Fic! Daddy Long-Legs

[nineveh_uk]

Again at AO3 as of minor interest in search of a specialist audience: Wilful and Unfemininely Determined.

I thank whoever it was who wrote an article pointing out that Daddy Long-Legs should be read at least as much as a Bildungsroman as a romance, which combined with my own conviction of it as a comedy of manners makes it 1000% less creepy. I much prefer Jervis Pendleton as a relatively young man who has got massively out of his depth than the idea that he is totally and inherently creepy. OK, there is an unavoidable element of creep-factor given the scenario, but really, Judy runs rings around him.

That said, I still greatly admire the author of this blog post, "A Highly Scientific Analysis Of Daddy-Long-Legs Adaptations". Four versions, rated by "fidelity", "awesomeness of Judy", "creepiness", and "overall watchability" with the sad conclusion Science has proven that the completely unwatchable Korean version is the winner by virtue of not having a negative score. It’s a sad day when the best adaptation of something is the one which in no way resembles the original plot. In the midst of one of my "must read all the things" new fandom discoveries I tracked down on the internet the playtext of the first DLL adaptation, by Jean Webster herself. It was very much of the drawing-room comedy variety. I fear that while it would do fine on the first three categories, it would suffer badly on watchability through being massively, Edwardianly, dull.

*Film really is a challenge for a novel that depends for its charm on its strong narrative voice.

Comments

[aella_irene]

Have you read Dear Enemy, the Daddy Long Legs sequel? It does look at people getting married for good reasons and bad reasons, but alas, there is the PoV character being Educated on Eugenics and Mental Weakness.

[nineveh_uk]

I have! It's not as much fun as Daddy Long-Legs, because I am less interested in running the ideal orphanage as I am in women's colleges of the early C20, but I like Sally, and the "oh woe these doomed children of parents of poor moral character" is fascinating in its way.

[aella_irene]

I'm very fond of Sally's immense competency, and the way she uses her connections to find women who can work with her. ("Betsy Hendred 1910, I want you to come and catalogue my orphans!")

[nineveh_uk]

Yes, I really like the aspect of finding people who can do the things that she needs doing, and giving people who need to do something, something to do.

[antisoppist]

In my teens I read it as a Judy Bildungsroman, and managed to mostly ignore Jervis other than as the stereotypical happy ending. If you have to factor him in as a character, and it is probably fair to really, I like him much better as having started a thing and found himself in over his head.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is creepier, not to mention Dean Priest in Montgomery's Emily books.

I haven't read Dear Enemy and should.

[nineveh_uk]

You should read Dear Enemy. I am amazed I have and you haven't :-)

I think it's the way that Jervis tries, but so comprehensively fails, to manipulate Judy that I like; rather than being the experienced older man who knows best, he's the butt of the narrative joke as much as Judy is. She doesn't put two and two together, but in return he has to read letters not about how amazing he is, but his ridiculous clothes and the other young men she's going to dances with.

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks! I did not know there was DLL fic in the world.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

There's some very nice fics for it on AO3, if not so many as I'd like!

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

I feel like epistolary novels, in general, do not work on film. There is probably some exception somewhere in the world, but I don't know what it is.

[(Anonymous)]

Judy is cookiedough!!

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

I love this! It makes everything feel much less creepy. I hope Judy did get to have some time enjoying her freedom before becomin Mrs Jervis Pendleton.

[ylla.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whether I first read it too young to find Jervis creepy, or if it's just that he's more or less irrelevant to what I like about the book!

I still don't *really* - I mean, however badly he behaves, I don't think he had any original intention either of falling in love, or of picking out a girl to become a suitable wife. I'll allow him the first visit out of sheer natural curiosity, and Judy kind of forces the first Lock Willow summer on him by refusing to go back to the home - it's the summers after that that get a bit dubious.