Daddy-Long-Legs, written in 1912 and set at about the same time, is Jean Webster's best-known novel (not to be confused with the webcomic of the same name).
Jerusha "Judy" Abbott is an orphan, having been raised in the unpleasant John Grier Home, which is run by a board of trustees. One of the trustees, whose name is unknown to her except through the pseudonym of 'John Smith,' is impressed by a humorous essay she writes and volunteers to send her to college to study writing. The only condition he places on the generous gift is that she write him regular letters to inform him of her progress, her activities, and her plans. Outside of the first chapter, which sets up the story, these letters form the entire novel. Judy catches one glimpse of her anonymous benefactor from behind, and her only impression of him, via his elongated shadow, is that he is very tall and thin; she therefore dubs him Daddy-Long-Legs, and begins to affectionately view him as the father she's never had.
"Daddy" and the reader follow Judy through four years of school and join her as she meets new people — friendly Sallie McBride, Sallie's good-natured brother Jimmie, snobbish Julia Pendleton, and Julia's handsome young uncle Jervis. She spends her summers on a charming farm, tries very hard to become a writer, and falls in love.
The book has received several adaptations.
The less-well-known sequel is Dear Enemy, published a few years later, in which Judy convinces her old college friend Sallie to take the helm of the John Grier Home and turn it into a warmer and kinder place.
The original novel contains examples of:
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Judy makes one of these, sort of, when explaining to Daddy about her feelings for the man she loves. She doesn't realize they're the same person.
- Anonymous Benefactor: At a point when Judy's future is looking bleak, she's offered a chance to go to college with all her expenses paid by one of the Home's trustees. One of his conditions is that she is not to be told who he is; he suggests that she refer to him as "Mr. John Smith", and she retaliates by nicknaming him "Daddy-Long-Legs". She learns his identity at the end of the novel.
- Benevolent Boss: Sallie's father, who hosts Christmas parties every year for his factory workers' children and gives them presents.
- Bilingual Bonus: One of Judy's letters is written during French class, so most of the letter is written in French. In said letter, she expresses how much she hates the John Grier Home and is excited to hear about Locke Willow Farm.
- Book Dumb: Judy is a mild case, best seen in one of her early letters where she talks about all she's learned in college. While she's quite intelligent (hence her Scholarship Student status) Judy was clearly educationally neglected, and in order to even attend the local high school the matron made it clear that Judy's duty to the orphanage was to be put above her schooling, and Judy was kept out of school a good deal to clean as well. For example, she thought Michelangelo was the name of an archangel, was never told fairy tales, and so on.
- Costume Porn: Judy gushes at length about the dresses she is able to buy now that she has money.
- Down on the Farm: Judy spends her summers on Locke Willow Farm. At first she enjoys it, but grows bored quickly despite her fondness. She is fond enough of it to consider it home after graduation, at least.
- Embarrassing First Name: Judy hates her real first name, Jerusha, and mentions in one letter that the matron of the John Grier Home got it from a tombstone when trying to name the abandoned infant. When she gets to college, she goes by Judy.
- Epistolary Novel: Almost the entire story is told through Judy's letters to her benefactor.
- The Ghost: Daddy, who is never seen (or so the reader thinks) until Judy's very last letter.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: Daddy very generously supplies Judy with money to purchase new clothes, and she gushes at length about her beautiful dresses.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In the later years of Judy's college career, there are several instances where "Daddy-Longs-Legs" attempts to interfere with Judy's plans when she shows that she's growing independent of his influence. He tries to dissuade her from accepting a scholarship from the college (describing it as "accepting favors from strangers", to which she points out that the description better fits his generosity to her), and interferes with her plans to go on holidays with friends she's made at college. The revelation at the end casts an additional light on the latter: the holidays he objected to were specifically the ones where she'd be hanging out with young men who weren't Jervis.
- Happily Ever After: The last letter more or less sets this up for our heroine; the sequel confirms Judy's Happily Ever After status.
