4 h 20 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a quick-witted college girl treats every rule as an invitation to test its limits?
Patty Wyatt has plenty of energy for college, though studying is only part of her plan. With her close friend Priscilla beside her, she turns campus life into a string of schemes and adventures. Classmates bring friendship and rivalry; teachers and officials try to keep order when Patty sees another chance for mischief.
In When Patty Went to College, Jean Webster draws on the dormitories, lectures and friendships she knows from Vassar College. Short, funny episodes take the place of one tightly built plot. Beneath the jokes lies a warmer question: how do young women make an education their own while learning to think for themselves?
What you’ll discover
- A mind for mischief Meet a restless heroine whose sharp wit turns rules into possibilities for another scheme.
- Friendship at the center Follow Patty and Priscilla through shared days, lively plans and the pleasures of close companionship.
- Campus rivalries and loyalties Step into a college world where classmates supply both allies and targets for cheerful mischief.
- High spirits meet authority Watch teachers and officials try to hold the line against Patty's appetite for adventure.
- More beneath the laughter Discover young women taking education seriously without surrendering their jokes, friendships or independence of mind.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy quick, funny dialogue, school and campus stories, loyal friendships, and a heroine whose mischief always comes with warmth.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Patty turns a plain room into a palace
- Patty studies her professors closely
- A girl who never exists makes trouble
- Strangers wander into Patty's comic traps
- Patty offers some alarming comfort
- Under the jokes, Patty can be kind
- A quiet freshman catches Patty's attention
Who’s who
- Patty WyattA senior with a gift for bluffing, inventing stories and dodging rules, who rescues friends and cannot resist a joke.
- Priscilla PondPatty's athletic, sensible roommate, who warns her again and again and always stands by her.
- Georgie MerrilesA gloomy, witty friend from Dakota who sings, helps with Patty's schemes and manages the senior play.
- Bonnie ConnaughtA popular athlete from Kentucky who loves a good prank and plays detective on the night of the tree ceremony.
- Olivia CopelandA shy, gifted freshman raised in Italy, homesick and failing her courses, who finds an unexpected friend in Patty.
- PetersThe short, red-bearded janitor who enforces the dormitory rules and is feared by everyone except Patty.
- Cathy FairThe honest, hardworking president of the student association, admired by faculty and friends alike.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- 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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Quando Patty andò al college
by Jean Webster · 1903
A senior paints her dormitory floor black and talks the janitor into helping, one cheerful fib at a time.
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In short
What does a college senior do when the rules say no hanging curtains, no nails and no excuses? If she is Patty Wyatt, she smiles and finds a way around them.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Patty turns a plain room into a palace
Patty Wyatt is a senior who treats college rules as suggestions. She and her roommate Priscilla Pond move into study 399 and decide to remake it. The grass-green carpet must go, the wallpaper must vanish under red cloth, and the floor must turn into black Flemish oak.
The obstacle is Peters, the short, red-bearded janitor, whom everyone fears, even the president. He refuses a hammer, and he refuses to lift the closet door from its hinges. Patty simply borrows his own screwdriver, spends the afternoon and evening painting with every caller put to work, and then faces him the next morning from the top of a stepladder.
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What is When Patty Went to College about?
It follows Patty Wyatt in her senior year as she talks her way around rules, bluffs in class, plays tricks on friends and visitors, and quietly helps a lonely freshman. Each chapter is a funny episode of campus life.
Who is Patty Wyatt?
Patty is the heroine, a clever, mischievous senior who invents stories and avoids work, yet is loyal and generous. Her roommate Priscilla Pond keeps her in check, and their friends join her adventures.
Who wrote When Patty Went to College and when?
Jean Webster wrote it. It is a work of fiction, a comic novel in linked chapters set in an American women's college.
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).
More by Jean Webster
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