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"The first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful Day — a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste."
My today's post is dedicated to one of the most tender stories of American literature called Daddy-Long-Legs, a 1912 epistolary novel by Jean Webster.
It follows the protagonist, Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, as she leaves an orphanage and is sent to college by a benefactor who used to be interested only in boys' future. Having read one of the essays the girl has written for school about her life as an orphan child, he is impressed so much that he agrees to pay her tuition and gives her a generous monthly allowance on the condition that she writes him a monthly letter.
Judy once catches a glimpse of the mysterious trustee's shadow from the back and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him Daddy-Long-Legs. So, in her mental image, "John Smith" is an old, tall, (and bald) man.
This John Doe is an admirable character. Even though he never visits nor replies to Judy’s letters, it is still apparent that he cares for her very much.
One of the most difficult tasks for a writer is to find a way to make the characters believable and true, to give them their own voice. Jean Webster definitely succeeded in achieving this.
The story is composed almost entirely of Jerusha's letters to Daddy-Long-Legs, which means that we get to see things from her point of view. When you're reading the book, it seems it's told directly to you.
Judy strongly believes 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, sympathetic and understanding. It ought to be cultivated in children.
The message of the book is that everyone, no matter what their origins are, can find success and happiness in life.
I have the utmost confidence that you will enjoy this direct and touching story as much as I did.
The hilarious illustrations by Jean Webster herself accompanying the text will become a precious addition. They are in the faux naive style, perfectly capturing the playful spirit of the central character.
1 минута
21 января 2024