After reading Daddy Long Legs sometime in the last couple years, I ordered this 1915 edition of Dear Enemy from eBay. I've just now gotten round to reading it.

If anything, this is a good "time capsule" story---one of those that wouldn't be nearly as popular or innocent as it likely was in its day. Several political and social ideologies are presented without any hint of a 21st century politically correct filter---even I, who usually roll my eyes at what some call "snowflakes", found a few things to be seriously offended by.

The main character is pretty harsh on racial and intellectual minorities; even going so far to insist society would be better off if these "feeble minded" ones were segregated into concentration camps. In context, this was her way of being sarcastically humorous---but it's a horrible suggestion and nothing any decent person today would find funny in the least.

The story was also an "interesting" look at eugenics from a perspective very different from my own. I've developed no sympathies for the philosophy, but I feel like I've made an excuse for their more "primitive" understanding. These are concessions I would have a very difficult time making for people today, and in the grand scheme of things, 1915 was not that long ago. I think I must just resign myself to the fact that this author had some really yucky views on the sanctity of life (a point I later confirmed when researching her biographical info.)

I did enjoy her humor though, for the most part, and epistolary novels like these always remind me of the "summer camp" books I used to read as a kid where the campers were always writing home (ex. Yours 'Til Niagara Falls, Abby).

New to me word: clishmaclaver. She uses it twice and I've never heard that before. It's a Scottish word for gossip or silly talk. ( )

This was written using a very dated and disturbing point of view about orphanages in general. I didn't care for the title either, as it sounded so negative before I even cracked open the book. Granted it is a fictional novel but unfortunately it lacked the charm of the first novel in the series, Daddy Long Legs. ( )

This is the lesser-known sequel to Daddy Long Legs. In this epistolary novel, Judy, a rich socialite with lively and original ideas takes over the orphanage that the Daddy Long Legs heroine grew up in. I was charmed to learn that the orphanage is in Dutchess County, where I live. The orphanage is cheerless and unhealthy when Judy arrives, but she manages to transform it into a place where the children can have nice clothes, affection, a gentle education, up-to-date (for the period) medical treatment, and the chance to play outdoors. It’s understood that Judy will just run the orphanage for a little while, and then marry her rich boyfriend and stop working forevermore, but later Judy is not so sure. Judy comes into conflict with the orphanage’s crabby Scottish doctor, the “Enemy” of the title. However after a while their animosity turns to friendship and then to...? But the doctor is guarding a sorrowful secret.

This part of the book mirrors Jean Webster’s real life. I don’t know much about her, but I did read her Wikipedia page from top to bottom. In addition to being a supporter of women’s suffrage and various reform movements and education for women, she had a boyfriend who couldn’t divorce his wife because she was mentally ill. (I hear this story over and over, and yet I never hear about the undivorcable mentally ill husband.) Webster’s boyfriend also had a “mentally unstable” child. And it sounds like the boyfriend was not the picture of mental health himself.

Anyway, the least appealing part of Dear Enemy is the lip service granted to the eugenics models of Galton and Goddard, with discussion of the feebleminded Jukes and Kallikaks. Judy eventually concludes that there’s nothing in this heredity business, but because it was the “scientific” idea of the age, Webster gave eugenics quite a bit of air time. It does seem that the whole question of inherited mental illness was one that she had a real personal interest in, and I think she was honestly trying to figure it out rather than just being sensationalistic.

This is one of the books of 1915 that’s still read today, as a fluffy fun book for young people, not as a towering literary classic assigned in school. I think the reason for its endurance is that the main character is spunky and is more like a contemporary woman in terms of her attitude toward education, career, and love.
( )

Enjoyable sequel to Daddy Long Legs. Not as good as the original, but that would be a high bar to reach.

Sally McBride takes over the orphanage and writes her experiences to Judy and to the doctor (with whom she has many arguments).

It's partly of interest because it was written in 1915, rather than by a later writer trying to emulate the period. This can be annoying to some readers, as there are views expressed that don't always mesh with modern ideas on things, but I find refreshing as I hate it when characters in modern historical novels are only allowed to hold modern views, which they would not have held at the time.

eg. Sally is a great believer in fresh air, whereas I think the kids would freeze to death!

