Daddy-Long-Legs (novel)
Daddy Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen.
Plot summary
Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a gravestone (she hates it and uses "Judy" instead), while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.
One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Judy is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Judy must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.
Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him Daddy-Long-Legs. She attends a "girls' college," but the name and location are never identified. Men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it might be assumed that her college is one of the Seven Sisters. It was certainly on the East Coast. She illustrates her letters with childlike line drawings, also created by Jean Webster.
The book chronicles Jerusha's educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to "Judy." She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphan asylum, was never exposed.
At the end of the book, of course, the identity of 'Daddy Long-Legs' is revealed.
Dedication
The book is dedicated "To You." Today this book is often classified as young adult literature or even children’s literature, but at the time it was part of a trend of "girl" or "college girl" books which featured young female protagonists dealing with post-high-school concerns such as college, career, and marriage. These books predated the contemporary view of adolescence. Other authors who wrote in this vein include L. M. Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott.
Themes
The themes of this book reflect upon Webster's interests in social work and women's suffrage. Some scholars have criticized Daddy-Long-Legs as being an "anti-feminist fairy tale", while others have argued that Judy shows growing independence, including increasing disobedience to her benefactor and his wishes, and indeed succeeds in educating Daddy-Long-Legs that he cannot control her, and that his socialism needs to move from the academic into real life.[1]
Film, TV and theatrical adaptations
This book was Webster's best-known work. It was made into a stage play and a 1952 British stage musical comedy called Love from Judy,[1] as well as films in 1919 (starring Mary Pickford), 1931 (starring Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter), 1935 (a Shirley Temple adaptation called Curly Top) and a 1955 film, Daddy Long Legs (starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron). The latter two film versions departed considerably from the plot of the original novel.[2] called The Foundation for Orphans from Automobile Accidents (交通遺児育成会募金), takes its inspiration as well as its nickname from the novel, providing financial support to fatherless children and calling itself the Ashinaga Ojisan Bokin (足長おじさん募金) or Daddy-Long-Legs Fund.[3]
In 2005, the Korean movie Kidari Ajeossi (Daddy-Long-Legs) was released. The film starred Ha Ji-won and Yun Jung Hoon.
In India, the novel was adapted into a Malayalam movie, Kanamarayathu [4] in 1984. Directed by I.V. Sasi and screenplay by P. Padmarajan, it starred Mammootty as the benefactor, Shobhana as the orphan and Rehman as her lover, in the lead roles. Mammooty won the Kerala Film Crictics Association Award for the Best Actor in 1985 for his role.[5]
In 2009, Daddy-Long-Legs was made into a two person musical play by John Caird (book) and Paul Gordon (music), which premiered at the Rubicon Theatre Company (Ventura, California) and TheatreWorks (Palo Alto, California).[6]
See also
- Dear Enemy, the 1915 sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs
- Film versions of the Daddy-Long-Legs:
- Daddy-Long-Legs (1919 film) with Mary Pickford
- Daddy Long Legs (1931 film) with Janet Gaynor
- Curly Top (film), 1935 film with Shirley Temple based on the novel
- Daddy Long Legs (1938 film) Dutch film
- Daddy Long Legs (1955 film) with Leslie Caron
- My Daddy Long Legs 1990 Japanese anime TV series
- Daddy-Long-Legs (2005 film) Korean film
References
- ^ a b Keely, Karan (Sept. 2004), "Teaching Eugenics to Children:Heredity and Reform in Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy", The Lion and the Unicorn, 28 (3): 363–389, doi:10.1353/uni.2004.0032
{{citation}}: Check date values in:|year=,|date=, and|year=/|date=mismatch (help)CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ {{Citation WOW> | last =Phillips | first = Anne K | author-link = | title = "Yours most loquaciously": Voice in Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs | journal =Children's Literature | volume =27 | issue = | pages = 64–85 | date = | year =1999 | url = | doi = | id = }}
- ^ http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/チャリティー
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269422/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269422/awards
- ^ TheatreWorks program, January 2010
External links
