Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

Dear Enemy is the sequel to Jean Webster’s novel Daddy-Long-Legs. First published in 1915, it was among the top ten best sellers in the US in 1916.

The story is presented in a series of letters written by Sallie McBride, Judy Abbott’s classmate and best friend in Daddy-Long-Legs. Among the recipients of the letters are Judy; Jervis Pendleton, Judy’s husband and the president of the orphanage where Sallie is filling in until a new superintendent can be installed; Gordon Hallock, a wealthy Congressman and Sallie’s later fiancé; and the orphanage’s doctor, embittered Scotsman Robin ‘Sandy’ MacRae (to whom Sallie addresses her letters: “Dear Enemy”).

Webster employs the epistolary structure to good effect; Sallie’s choices of what to recount to each of her correspondents reveal a lot about her relationships with them.

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For the Reading Challenge(s):
The Classics Club

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The Reason

I loved Daddy-Long-Legs by the author, and although I’ve read this sequel before, it’s been a long time and I thought it might be time to revisit.

The Quotes

“The more I study men, the more I realize that they are nothing in the world but boys grown too big to be spankable.”

“The awful thing about a vacation is that the moment it begins your happiness is already clouded by its approaching end.”

“We all have a collection of memories that we would happily lose, but somehow those are just the ones that insist upon sticking.”

My Thoughts

I didn’t love this as much as Daddy-Long-Legs because I think Judy is so much more relatable and perhaps also it was her carefree nature that got me. Sallie wasn’t as fun, but to be fair, they have grown up a bit since college, and she’s handling an orphanage which obviously requires a lot more responsibility than college kids normally think about.

I think the romance with this book is cute though! With a title like Dear Enemy, and the enemies to lovers trope being so popular now. The ending did seem a little abrupt to me, I feel like I need a little more romance than that!

We don’t see a lot of Judy at all, but at least we see her through Sallie’s letters and we know that she’s happy and well! I feel like this book is a different tone than what we got with Daddy-Long-Legs and talks about some serious topics. I was also surprised with some of the more “modern” takes – simply because I have no concept of history and when some ideas were introduced to the world, but I do feel like Sallie was progressive for the time and I liked that.

I read this book before and I think I didn’t care very much for it then, maybe because I was also expecting more of Judy and the same vibes I got from Daddy-Long-Legs, but managing my expectations this time, I enjoyed it a lot more for what it is and I think it’s a good read on its own merit.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?