The effects of hereditary vs environment at that time were greatly influenced by a particular book (which has since been discredited to a large extent), but it was very influential at the time. Sally isn't 100% convinced by it, but it certainly affects many of her letters. ( )

Some extremely likable parts. See the quote about Sallie’s experience of freedom. Not so much the belaboring of genetic inheritance, Kallikaks, etc. Really, not a light-hearted romance as my cover would have it (although had I thought that was what I would be reading I would not have bothered). And I would have enjoyed just occasionally someone else’s voice. ( )

I knew beforehand about the eugenics that pervade the plot of this book. For whatever reason, it bothered me enough that I couldn't finish this, because it seemed to be entwined with the romance to the point where I just couldn't ignore it. I may give it another shot at some point, but I somehow doubt it. I do get that these views were seen differently one-hundred years ago but there's only so much I can take sometimes. ( )

I knew beforehand about the eugenics that pervade the plot of this book. For whatever reason, it bothered me enough that I couldn't finish this, because it seemed to be entwined with the romance to the point where I just couldn't ignore it. I may give it another shot at some point, but I somehow doubt it. I do get that these views were seen differently one-hundred years ago but there's only so much I can take sometimes.

I knew beforehand about the eugenics that pervade the plot of this book. For whatever reason, it bothered me enough that I couldn't finish this, because it seemed to be entwined with the romance to the point where I just couldn't ignore it. I may give it another shot at some point, but I somehow doubt it. I do get that these views were seen differently one-hundred years ago but there's only so much I can take sometimes.

I didn't think it was nearly as good as Daddy-Long-Legs and, even though I understand that the book was reflective of attitudes of the time I was disappointed in Sallie's blatent disregard for "feeble-minded" children and the tacit approval of eugenics theory.

This sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs centers around Judy's college friend Sallie McBride, a cheerful but frivolous young woman whose wealth has prevented her from ever having to work for a living. So when Judy and her husband encourage Sallie to take over the administration of the orphanage where Judy grew up, Sallie is flabbergasted. At first she outright refuses their proposal, but eventually they convince her to give it a try. Sallie is shocked to discover that she has an aptitude for the work; and what's more, she enjoys it! Slowly but surely, she begins to reform the orphanage and give a little joy to the orphans in her care. She also clashes immediately with the local doctor, Robin MacRae, whom she frequently addresses as "Dear Enemy." But the more they are forced to work together, the more they come to recognize each other's good qualities, until an unexpected tragedy finally forces Sallie to confront her true feelings.

Like Daddy-Long-Legs before it, this book is a charmingly old-fashioned epistolary novel that I absolutely adored! Sallie is an entertaining correspondent, and her letters (mostly to Judy) are light and chatty and lots of fun to read. I enjoyed the romance a lot as well -- maybe even more so than in DLL (and those who've read DLL will understand why!). The book is also interesting for its exploration of the role of women in the workforce. Sallie encounters a lot of skepticism from the local community about whether she's capable of being a good administrator, but she joyfully and determinedly proves them all wrong. The book is less progressive in its depiction of mental illness: both Sallie and the doctor make a few comments about "feeble-mindedness" and how people with subnormal mental functioning shouldn't reproduce. But aside from that jarring reminder of the book's age (pub date 1915), I really loved this book and would definitely recommend it to fans of older fiction, although I do suggest reading Daddy-Long-Legs first!

I was on a reading binge and did not know where else to go after Daddy Long Legs. I do not recommend this one. It lacks the easy humor of Daddy Long Legs and Sally is a less well realized character. Not only is romance predictable, the characters shallow sketches, but the book is also pushing eugenics pretty hard core. ( )

Jerusha Abbott (Judy)'s best friend ‘the frivolous’ Sallie McBride finally and forcefully agrees to takes up a challenging work in an orphan asylum! Having no idea about what to do next she lands up in the asylum just to help her best friend and to know how and where as an orphan Judy lived. And from there on Sallie’s life takes a new turn. Dealing with the day to day problem of orphan asylum she grows more and more mature and responsible with each incident that takes place there. Yet again the character development of Sallie is shown beautifully through each letter she writes to her friends. Unlike Judy of [b:Daddy-Long-Legs|1499952|Daddy-Long-Legs (Daddy-Long-Legs, #1)|Jean Webster|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1339593021s/1499952.jpg|1710545],Sallie here writes letters to 3 to 4 people at the same time and the variation in each letter is so clearly identifiable!! I loved the way Sallie opens her heart to Judy in each letter in her own way. This was again a delightful read like the first book, I just could not stop reading, once I started. And Sallie was as amazing company as Judy was! ( )

Dear Enemy by Jean Webster is a companion piece to Daddy-Long-Legs. Just like the first one, this is an epistolary novel, but the correspondence is between the new head of the orphanage and the now married Judy.

