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# 2025-04-26 - Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson | |
I read this book to prepare prior to watching a video adaptation. | |
Since i read this book for entertainment, i will try to keep this | |
post short. | |
I would classify this book as a melodramatic romance more than as a | |
historical fiction. The protagonists are exceptional examples of | |
humanity and larger than life. They are vexed by many invisible | |
fiends: -isms such as colonialism, racism, and sexism. | |
> Helen Hunt Jackson intended Ramona to be a protest novel against | |
> the mistreatment of Native Americans in the United States. She | |
> wrote the historical novel in a feverish three months... | |
> | |
> Like the Native American village in Yosemite, these tourist | |
> attractions romanticized Native Americans and legitimized their | |
> dispossession under the new American government. These myths--forms | |
> of imperialist nostalgia--gave a way for tourists and settlers to | |
> understand their history through the narrative conventions of drama. | |
From: Our Ramona https://boomcalifornia.org/2019/04/29/our-ramona/ | |
This book starts slow, and after the first six chapters it begins to | |
pick up the pace. | |
I appreciated clever gems scattered here and there, such as the | |
reference to The Fates in the opening passage. Indeed, in this book | |
The Fates have much to shear. | |
> It was sheep-shearing time in Southern California, but | |
> sheep-shearing was late at the Senora Moreno's. The Fates had | |
> seemed to combine to put it off. | |
I loved the description of the Moreno household waking up and | |
singing hymns together to start the day. | |
> As the first ray reached the window, he would throw the casement | |
> wide open, and standing there with bared head, strike up the melody | |
> of the sunrise hymn sung in all devout Mexican families. It was a | |
> beautiful custom, not yet wholly abandoned. At the first dawn of | |
> light, the oldest member of the family arose, and began singing | |
> some hymn familiar to the household. It was the duty of each person | |
> hearing it to immediately rise, or at least sit up in bed, and join | |
> in the singing. In a few moments the whole family would be singing, | |
> and the joyous sounds pouring out from the house like the music of | |
> the birds in the fields at dawn. The hymns were usually invocations | |
> to the Virgin, or to the saint of the day, and the melodies were | |
> sweet and simple. | |
Below are illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. Spoiler warning! | |
Ramona And Father Salvierderra | |
Ramona And Senora Moreno | |
Narrow Trail | |
Alessandro Shot | |
The Internet Archive has the 1928 silent film with | |
synchronized sound. | |
Ramona (1928), 80 minutes, starring Dolores Del Rio | |
The Internet Archive also has many versions of the 1928 song Ramona | |
because it was a global hit that year. | |
Ramona (1928), instrumental | |
Ramona (1928), sung by Dolores Del Rio | |
Ramona (1928), other 78 RPM records | |
author: Jackson, Helen Hunt, 1830-1885 | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Ramona | |
LOC: PZ3.J143 R PS2107.R4 | |
source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/2/8/0/2802/ | |
tags: ebook,fiction,history,native-american | |
title: Ramona | |
# Tags | |
ebook | |
fiction | |
history | |
native-american |