Daddy Long Legs

by Jean Webster

Overview

At 18 years old, Jerusha Abbott is the eldest child stuck in an orphanage with every other kid's responsibility on her shoulders. Her life takes a pivotal turn when an unnamed man, who is a trustee of the orphanage, pays for her college education being impressed by one of her essays.

He decides to pay a handsome amount to her at regular intervals in return for letters written to him by Jerusha without any expectation of a response. The reader gets a visual of how Jerusha's life unfolds as she steps into a new phase of her life. She addresses him as daddy long legs for she catches a glimpse of his (long) legs as he leaves the orphanage one day.
Gripping till the last page where the identity of the benefactor is revealed, this epistolary comingof- age classic is relatable to the extent that the reader can live Jerusha's life through her letters. Her relationship with the anonymous benefactor as she grows, learns, explores and thrives, makes the reader an active yet a passive participant in her story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789355204998
Publisher:	Rupa Publications India Pvt Ltd
Publication date:	09/05/2022
Pages:	154
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

About the Author

"The grandniece of Mark Twain, Alice Jane Chandler Webster was born in July 1876 in Fredonia, New York. In 1894, she graduated in China painting from the Fredonia Normal School and joined the Lady Jane Grey School from where she graduated in 1896. Her experience here provided an inspiration for her novel Just Patty. Webster joined the Vassar College in 1897 from where she majored in English and Economics. Interested in social issues, she took up courses in penal reform and welfare. Her novels When Patty Went to College and Daddy-Long-Legs were inspired by her college experience at Vassar. Webster contributed stories to the Vassar Miscellany and wrote weekly columns for the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier. Her first novel, When Patty Went to College was published in 1903. It describes the life of contemporary women in an all-girl’s college. In 1907, she published Jerry Junior and in 1908, The Four Pools Mystery. Much Ado About Peter was published in 1909. Webster began writing Daddy-Long-Legs (1912) after the publication of Just Patty in 1911. First serialized in the Ladies’ Home Journal, it is her most popular work. The sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs, Dear Enemy was published in November 1915. Webster died of childbirth fever on June 11, 1916."