Lieber Daddy-Long-Legs - Jean Webster,Fr...

Beschreibung

Judy Abbott kennt nichts als das Leben und die Arbeit im Waisenhaus. Als sich ein Wohltäter dazu entschließt das Mädchen durch die Möglichkeit eines Collegebesuches zu fördern, ändert sich ihr Leben schlagartig. Der geheimnisvolle Mann möchte anonym bleiben und fordert für seine finanzielle Unterstützung lediglich einen Brief pro Monat von Judy in dem er über ihre Fortschritte informiert wird.

Voller Lebensmut beginnt Judy ein neues Leben und berichtet dem ihr unbekannten Wohltäter mehrmals im Monat von ihren Erlebnissen und dem Gelernten. Ihre Briefe adressiert sie mangels eines richtigen Namens an “Mr. Smith” oder aufgrund ihrer eigenen Vorstellung des schlacksigen Mannes an “Daddy-Long-Legs”.

Meine Meinung

Jean Websters Roman “Lieber Daddy-Long-Legs” wurde 1912 zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht und erstrahlt nun Dank des Königskinder Verlags in neuem Glanz. Wie immer kann man zum gelungenen Erscheinungsbild nur gratulieren, denn das türkisfarbene Büchlein mit dem zarten Blumenmuster und der Silhouette eines Gentlemans mit Hut passt perfekt zur Geschichte aus den Anfängen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Dieser Klassiker ist erst durch diese Neuauflage in mein Blickfeld gerückt und durch die Briefaktion im letzten Jahr war ich nun schon äußerst gespannt auf die Story.

"Er sah ganz und gar wie ein riesiger, schwankender Weberknecht aus – ein »Daddy-Long-Legs«." (Lieber Daddy-Long-Legs, Seite 11)

Ganz in der Mode der damaligen Zeit zählt auch Jean Webster Werk zu den so genannten Briefromanen. Der größte Teil des Romans ist in Briefform abgefasst, lediglich die einleitenden Kapitel heben sich davon ab. Diese Art des Erzählens erfordert viel Geschick und vor allem schriftstellerisches Talent. Jean Webster ist es sehr gut gelungen ihrer Geschichte die notwendige Dynamik zu verleihen und das obwohl sich die Erzählung nur aus den Briefen (also aus der Perspektive) von Judy ergibt.

Die Briefe des Waisenmädchens und nun angehender Studentin an ihren geheimnisvollen Wohltäter »Daddy-Long-Legs« sind voller lebensbejahender Freude und haben durch eine Prise Humor genau die richtige Spritzigkeit. In ihrer erfrischenden und unbedarften Art erzählt Sie davon wie sie Freundschaften knüpft, gesellschaftlichen Umgang erlernt und natürlich berichtet sie von ihren Fortschritten am College. Das Bedürfnis sich jemanden mitzuteilen ist so groß, dass Judy gleich mehrmals im Monat an den unbekannten Mann schreibt, denn außer »Daddy-Long-Legs« hat Judy niemanden dem sie von ihren aufregenden Erlebnissen erzählen könnte.

"Um einen Mann auf seine Seite zu ziehen, gibt es nur zwei Methoden: Man muss ihm entweder schmeicheln oder unfreundlich werden." (Lieber Daddy-Long-Legs, Seite 172)

Es ist wundervoll die Entwicklung von Judy zu beobachten und die ersten Anzeichen einer Verliebtheit fest zu stellen. Schließlich muss es ja einen Grund dafür geben, dass sich ein gewisser symphatischer Jervis Pendleton immer öfter Raum in ihren Briefen verschafft. Am besten macht ihr euch einfach selbst ein Bild davon und beginnt gleich zu lesen!

"Es ist schrecklich, ein schlechtes Gedächtnis und zwei Mäntel zu besitzen!" (Lieber Daddy-Long-Legs, Seite 174)

“Lieber Daddy-Long-Legs” ist ein fröhlich frischer Klassiker über die Phase der Selbstfindung, der alles andere als eingestaubt ist und mein Herz im Sturm erobert hat. Natürlich freue ich mich nun schon sehr auf den Folgeband “Lieber Feind”, der bereits im Frühjahr erscheinen wird.

