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

#Lowell Reads Great Expectations (June—August 2012) #lowellreads12

In concert with the citywide Dickens in Lowell Celebration, the Pollard is resurrecting the Lowell Reads program. The aim of this program is to promote literacy and to foster a better sense of community by creating an opportunity for Lowellians engage with their neighbors in a meaningful discussion over a treasured classic. Beginning June 2nd, the Pollard Library will have book club kits of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations available for patrons to borrow to host and facilitate  discussions. In addition we will have copies of the novel in many formats for individuals to borrow. Readers can also pose questions and share their thoughts on the online discussion forum at www.lowellreads.org or join the conversation on Twitter @pollardml #lowellreads12. The library will be host a series of in person book discussions, films, and more.  For a full list of events you can visit our library calendar page, or our facebook events page, or stop by the library (or the Friends Book Sale this weekend) to pick up a brochure. 

ABOUT THE BOOK: Widely considered the best of Dickens’ novels, Great Expectations, tells the story of a young man named Pip and his education and ascension through the classes in Victorian England. Originally released in weekly installments between 1860-1861 the novel is full of intrigue, mystery and suspense. It unfolds in a masterful plotted scheme as engaging to modern readers as it was to those subscribers who originally read it in weekly serial format. The richly drawn characters speak highly of Dickens’ keen awareness of the universal foibles of human nature. So whether you’re reading this masterwork for the first time, or you’re reacquainting yourself with the likes of Estella, Miss Havisham, Joe Gargery and Pip join in on the conversation this summer as Lowell Reads Great Expectations.

LOWELL READS GREAT EXPECTATIONS is part of the citywide DICKENS IN LOWELL CELEBRATION happening throughout 2012. For more information please visit www.uml.edu/dickens. Dickens in Lowell is sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, in partnership with the Lowell National Historical Park, the Tsongas Industrial History Center, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Charles Dickens Museum London, and with generous support from the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation and the University of Massachusetts President’s Office. In addition, Lowell Reads Great Expectations, is made possible  by The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation and the Friends of the Pollard Memorial Library.

If you have any questions, or want more info please call or email Sean Thibodeau, Community Planning Librarian, 978-674-1542 or sthibodeau@mvlc.org. Happy Reading!