Lowell Reads First Film Night Thursday, June 28th @ 6:30pm

Lowell Readers! To help contextualize Great Expecations, we're going to be giving you an opportunity to take in some biographical information about Charles Dickens in film form this Thursday, June 28th @ 6:30pm. First up is an hour long documentary called Charles Dickens: A Tale of Ambition and Genius, which paints an informative and insightful overview of Mr. Dickens' life.

 Then we'll be showing two thirty minute episodes of BBC's Dickens in America featuring Miriam Margolyes. This show followed Margolyes as she retraced Dickens' 1842 trip to America—we'll be watching her as she prepares to leave England, and as she visits Lowell and other New England stops along Dickens' trail.

This film night, along with all the other Lowell Reads Great Expectations programming is free and open to the public. If you have any questions please contact me, Sean Thibodeau, Community Planning Librarian at 978-674-1542 or sthibodeau@mvlc.org. See you Thursday!

Victorian Era Insights

This is an exciting year for England. The Summer Olympics will be held in London and Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee--60 years on the throne. Only Queen Victoria reigned for such a long period. As part of the Diamond Jubilee celebration, the complete diaries of Queen Victoria are available online through the end of June. (In July, they will remain free online to people in the UK.) The website, www.queenvictoriasjournals.org, contains over 43,000 pages in 141 volumes spanning from 1832-1901. They were released by the Royal Archives and produced in collaboration with Bodelian Libraries at Oxford and Proquest. You can see digital images of Queen Victoria's original journals through 1937. Later journals were redacted and transcribed by the Queen's daughter, Princess Beatrice, per Victoria's request.

Although the diaries are available to us only briefly, the timing could not be better. As you may know, Lowell is currently celebrating Charles Dickens, and the Pollard Memorial Library just kicked off Lowell Reads Great Expectations. Dickens, who was born 200 years ago and visited the city in 1842, wrote during the Victorian Era. Perusing Queen Victoria's journals will provide insight into this time period and to the woman who reigned when Dickens was creating his most memorable works.

Sources:
Queen Victoria's Journals. http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/home.do (accessed June 2, 2012).

Schuessler, Jennifer. "Queen Victoria's Complete Diaries Released Online." New York Times. May 24, 2012. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/queen-victorias-complete-diaries-released-online/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Don't miss the Lowell Reads Great Expecations Kick Off Party this Saturday June 2nd, 11am-3pm

We're very excited for the kick off of Lowell Reads Great Expectations THIS SATURDAY June, 2nd from 11am-3pm.

• 11am-12pm: Animal Mask Craft - The Lowell Humane Society will be on hand to lead an Animal Mask Craft for kids. All children and grownups are welcome, no registration necessary. 
• 1pm-3pm: Special screening of an animated children's feature starring a troupe of lovable kittens based on Charles Dicken's "Oliver Twist."  

For those of you in book groups, this Saturday is also an excellent opportunity to get first dibs on the book club kits we've assembled for your reading pleasure. Free with your library card—inquire at the ciruclation desk. And don't forget to sign up for our discussion forum at www.lowellreads.org, "join" the events on our facebook page or help spread the word on twitter #lowellreads12.

Dickens Mania

Don't forget this weekend is the grand kick off to the Dickens in Lowell celebration. There's lots of fun stuff to do, including this evening's opening of the central exhibit at the Boot Gallery (behind Boardinghouse Park) . The opening runs from 5pm-7pm and will feature music food and speakers (or as Dickens might have put it—harmony, wittles, and orators).

Then come on by the Pollard tomorrow morning for Victorian Parlor games from 10am-11am. We'll be playing authentically Dickensian games such as Blindman's Bluff, Courtiers and Forefits as well as a take off of Pin the Tail on the Donkey called Pin the Raven on the Couch. Intrigued? We hope so.

Then tomorrow afternoon we'll be showing the film classic Oliver! at 1pm. So get ready to feel light again! Of course, there's lots more Dickens stuff going on all around the city full schedule here.

PLUS! Sunday evening, Masterpiece Theatre is serendipitously airing their latest and greatest production of "Great Expecations" featuring Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham. It looks like this is going to be quite a production—and a great way to get into the story that's the subject of our Lowell Reads "Great Expectations" program coming this summer.

PBS Masterpiece - Great Expectations - This April

As if Downton Abbey weren't enough...PBS Masterpiece just released a teaser trailer for it's modern adaptation of Great Expectations premiering April 1st, & 8th. Of course, this adaptation was made in celebration of Dickens's 200th birthday which you should have heard of by now. There's lots going on round the world to celebrate and lots in your own back yard with the Dickens in Lowell yearlong celebration.

This Masterpiece adaptation of Great Expectations is the perfect opportunity for you to get a jump-start in advance of our Lowell Reads Great Expectations program this June-August. That is if you don't mind spoiling the reading experience. After all, there was a recent article in the Boston Globe's Braniac section that claims spoilers actually make stories better. It releives the anxiety of the unknown, or something like that.