -- getting to know Judy and follow the story line through Judy's letters to her benefactor. The drawings were also very cute. I felt like I had figured out where the story was going fairly early in the book (and I was correct), but the journey was so enjoyable getting there that I didn't mind the predictability.

Favorite quote: "It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh -- I really think that requires spirit." (p. 38)

Runner up #1: "It isn't the great big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones--I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be forever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant." (pp. 97-98)

Runner-up #2: "I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding. It ought to be cultivated in children." (p. 70)

Okay, now I can go read "Dear Enemy" -- I'll be back!

November 1st and I just now finished reading "Dear Enemy." It also is a quick and enjoyable read. I would probably only give it 3 stars instead of 4. I still like the format of letters telling the story. This time, Judy is on the receiving end of most of those letters which were penned by her friend, Sallie, who is now in charge of the children's asylum where Judy once lived. Initially, I felt as though Sallie's personality was a carbon copy of Judy's. I wanted Sallie to have her own distinct character. A more defined and deeper character developed as the story progressed so I actually liked that about this book. I also felt like there was more substance to the story line in the final 30-40 pages and I particulaly like the way it ended. I found "Dear Enemy" to also be predictable as was "Daddy-Long-Legs" but this time I was partly correct and partly incorrect. (I like to be surprised.) Sorry, I did not capture any favorite quotes this time. Still good for a few chuckles and a fun, light read.

Final comment: Considering when these books were written (1912 and 1915), I think I would put them in a Timeless Treasures category.

[Luisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy are two extremely enchanting and charming epistolary novels. The first part offers an insight into the life of Judy Abbott, an orphan who suddenly finds her situation very much improved and therefore tries to find out as much as possible about the person who seems to be so interested in her personal well-being. Of course, the reader at a very early stage already has a very precise suspicion, but it nevertheless is highly entertaining to observe Judy's efforts to unmask her "Daddy-Long-Legs", especially as Judy's unique personality and distinct and sometimes quite cheeky voice become obvious through her letters.
The sequel is a collection of letters written by Sally McBride, Judy's childhood friend, who is now the superintendent of the orphanage Judy grew up in. Although her letters are every bit as cheeky as Judy's and there's also that bit of romance that keeps you interested, I found them a little less appealing - maybe because they were very much concerned with the pedagogy of the beginning of the century, which of course is dated and for the amount of pages spent on that topic simply not interesting enough.
Still, I highly recommend these entertaining novels in the form of letters. They vividly depict independent and strong-minded, funny and intelligent young women. Enjoy!

[Julianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers alert. Move along if you don't want this children's chapter book ruined for you.

***

It gives me no pleasure to give this wonderful book only 3 stars because:

-This was filed in the Epistolary section of the NYPL e-reader app. Which, major heart eyes emoji right there. I adore the person who set aside an entire (if understocked) category for this genre.
-I read this first as a child and remembered NOTHING except the spindly sketch of a daddy long legs.
-It features a first person narrator who's a charismatic, indefatigably optimistic spunky young woman. I like to think she'd have been great friends with Cassandra in I Capture the Castle. More heart eyes emoji.
-Webster writes terrific sentences like:

She wanted to know what my mother's maiden name was--did you ever hear such an impertinent question to ask of a person from a foundling asylum? I didn't have the courage to say I didn't know ...
Her mother was a Rutherford. The family came over in the ark, and were connected by marriage with Henry the VIII. On her father's side they date back further than Adam. On the topmost branches of her family tree there's a superior breed of monkeys, with very fine silky hair and extra long tails.

A savvier reader could probably tell where this book was headed from the first 30 pages. I was wondering when the big reveal would happen. But did NOT NOT NOT foresee the ending being what it turned out to be. Judy Abbott earns her own way for the last two years of college, yes. But what paternalistic trash. I love a good Cinderella story but NOT one where the woman addresses her benefactor as daddy and then falls in love with the IRL version of him and fucking MARRIES HIM. NO NO NO NO. Do not marry your daddy. NO!