Except that it takes place in the orphanage and the letters are being written to the last book's protagonist, this book is not more of the same. It's not a romance. If any thing, it's a comedic look at the troubles faced by anyone trying to run an institution on a budget fixed by board members who probably have never set foot on the grounds.

For anyone who has had to make a budget or deal with bureaucratic red tape, Dear Enemy is for you. In a hundred years it hasn't gotten any easier to run a school. I think this book should be given to anyone taking on his or her first directorship. ( )

Dear Enemy by Jean Webster is written in the same epistolary style as Daddy Long Legs, of which this is a sequel to. In Dear Enemy we meet once again Judy’s old room-mate from college, Sallie McBride who has just accepted the position of Supervisor at the John Grier Orphan Asylum. The book is entirely from Sally’s point of view as she writes to her friend, Judy and to the local doctor, who is the “Dear Enemy”.

Sallie is a very likeable character, forthright, honest and fun loving. She often refers to herself as frivolous, but she is far from that. Dedicated and caring she throws herself into the position and before too long has won the hearts of many, including the 113 orphans under her care and, the quiet Scotsman who is the local doctor.

The book was originally published in 1915, so there are some very dated thoughts and ideas, but it is very clear that Sallie and most of the other people that join in to help her, have the best intentions and are trying to improve these children’s lives. The relationship between Sallie and Dr. Robin MacRae develops slowly and with a few bumps and misunderstandings along the way, but it is an adult relationship which I found easier to swallow than that of the one in Daddy Long Legs. Of course, through Sallie’s letters to Judy, we do learn how successful her marriage to Jervis Pendleton has turned out.

Dear Enemy was a nice, light read that brings closure to the lives of these young people that I first grew to care about in Daddy Long Legs. ( )

Witty and interesting. A sequel to Daddy Longlegs which I also enjoyed. ( )

Dear Enemy is the follow up to the successful Daddy Long Legs. It follows the adventures of Judy Abbott's flighty socialite college friend, Sallie MacBride, as she works to renovate and reform the grim orphanage Judy had grown up in. Sallie doesn't look like the kind of person who would be able to be an orphanage superintendent. She is, by her own admission, silly and too much in love with having fun. But she's goaded into taking the job by the laughter of her boyfriend and now that she's installed in the superintendent's ghastly living quarters, she's going to give it her all to improve the lives of the 113 orphans in her care.

This is a childhood favorite of mine, that I reread every few years. Written as the collected letters and notes of Sallie as she gets settled and learns how very much needs to be done, it's amusing in the best possible way. What's interesting as an adult is the picture of how things like genetics were viewed a hundred years ago. There are references to the cutting edge work of that time, including the fantastic The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness, which is both laughable and frightening to modern eyes, but was seriously considered in the eugenics movement of that time. So that in between the silly capers and misadventures of Sallie and her orphans and the light romance between Sallie and the dour Scottish doctor is a heap of information on how people back then thought orphanages ought to be run and the role of a child's background in his or her future chances. ( )

First published in 1915, DEAR ENEMY is a sequel to Daddy Long Legs. Judy is now married and recruits her college friend Sallie to give up her happy-go-lucky life and run the John Grier Home, the orphanage that Judy was raised in. Sallie is getting bored waiting for her Congressman boyfriend to propose and agrees to take the job on a temporary basis. She turns up at the home with her kind heart, wicked sense of humour, her maid and her dog. She immediately falls foul of the home’s Scottish doctor and a couple of the trustees who condemn her, sight unseen, as frivolous.

As with ‘Daddy Long Legs’ the story is told in a sequence of letters from Sallie. They are mostly to Judy, but many are directed to the moody Scottish doctor–her "enemy". Sallie has a tendency to put her foot in her mouth – but she means well and has the welfare of her charges at heart. She has a goal to make the lives of the children happy; and to prepare them for working in the real world when they leave at sixteen. Her letters record her adventures with the kids (some of whom are a real handful); the loss of a series of cooks; convincing sexist trustees she is more than capable, and looking at her personal life without rose-coloured glasses. She also tells of neighbours who start of grumpy then all pull together when crisis strikes. During the course of the very quick read I laughed, I cried and I despaired – always the sign that I have been sucked into the story.

