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A review by carriedoodledoo
Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster
3.0
I am conflicted in many ways about this delightful little novel.
On the one hand, who does not like the trope of "and the secret benefactor was her friend the WHOLE TIME"? It's just Belle, sitting with the sheep at the fountain, singing about "here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him 'til chapter three". We all love the "he falls in love with her despite himself, it's a secret shh".
On the other hand, the imbalance of power and age is so obvious and a tad icky, even as a kid I picked up on that. Sure, as I get older the difference isn't so bad. Jervis Pendleton is mid-thirties, young and handsome and wealthy, and Judy is 18-21 throughout the novel. She doesn't come to his attention until she is 18 and an essay of hers is read during a trustee meeting. He wants nothing to do with her personally, until her letters charm him out of the trees. He doesn't try to romantically entangle her until she starts getting some measure of independence. He doesn't reveal himself until disguise reaches the foolish stage. But her writing to "Daddy" while this sophisticated man of the world starts manipulating family and friends to keep her in his sphere is on the knife's edge of "aww romantic" and "eww creepy".
In another source of conflict, while Jean Webster's writing is uniformly charming, she goes out of her way to make every single Christian out of touch or intellectually backward. Clergy are elitist and stodgy, and even the sweet kind people who go to church must be forgiven for their regrettable religious leanings. Oh no, anything good is in spite of Christianity, not possibly because of.
I find it very interesting how the 1950s movie sidestepped all the religious and social issues addressed by the young Judy and instead doubled down on the age gap--poor Leslie Caron is dancing around with a positively antediluvian Fred Astaire. The poor guy was reeling from his own wife dying just previously. All in all, I really enjoyed the musical but the casting of Jervis Pendleton makes me cringe, Fred's perennially boyish charm notwithstanding. When it gets to a certain point, it's just not what I want to see. Gene Kelly for Leslie in "American in Paris" was old enough.
On the one hand, who does not like the trope of "and the secret benefactor was her friend the WHOLE TIME"? It's just Belle, sitting with the sheep at the fountain, singing about "here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him 'til chapter three". We all love the "he falls in love with her despite himself, it's a secret shh".
On the other hand, the imbalance of power and age is so obvious and a tad icky, even as a kid I picked up on that. Sure, as I get older the difference isn't so bad. Jervis Pendleton is mid-thirties, young and handsome and wealthy, and Judy is 18-21 throughout the novel. She doesn't come to his attention until she is 18 and an essay of hers is read during a trustee meeting. He wants nothing to do with her personally, until her letters charm him out of the trees. He doesn't try to romantically entangle her until she starts getting some measure of independence. He doesn't reveal himself until disguise reaches the foolish stage. But her writing to "Daddy" while this sophisticated man of the world starts manipulating family and friends to keep her in his sphere is on the knife's edge of "aww romantic" and "eww creepy".
In another source of conflict, while Jean Webster's writing is uniformly charming, she goes out of her way to make every single Christian out of touch or intellectually backward. Clergy are elitist and stodgy, and even the sweet kind people who go to church must be forgiven for their regrettable religious leanings. Oh no, anything good is in spite of Christianity, not possibly because of.
I find it very interesting how the 1950s movie sidestepped all the religious and social issues addressed by the young Judy and instead doubled down on the age gap--poor Leslie Caron is dancing around with a positively antediluvian Fred Astaire. The poor guy was reeling from his own wife dying just previously. All in all, I really enjoyed the musical but the casting of Jervis Pendleton makes me cringe, Fred's perennially boyish charm notwithstanding. When it gets to a certain point, it's just not what I want to see. Gene Kelly for Leslie in "American in Paris" was old enough.