4 h 45 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 117 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 117 pagesAbout this book
What if the person who opens your world expects your letters, but never writes back?
Jerusha Abbott grows up under the strict rules of the John Grier Home. When a trustee notices her writing talent, an anonymous benefactor offers her a college education. Calling herself Judy, she enters a world of friendships and possibilities. In return, she must write regularly to the man she calls Daddy-Long-Legs.
Judy’s letters brim with humor, curiosity, and ambition. Sally McBride brings warmth and companionship; wealthy Julia Pendleton makes Judy feel the distance between their lives. As Julia’s uncle, Jervis Pendleton, becomes important to her, Judy faces a deeper question: can she accept another person’s help and still choose her own path?
What you’ll discover
- Letters full of life Discover Judy through candid letters that turn college discoveries into moments of wit and delight.
- An education beyond lessons Follow an aspiring writer as she explores friendships, unfamiliar homes, and her own ambitions.
- The ache of belonging Feel the gap between Judy’s childhood and the memories her fellow students take for granted.
- Gratitude meets stubbornness Share Judy’s struggle to welcome kindness without giving up the right to make her choices.
- Room for hopeful romance Watch love become part of Judy’s wish to shape a life on her own terms.
Who will love it
Readers who love warm, funny voices, college stories, letters and diaries, and heroines who grow in front of you. It suits anyone who enjoys a cheerful tale of friendship, books, and finding a place in the world.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An Orphan Receives a Secret Offer
- College Teaches More Than Lessons
- Summers at Lock Willow Farm
- Pride, Gratitude, and a Will of Her Own
- Belonging, Imagination, and Happiness
- A Girl's Voice Told in Letters
Who’s who
- Jerusha Abbott, called JudyAn orphan sent to college by a secret benefactor, she wants to become a writer, find friends, and belong somewhere.
- Daddy-Long-LegsThe rich, tall trustee who pays for Judy's education and asks only for monthly letters, which he never answers.
- Sallie McBrideJudy's red-haired roommate and best friend, funny and warm, who invites her into her lively family.
- Julia Rutledge PendletonA proud roommate from an old New York family, she is rich and bored and slowly grows more friendly.
- Jervis PendletonJulia's tall uncle, called Master Jervie, who owned Lock Willow Farm as a boy and becomes Judy's good friend.
- Mrs. LippettThe matron of the John Grier Home, pompous before visitors, who gives Judy her instructions and expects gratitude.
- Mrs. SempleThe kind farm wife at Lock Willow, once Master Jervie's nurse, who makes Judy welcome and cooks enormous meals.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 4 h 45 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 117 pages: 7,95 USD when you start free, 13,95 USD on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 117 pages: 14,95 USD when you start free, 20,95 USD on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Daddy-Long-Legs
by Jean Webster · 1912
An orphan named Jerusha Abbott gets a secret benefactor and must write him a letter every month.
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In short
Daddy-Long-Legs is a novel written mostly in letters, by the American author Jean Webster and published in 1912. Its heroine is Jerusha Abbott, a seventeen-year-old orphan who has spent her whole life in the John Grier Home.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
An Orphan Receives a Secret Offer
The story opens at the John Grier Home on the first Wednesday of the month, the day the trustees visit. Ninety-seven children must be scrubbed, combed, and taught to say yes sir and no sir. Jerusha Abbott, the oldest orphan, carries most of the work. She has been there since she was a baby, and now she is seventeen. She has never been inside an ordinary house, and her imagination cannot carry her past the front porch of the big homes she watches from the window.
As the last trustee leaves in the dusk, the headlights of his car throw his shadow against the wall. The long arms and legs look like a huge daddy-long-legs. Jerusha laughs, because she always finds a reason to be amused. Then she is called to the matron's office, afraid she has done something wrong.
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What is Daddy-Long-Legs about?
It tells of Jerusha Abbott, an orphan sent to college by a rich trustee she has never met. She must write him a letter every month, and the novel is made of those letters about her studies, friends, and growth.
Why is it called Daddy-Long-Legs?
Judy sees the trustee only as a long shadow on the wall, shaped like the spidery insect. Since she does not know his name, she calls him Daddy-Long-Legs, and the nickname stays in all her letters.
Is Daddy-Long-Legs a true story?
No, it is a novel by Jean Webster, published in 1912. The college life it shows draws on the author's own world, but Judy Abbott and her benefactor are invented characters.
The author
Jean Webster
1876–1916 · American novelist
Jean Webster was the pen name of Alice Jane Chandler Webster, an American novelist born in Fredonia, New York, in 1876. She later lived in New York City, where she died in 1916. Her novels include When Patty Went to College (1903), Daddy-Long-Legs (1912), and Dear Enemy (1915).
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