Resumen
Resumen de Daddy-Long-Legs
Para quién es
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.
De qué trata este libro
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. One day a rich trustee she has never met decides to send her to college and train her as a writer. His only condition is that she write to him once a month, and that he will never answer.
Everything you learn comes through her pages. You get her lessons, her embarrassing mistakes, her new friends, her summers on a Connecticut farm, and her plans to become a great author. The book gives you a quick, funny voice, a picture of a women's college in early twentieth century America, and a girl who slowly works out who she is and what she wants. To see where it all begins, we start with a dreaded Wednesday at the orphanage and an offer nobody expected.
En este resumen
- 1An Orphan Receives a Secret OfferFree
- 2College Teaches More Than Lessons
- 3Summers at Lock Willow Farm
- 4Pride, Gratitude, and a Will of Her Own
- 5Belonging, Imagination, and Happiness
- 6A Girl's Voice Told in Letters
Idea clave 1 de 6
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.
Mrs. Lippett, the matron, is oddly pleasant. She explains that one of the wealthiest trustees, a man who has already paid for several boys to go to college and who is said to dislike girls, has read an essay Jerusha wrote. It was called Blue Wednesday, and it made fun of the orphanage. He found it so funny that he wants to send her to college and train her to be a writer.
The terms are strange. He will pay her board and tuition and give her thirty-five dollars a month. In return she must write to him monthly, addressing the letters to Mr. John Smith, which is not his real name. He will never reply, and she may not even thank him for the money. Jerusha is dizzy, tells Mrs. Lippett she has to go and sew a patch on a little boy's trousers, and leaves the matron with her speech hanging in the air.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Judy Abbott
- An aspiring writer raised in an orphanage, Judy attends college with financial support from an anonymous benefactor.
- Daddy-Long-Legs
- Judy’s anonymous benefactor pays for her college education and requires letters describing her progress without answering them.
- Sally McBride
- Sally is Judy’s warmhearted college friend, whose family offers companionship and experiences unfamiliar to Judy.
- Julia Pendleton
- Julia is Judy’s wealthy college friend, whose privileged upbringing contrasts sharply with Judy’s childhood in an orphanage.
- Jervis Pendleton
- Jervis is Julia’s uncle, who takes an interest in Judy as she discovers life beyond the orphanage.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 43,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 50 min
- Listening time4 h 45 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Daddy-Long-Legs
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.
Is Daddy-Long-Legs easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that it is made of short, chatty letters in a lively voice. Each letter is a small scene, with jokes, lists, and postscripts, so you can read a few at a time.
What is the main message of Daddy-Long-Legs?
The book shows that people can build a self through curiosity, humor, and effort, even without a family or a past. It also values gratitude joined with independence, and the joy of living in the present.