DADDY LONG LEGS - Blue Wednesday

So I am going a group read of DADDY LONG LEGS for a listserv I am on and I have decided to post here while I am ramping up.

To prep for the group read I have been reading the book aloud. I am getting quite goofy with it. I have recorded it because, why not? It's in the public domain so no harm, no foul, as I believe they say in the wide, wide world of sports. I may try to attach "Blue Wednesday" to the end of this post. If you're curious about what it sounds like. I don't know if I will continue to record it, but I am really enjoying reading it aloud. It makes me much more attuned to details. 

For example, Jerusha was in charge of room F "where 11 little tots , from four to seven, occupied 11 little cots all in a row." Good grief, I was in charge of 5 toddlers for a few years and almost lost my ever-loving mind! And it sounds like she always had from four to seven. At least my kids grew up... Actually 7 is a pretty great age. I love 7-11 or so. They already have interesting, independent, sometimes even informed thoughts, but they don't know it yet. Any younger than that and they can be cute and funny, but not, generally, interesting. I guess what I have just admitted is that I socialize at an upper elementary school level. Moving on...

Soon page 23 of my copy the all-knowing narrator tells us that "Poor, eager, adventurous little Jerusha, in all her seventeen years, had never stepped inside an ordinary house; she could not picture the daily routine of those other human beings who carried on their lives undiscommoded by orphans." First off, what a gorgeous sentence. Kind of the crux of the book all in one beautifully meandering string of words. Bravo, Jean Webster. Secondly, holy shirtballs! Jerusha has NEVER been in a proper home! My gosh, it makes Jerusha's sense of humor even more amazing.

There is much to say about Mrs. Lippett, but I shall say, she's no Miss Clavell, but she's no Miss Minchin or Miss Slighcarp. And leave it at that. 

There are several words I had probably never said aloud in this chapter and I know that kind of sounds like a humble-brag because the language in here is very rich by today's "new adult literature" (it's a thing, look it up...) standards. But I am a 50+ librarian, I am supposed to know this stuff. I have an excellent reading vocabulary but I find that my speaking vocabulary is, well, I'm not giving a ton of perorations...that's for damn sure! Here are the words, by the way. I was going to write definitions, but you can look them up yourself. I want to get to the part of the book that I adore - the letters!!

Words I Have Likely Never Said Aloud Before:

• undiscommoded
• port cochere
• superintend
• punctilious
• peroration 

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These letters are spectacular! I love epistolary novels. The gold standard is, of course, 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD because it was TRUE! But there are some other good ones - that Gurnsey Pie one. And I read a YA book about a girl who was texting with a boy but she thought she was texting with his cousin. And of course I can't remember the name of it because remembering things is for other people. Anyway - I adore reading other people's mail. I just got the letters Kurt Vonnegut wrote to his first wife in college and during WW2 out of the library this evening and I might just devour it this evening. 

There are a lot of letters in this book and I am going to do six word summaries for each one, because we have all read this and if you haven't then I will try to attach the adorable copy that I digitized to this post because you really must read it at once. I will also try to attach the audio files in case you would rather listen, but NO CRITIQUES! I know my accent changes all the time and I read too fast. I would slow down if my voice wasn't so goofy.

So in the first 2 letters (which I am going to call letters 2 and 3 because we are going to consider "Blue Monday" a letter from the omniscient narrator to us) Jerusha has just gotten to Vassar and is introducing herself to Daddy Long Legs and giving him a bead on her surroundings. 

Letter One: Jerusha bemoans lack of name originality.

Letter Two: 

My room was the contagious ward!! Or maybe Sally and Julia sound just fine. Or perhaps Homesick-Schmomesick, I'm orphan asylum raised! Or even Basketball tryouts? Good God, a cliff-hanger!

Clearly I am going to have a difficult time sticking to six words. 

If I were putting up discussion questions they would be:

What is your favorite age range of children to befriend, teach or raise? (And it is perfectly fine not to like them at all, I couldn't stand children other than my own until I mellowed with age. Stop laughing, I really have!)

Who are your favorite literary orphans? Or your favorite orphan story if you like a horrible orphan like Mary Lennox?

What are your favorite epistolary novels? How about books of real correspondence?

That's all for today. 

Here is a google file with the PDF and sound files. The PDF is adorable and I am so proud of myself for having created it, I mean, the illustrations were done by Jean Webster, but the digital version on Project Gutenberg didn't have them in there so I had to photograph the pictures from my old yellowing copy and put them in and that sort of thing is NOT my strong suit! But I did it for the greater good because those illustrations are adorable and someday I will have one of them tattooed on my body! Ooh - we should vote!

Okay, NOW that's all for today.