Information zur Reihe

1. 2017 Lieber Daddy-Long-Legs 1912 Daddy-Long-Legs
2. 2018 (erscheint im März) Lieber Feind 1945 Dear Enemy

Fazit

Ein Briefroman vom Allerfeinsten! Gefühlvoll und voller Humor erzählt die Waise Judy Abott von ihrem Schicksal und ihrer aufregenden Zeit auf dem College. Ein Klassiker der glücklich macht!

 “Sansho the Steward” by Mori Ogai

This is a poignant short story about a brother and sister who are kidnapped and sold into slavery. There’s no way there could be a happy end for both of them.

The Golden Slipper, and other problems for Violet Strange by Anna Katherine Green

A fun detective novel! The detective is a beautiful, rich, popular heiress. So why is she solving crimes simply to make money? Her special ability is to understand people’s characters. There was a single thread or plot about Miss Strange running through it, but it was also a series of basically stand-alone mysteries. The cases started out being the kind of crimes a society girl might potentially encounter, like a missing necklace, but became increasingly more atmospheric and gothic, involving hidden chambers and tunnels and caves and spooky old houses with dozens of clocks and a blind doctor who is a top gun shooting ace.

The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

I read this when I was a teenager and I don’t remember it well, just that it was about a group of friends who are having marital problems. I remember that the real story was revealed somewhat slowly, and that I liked it. I looked it up just now on Wikipedia to make sure I was even thinking of the right book, and I learned that Ford originally wanted to call it “The Saddest Story.” His publishers asked for a new title (very properly, in my view—I don’t want to read a book called “The Saddest Story”) and as a joke he came up with “The Good Soldier” in view of the war. I can only ever think of a joke title for my books too, so I really identify with this.

The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A poor little boy lives in London with his beloved father, who is working to return to the rightful king of his homeland to the throne. You may have figured it out from the title, but in the final pages of the book the boy is astonished to discover that his own father was the missing heir to the throne. I liked that there was a plucky character with a disability who neither died nor was cured; actually, that character reminded me a bit of Becky from A Little Princess. Not Burnett’s very best book, but I enjoyed reading it.

Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

This is the lesser-known sequel to Daddy Long Legs. In this epistolary novel, Judy, a rich socialite with lively and original ideas takes over the orphanage that the Daddy Long Legs heroine grew up in. I was charmed to learn that the orphanage is in Dutchess County, where I live. The orphanage is cheerless and unhealthy when Judy arrives, but she manages to transform it into a place where the children can have nice clothes, affection, a gentle education, up-to-date (for the period) medical treatment, and the chance to play outdoors. It’s understood that Judy will just run the orphanage for a little while, and then marry her rich boyfriend and stop working forevermore, but later Judy is not so sure. Judy comes into conflict with the orphanage’s crabby Scottish doctor, the “Enemy” of the title. However after a while their animosity turns to friendship and then to...? But the doctor is guarding a sorrowful secret.

This part of the book mirrors Jean Webster’s real life. I don’t know much about her, but I did read her Wikipedia page from top to bottom. In addition to being a supporter of women’s suffrage and various reform movements and education for women, she had a boyfriend who couldn’t divorce his wife because she was mentally ill. (I hear this story over and over, and yet I never hear about the undivorcable mentally ill husband.) Webster’s boyfriend also had a “mentally unstable” child. And it sounds like the boyfriend was not the picture of mental health himself.

Anyway, the least appealing part of Dear Enemy is the lip service granted to the eugenics models of Galton and Goddard, with discussion of the feebleminded Jukes and Kallikaks. Judy eventually concludes that there’s nothing in this heredity business, but because it was the “scientific” idea of the age, Webster gave eugenics quite a bit of air time. It does seem that the whole question of inherited mental illness was one that she had a real personal interest in, and I think she was honestly trying to figure it out rather than just being sensationalistic.

This is one of the books of 1915 that’s still read today, as a fluffy fun book for young people, not as a towering literary classic assigned in school. I think the reason for its endurance is that the main character is spunky and is more like a contemporary woman in terms of her attitude toward education, career, and love.