- Lit Fic: Everything in the story is completely realistic for its time period.
- Most Writers Are Writers: By the end of the original novel, Judy has published her first real story.
- Mr. Smith: Judy is instructed to address her letters to "Mr. John Smith". She dislikes such a bland pseudonym, so comes up with the nickname "Daddy-Long-Legs" based on her sole visual impression of him being a glimpse of his shadow, which appeared tall and spindly like a daddy-long-legs spider. His real name is eventually revealed to be Jervis Pendleton.
- Mundane Luxury: Judy gets hit with this when she first goes to college from the orphanage, including getting new clothes instead of getting clothes from the poor box (she considers the six outfits she got a grand wardrobe), her own bedroom, getting to eat real ice cream twice a week, and being able to leave campus whenever she wants.
- Nouveau Riche: Sallie's father made all his money in the blue jeans business, but it's a downplayed example, since they are more down-to-earth and friendly than Julia's family.
- Odd Name, Normal Nickname: Judy hates being called Jerusha, which was taken from a tombstone, and goes by Judy.
- Old Money: Julia's family are upper-class on both sides. Judy jokes that Julia's mother's family came over to America in Noah's Ark and that her father's family consider Adam a johnny-come-lately.
- Orphanage of Fear: The John Grier Home is a borderline example. The kids did have what they needed to live somewhat comfortably and weren't directly abused, but they still were emotionally, and at least in Judy's case, educationally neglected, as well as Judy noting how the home does its best to stamp out any individuality. Judy doesn't hide how much she hates it in her letters, but does show some fondness for it, mostly in her later letters.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Judy's is really only touched upon in bits in her letters, although the first chapter does make it clear that she's unhappy at the orphanage and particularly under the care of the unpleasant matron.
- Pre-Approved Sermon: In one of her letters, Judy talks about how all the guest preachers essentially tell the female student body not to let their education get in the way of their "womanly" natures, implying that these sermons intentional on the school's end.
- Plucky Girl: Judy is determined to rise above her humble beginnings and become a real writer.
- Possession Sue: In-Universe example; at one point after reading Hamlet, Judy writes about how she imagines herself as Ophelia, except she's a "sensible" Ophelia who coddles Hamlet until he's cured of his melancholy and they rule Denmark together happily and well after the king and queen die in an accident at sea.
- Rewatch Bonus: If you haven't figured out before the end that 'Daddy' is actually Jervis, reading the book again means you can spot all the points where he's clearly intensely jealous of Jimmie McBride and working to keep Judy away from him.
- Romantic False Lead: Jimmie McBride, whom Judy likes, but only as a friend. Daddy and Jervis don't realize that it's strictly platonic.
- Scholarship Student: Judy comes from a deprived background and is only able to attend college because her way is being paid by her anonymous benefactor (and then later by a scholarship the college awards her for academic merit). She initially feels very keenly the gap between her and the other students, both in financial status and in shared life experiences and cultural touchstones that she's missed out on.
- Sick Episode: After Christmas break of her freshman year, Judy has what appears to be the mumps, judging by a drawing she includes in one of her letters to Daddy, and is touched when he sends her sweetheart roses as a get-well present. In another letter, she briefly mentioned having swollen tonsils but not to the point where she needed them removed.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Averted, especially for the time period. Judy does fall in love, but her main ambition is to fulfill what she sees as her obligation to her beloved benefactor and become a real writer. This is so much her ambition that when the man she loves proposes, she turns him down! Then she finds out that they're the same person, so it all works out.
- Spurned into Suicide: Almost. After Judy rejects his marriage proposal, Jervis — thinking that she doesn't love him — goes hunting in Canada and nearly dies as a result. He wasn't deliberately trying to kill himself, but he's so depressed that he has a very difficult time recovering.
- Two Aliases, One Character: Jervis Pendleton is Judy's anonymous benefactor, but doesn't let on until the end of the story, leading Judy and the reader to think they're two separate people.
