Daddy Long Legs (Manga adapation) Manga Literary Classics series by YKids
Combines this classic novel by Jean Webster with the graphic of a modern manga style. This adaptation of Jean Webster's novel has been beloved by young girls ever since it was published in 1912.
Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a grave stone, while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.
One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Jerusha is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Jerusha must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.
Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him "Daddy Long-Legs." She attends a women's college, but the name and location are never identified; however, men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it is certainly on the East Coast.
The book chronicles Jerusha's educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to "Judy." She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphan asylum, was never exposed. While she is at college, she becomes acquainted with Jervis Pendleton, the wealthy uncle of one of her classmates, and they become increasingly attached to each other, but her shame and embarrassment at her humble origins lead her to reject his marriage proposal despite her love for him. Unhappy and depressed, she turns to "Daddy Long-Legs" or John Smith, for advice. At the end of the book the true identity of "Daddy Long-Legs" is revealed.
It was interesting to read a graphic version of this classic story which was one of my personal favorites from my childhood. It is a much more flighty, silly kind of story where from my memory it had a much more serious feel to it. I do want to go back and re-read the original story to see if my memories are accurate. I did enjoy this modern adaptation but wish it had been to keep the feel of the original story.