Victory by Joseph Conrad

An Englishman whose business concern in Asia (I think Indonesia?) has failed ends up living “all alone” on an island. (Actually, he has a servant and in addition the native inhabitants of the island live there, but he is quite isolated.) But when he rescues a musician who is being abused by her boss and brings her back to the island to live with him, the boss hires thugs to exact a horrible revenge. This novel was suspenseful and weird. I think Conrad managed to say something racist about every ethnic group on earth, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Spoiler:

I never read any Conrad before except for “The Secret Sharer” which I quite liked and the first few pages of Lord Jim. But the way everyone talks about him, I was expecting something very dreary and “important.” Instead it was the sort of shlocky melodrama that I enjoy. So I will definitely read his next offering.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

I always liked the Hitchcock film, and the book it is based on is fairly similar. It’s a thriller about a man who has to clear his own name by catching the real killer, and in the process he unmasks a ring of spies, with a lot of picturesque running through the Scottish highlands. There’s an extended soliloquy by one of the characters about Jews who control finance and the world (“The Jew is everywhere, but you have to go far down the back stairs to find him... to get to the real boss, ten to one you are brought up against a little white-faced Jew in a bath-chair with an eye like a rattlesnake.”) I’m not sure if the reader is supposed to take that seriously or think it’s ridiculous, but it was rather creepy.

Jerusha "Judy" Abbott is a Canadian orphan, who at 17 is still living in the orphanage, mainly because they are using her as free help. She is frequently told that she needs to keep her strong opinions and overactive imagination to herself, or nothing will come of her. She dreams of becoming a famous author and when a wealthy benefactor of the orphanage offers to send her to college on a scholarship, she is closer to achieving said dream. She doesn't know who he is, having only seen his shadow as he left the matron's office, but she knows that he is tall, and his shadow resembled a daddy long-legs. Hence, when she is told that she needs to write letters to her benefactor detailing her progress, she addresses each one to "Dear Daddy Long-Legs".

Having never had a family of her own, Judy (as she reinvents herself at college. Who can blame her for wanting to be rid of the name Jerusha?) starts imagining that Daddy Long-Legs all the relatives she's been missing. Going to college and receiving an education, Judy thrives. She loves learning, she loves improving her writing and making new friends. She never gets any replies to her letters, but the occasional gift (sometimes quite extravagant) proves that her anonymous rich benefactor reads her missives and doesn't want her to feel left out among the other girls at the college. Very occasionally, Judy will get written instructions through her benefactor's secretary, who among other things, helps find her places to spend her summers, while the other girls go home to their families. 

As she grows older and her education is coming to an end, Judy becomes more and more curious about the identity of "Daddy Long-Legs" and tries to use her prodigious imagination to figure out who he might be. 

I picked up this book both because Dear Mr. Knightley, which I really liked, was inspired by it (which meant that I wasn't really surprised by any of the major story beats, as they are pretty much the same) and because Forever YoungAdult and the Book Smugglers, both review sites I trust and often agree with, rated it 5 stars and called it a must-read classic. Written in 1912, I'm sure this is a beloved book to many, but whether it's because I'd just read modern book with a very similar plot, or whether I just found some aspects of the book a bit disturbing, it just didn't entirely work for me.

While Judy is rather delightful, smart, opinionated and a bit too prone to speaking (or writing) her mind before she thinks about what she's actually saying, there was something very off-putting to me about her addressing most of her letters to "Dear Daddy". Especially as based on the reviews I'd seen, I knew that there was a romantic subplot, and it was clear that she was actually going to fall in love with her benefactor, without knowing who he really was. When "Daddy" starts dictating where she spend her free time, obviously to prevent her from spending more time with her college friend's brother, it left a bad taste in my mouth. The reviewer on Forever YoungAdult points out that Judy frequently disregards the attempts at manipulations from her benefactor, and once she wins a scholarship due to her writing skill, she insists on being allowed to start paying back the money she's been given so far, not wanting to be in debt for any longer than necessary. 

I don't think it was just because of just having read Dear Mr. Knightley that I figured out quickly who "Daddy Long-Legs" was. While the character seems perfectly pleasant, and has very socialist leanings for a rich person of the time, I just couldn't get over the inappropriate way he keeps trying to direct Judy's life. Judy herself, as I have already mentioned, is great. She, like the precocious orphan girl ever, Ms Anne Shirley is the reason I liked the book as much as I did. It's really not going to be a book I revisit though, and the hero, if he can be called that, did little but skeeve me out.

OMG!!! THIS BOOK IS SO AWESOME!!!1! IT DESERVES ALL THE STARS FOREVER AND EVER!!!1!!ONE!!

(Edited to add: To compound the unhelpfulness of this review, I've just realized I reviewed the wrong edition. Is there a way to switch editions on BL like there is on GR?)

(Edit 2: Fixed it, sort of. That'll do, pig. That'll do. *pats self on head*)