- Unadoptable Orphan: Judy has spent her entire childhood at the John Grier Home, never getting adopted. At the start of the story, she is seventeen (one year above the general maximum age) and basically working as a servant for the orphanage in exchange for food, clothing, and permission to attend school. She feels like an utter Fish Out of Water for a long while after going to college, since she never knew any life except at the orphanage, and when the superintendent offers her to come back for the summer holidays, Judy feels she'd rather die. Several years later — by the time of the sequel — Nostalgia Filter has kicked in, however, and Judy's memories of the John Grier Home have become much rosier.
- Uncle Pennybags: Jervis, literally to Julia but also to her friends. He's extremely wealthy and frequently sends her, Judy, and Sallie various gifts, such as flowers when they graduate, tickets to the theater, and a box of fancy chocolates for each of them just because. Unbeknownst to Judy, he's also the chief trustee of the John Grier Home and the one who makes it possible for her to attend college.
- Unseen Pen Pal: When orphaned Jerusha "Judy" Abbott is given the chance to go to college through a rich, mysterious benefactor, she is instructed to write him letters of her progress, which he will not reply to, only communicating to her through a representative. Having only seen a shadow of him, and thinking he must be much older, she calls him "Daddy Long Legs". While she gets very personal in these letters out of loneliness, this becomes an issue since she is beholden to him if she is to finish her education. In reality, "Daddy", a.k.a. Jervis Pendleton, is much closer in age to her, and secretly meets her through his niece, who attends the same college. While Judy does get upset at Daddy Long Legs' manipulations near the end, she ends up
forgiving Jervis and marrying him once he tells her the truth because of her fondness for both sides of him. Adaptations tend to show more of his side of the story in an attempt to even things out. - Uptown Girl: Orphan Judy falls in love with Jervis Pendleton, a relative of her rich snobby college roommate. One of the obstacles to their relationship is that she's self-conscious about her lower social status, which (she thinks) he's not aware of the full extent of.
- Wealthy Philanthropist: Jervis Pendleton, to the disapproval of his Old Money family, "throws away his money" on charitable projects "instead of spending it on such sensible things as yachts and automobiles and polo ponies" (as Judy summarizes their attitude in one of her letters). Among other things, he's a trustee of the orphanage where Judy grew up and her own anonymous benefactor.
- White Sheep: Julia's remarks about her uncle Jervis indicate that he is this to the rest of the Pendletons, as he's far less snobbish and much more genial.
Adaptations add examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change:
- In the 1979 Tatsunoko Production adaptation, Julia is named Susan and Jimmie is named Tommy.
- Sort of in the musical. While Jerusha is still her name, she never goes by her nickname Judy.
- Adaptational Personality Change: In the musical, Jervis is much more shy and withdrawn, compared to his more extroverted and confident personality in the book. This is why he never tells Jerusha his identity as her benefactor.
- Animated Adaptation:
- In 1990 the story was adapted as a part of the World Masterpiece Theater, with Mitsuko Horie as Judy.
- There is also an earlier anime adaptation of the story, a TV special made in 1979 by Tatsunoko Production. Unlike the 1990 series, the Tatsunoko version was dubbed into English and released in the United States on both Betamax and VHS.
- Decomposite Character: In the very loose adaptation Curly Top with Shirley Temple, there are two sisters, little Elizabeth (played by Temple herself) and grown-up Mary, in Judy's place. It helps avoid the potential squick of Judy ending up with her sort-of father-figure, as Edward (Jervis's counterpart) has the father-daughter relationship with Elizabeth and the romance with Mary.
- First-Episode Twist: In the musical only. It's not revealed until the very end of the novel that Jervis is Daddy-Long-Legs, and Jerusha's benefactor; in the musical, however, the audience finds this out right away, after Jervis himself appears on stage to tell them so in the second number.
- Spelling for Emphasis: In the film adaptation with Mary Pickford, the children in the orphanage, tired of being constantly fed prunes, shout: "P-R-U-N-E spells prune!"