While some of the attitudes to women and mental issues are dated, and may put people off, the story is in context for the times, and a reminder of how far we have improved as a society. Overall DEAR ENEMY is a delightful read.

"Dear Enemy" is the sequel to "Daddy Long-Legs" and in my opinion just as good. I love hearing about Sally's experiences leading the orphanage and find the writing style very charming. It's one of those comfort books that I keep returning to when I'm the need for some wholesome entertainment. ( )

The delightful sequel to Daddy Long Legs wherein Sallie McBride (Judy's former roommate) takes over the running of the John Grier Home. Like Daddy Long Legs, this is an epistolary novel. ( )

Loved, loved Daddy Long Legs, so my hopes were up for this one. Same format, with a socialite taking over as superintendent (temporary) at an orphanage in upstage New York in the late 1800s. Loved the characters, the setting, and the epistolary format, but the preaching about eugenics and insanity was upsetting. I rated it at 2.5 and because of the themes, I would not recommend it to everyone, which is a shame, because it could have been so good. ( )

First published in 1915, DEAR ENEMY is a sequel to Daddy Long Legs. Judy is now married and recruits her college friend Sallie to give up her happy-go-lucky life and run the John Grier Home, the orphanage that Judy was raised in. Sallie is getting bored waiting for her Congressman boyfriend to propose and agrees to take the job on a temporary basis. She turns up at the home with her kind heart, wicked sense of humour, her maid and her dog. She immediately falls foul of the home’s Scottish doctor and a couple of the trustees who condemn her, sight unseen, as frivolous.

As with ‘Daddy Long Legs’ the story is told in a sequence of letters from Sallie. They are mostly to Judy, but many are directed to the moody Scottish doctor--her "enemy". Sallie has a tendency to put her foot in her mouth – but she means well and has the welfare of her charges at heart. She has a goal to make the lives of the children happy; and to prepare them for working in the real world when they leave at sixteen. Her letters record her adventures with the kids (some of whom are a real handful); the loss of a series of cooks; convincing sexist trustees she is more than capable, and looking at her personal life without rose-coloured glasses. She also tells of neighbours who start of grumpy then all pull together when crisis strikes. During the course of the very quick read I laughed, I cried and I despaired – always the sign that I have been sucked into the story.

While some of the attitudes to women and mental issues are dated, and may put people off, the story is in context for the times, and a reminder of how far we have improved as a society. Overall DEAR ENEMY is a delightful read. ( )

Cute little romance pub. 1912. Told through letters written by the main character. ( )

La forma epistolar tiene, en las novelas, un encanto secreto. Una carta espontánea vale más que muchos discursos académicos, sobre todo cuando está bien escrita como cualquiera de las de esta historia. Porque el alma se desviste de las ficciones a que le obliga la vida corriente, y se manifiesta en toda su diafanidad o en su negrura.

Judy Abbott's friend Sallie MacBride is tricked into becoming superintendent of the John Grier Orphans Home with an interesting Scottish doctor as bait. Once there, she masters the difficulties to become "the rippingest superintendent" in existence. I found this by accident years after I read Daddy-Long-Legs as a teenager. It's a delightful story on its own and an interesting commentary on how the upper classes felt about the poor and about how social work should be conducted around the turn of the century. ( )

A delightful sequel to one of my favorite books: Daddy Long-Legs. Jean Webster manages to write wonderful stories about turn-of-the-20th-century college girls in a way that absolutely doesn't age. Judy Abbott's best friend Sallie MacBride finds herself in charge of the John Grier Home for Orphans - installed there by the new president and his wife: Jervis and Judy Pendleton. Sallie's adventures and misadventures, triumphs and mis-steps are told with love and humor in Sallie's letters to Judy, to her beau Gordon, and to the Orphanage doctor.

The book is a new reprint that is a delight to hold (just the right size), a delight to touch (crisp pages and a red ribbon bound-in bookmark), and a delight to read. I think the original may have had some marginal drawings - referred to obliquely in the text - and I regret to say any such drawings were not included in this edition. There is, however, a portrait and very complete biographical notes at the end of the book. ( )