Happy Centennial Daddy-Long-Legs

I love epistolary novels. There is something about a collection of novels or diary entries which, autobiographical or fiction, seem to give the reader a more intimate view of a person's life, thoughts and, if you're lucky, secrets. It's probably because of this that I can't stop ranting about Helene Hanff's compilations of her letters and diary entries and why I love Anne of Windy Poplar for her collection of decidedly unromantic but charming epistles to her fiance. It might also explain my delight in finding a first edition (and to my knowledge, only edition) of Margaret Halsey's With Malice Towards Some, the diary entries of a slightly restless wife of an professor lecturing in Oxford for a year. The list could go on and its partially due to this list that I hate being asked "what books do you like". Most of these books are not on any bestseller list, probably because reading what someone had for tea in 1938 is not the exactly the heart-stopping drama or sweeping romance that people crave for. Reading people's letters and diary entries, one cannot expect to have a happy ending every time or have all the intrigues tied up nicely by the last page. These books don't always follow traditional story plot lines and, since they don't contain vampires or asinine by-products of vampire pop culture, would probably bore a large part of the population.

One that has endured and and is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year is Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. Although I have not read it a 100 times, the number is definitely in the double digits and as of my last read this week, it has not lost any of its charm.

It's not the love story that develops in the last few pages that has kept me going back for re-reads or captured the attention of so many readers in the last hundred years. It's the plucky orphan who, knowing well her fate and caste in life, dares to dream beyond and explores the world handed to her with abandon, self-effacing and good-natured humour, and creativity. Although readers in search of wild adventures might get bogged down in details of college lunches and classes and faithful reporting of which pig ran away or which cow died, there are greater themes in the book: female suffrage and social reform being among the most obvious.

I give this book a five star but only for that certain kind of reader. I think you know who you are.