Daddy Long-Legs: A Comedy in Four Acts

by Jean Webster

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. Every floor must be spotless, every chair dustless, and every bed without a wrinkle. Ninety-seven squirming little orphans must be scrubbed and combed and buttoned into freshly starched ginghams; and all ninety-seven reminded of their manners, and told to say, "Yes, sir," "No, sir," whenever a Trustee spoke.It was a distressing time; and poor Jerusha Abbott, being the oldest orphan, had to bear the brunt of it. But this particular first Wednesday, like its predecessors, finally dragged itself to a close. Jerusha escaped from the pantry where she had been making sandwiches for the asylum's guests, and turned upstairs to accomplish her regular work. Her special care was room F, where eleven little tots, from four to seven, occupied eleven little cots set in a row. Jerusha assembled her charges, straightened their rumpled frocks, wiped their noses, and started them in an orderly and willing line toward the dining-room to engage themselves for a blessed half hour with bread and milk and prune pudding.Then she dropped down on the window seat and leaned throbbing temples against the cool glass. She had been on her feet since five that morning, doing everybody's bidding, scolded and hurried by a nervous matron. Mrs. Lippett, behind the scenes, did not always maintain that calm and pompous dignity with which she faced an audience of Trustees and lady visitors. Jerusha gazed out across a broad stretch of frozen lawn, beyond the tall iron paling that marked the confines of the asylum, down undulating ridges sprinkled with country estates, to the spires of the village rising from the midst of bare trees.

104 pages, Paperback

Published April 7, 2020

About the author

Jean Webster (pseudonym for Alice Jane Chandler Webster) was an American writer and author of many books including Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy. Her most well-known books feature lively and likeable young female protagonists who come of age intellectually, morally, and socially, but with enough humor, snappy dialogue, and gently biting social commentary to make her books palatable and enjoyable to contemporary readers.

Reviews

[Ale · Rating 5 out of 5]

La storia la sappiamo, è semplicemente più divertente e messa in forma di commedia teatrale. E non mi resta che lasciare un estratto… ho sempre adorato Jervis.

Jervis (Canzonandola): Sono disonorevoli!
Signorina P. (Sconvolta. Si alza): Cosa?
Jervis: Scioccanti!
Signorina P.: Jervis!
Jervis: Scandalose!
Signorina P.: Oh, no!
Jervis: Mi dimostra affetto.
Signorina P.: La piccola piccola pensa che tu sia suo padre.
Jervis: La piccola sa perfettamente che non sono suo padre.
Signorina P.: Pensa che tu sia vecchio.
Jervis (Si alza. Indignato): Non sono vecchio. Non voglio essere trattato come un vecchio.
Signorina P.: Ti prego non adirarti…
Jervis: Mi fa ritratti. (Si siede a sinistra del tavolo.)
Signorina P.: Oh! Mi dispiace…
Jervis: Mi disegna calvo.... senza capelli… e con le gambe lunghe.
Signorina P. (Risoluta): Non va bene.
Jervis: Mi chiama “Papà Gambalunga”.
Signorina P.: Le dovrò dare una bella strigliata. Non posso permettere che ti tratti con irriverenza.
Jervis: Penso che mi piaccia essere trattato con irriverenza.
Signorina P.: (Con disapprovazione): Stai scherzando?

[Otfat Alshaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

How lovely-lovely-lovely this novel is!
I'm sure it's not going to be the last time I read it. One can't get enough of reading it, one can't get enough of Judy's letters! I just loved every detail, every description, how the letters were becoming better along the years of Judy! I'm really grateful to Jane Webster for this masterpiece, with all the feelings she shared with us, and I hope I can say more, but no one can ever present his—her (you know that English language needs another pronoun) emotions as Judy does!

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! So sweet and inspiring throughout! This was our book club book this month and I can't wait to talk about it! Highly recommend - I just don't know why I hadn't heard of it before now? It was first published 99 years ago! A classic in my opinion!