The following audio/visual materials are available to library patrons and may
be checked out from the main library.
GRAPES OF
WRATH
Recently released from prison, Tom Joad goes home only to find that his
sharecropper family has suffered foreclosure on their Depression-Era farm and
are heading to California in search of work. Suffering disappointment after
disappointment and in spite of the odds they will forge forward trying to do
for themselves as ethically as they can manage because, as Ma Joad says,
"we’re the people." If they seem naive maybe it’s
just because they’re decent people and unwilling to victimize others as they
have been victimized.
We could learn a lesson from this. In fact we could learn several as this
resonant film offers a lesson for our time, a fine history lesson, and an
equally fine lesson in literature.
The Library owns this title in print, audiobook, VHS, and DVD.
LITTLE
LORD FAUNTLEROY
Based on the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett this rags-to-riches tale is
for those of us who love treacle-y Victoriana.
In 1879 while living with his widowed mother in the slums of New York,
young Cedric Erroll learns he is the grandson of Britain's Earl of Dorincourt
and only heir to the Earl's vast fortune. Cedric goes to live with his
grandfather where his innocence and kindness charm the old gentleman and
soften his bitter American-hating heart.
This is a pretty good film of a really good book…if you like treacle-y
Victoriana. The Library owns this title in print and VHS.
WOMAN
OF SUBSTANCE
If you like soap opera, you will like this pre-WWI tale based on the
bestselling novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Pretty Emma Harte begins her career as maid-of-all-work to the Fairley
family and catches the eye of a son of the house. He tells her he will never
hurt her and proceeds to do just that.
When Emma tells Fairley that she is pregnant, he abandons her. Unwilling to
shame her family with her situation, Emma leaves for the big city. She finds
work in the weaving mills and forms the ambition to be rich – really, really
rich – and therefore immune to the whims of men. Hard-headed Yorkshire lass
that she is, she saves her pennies, makes wise business decisions and is well
on her way when another Fairley son shows up to threaten her and her child.
Where she despised the Fairleys before, now she hates and sets out to ruin
them.
Young Emma is played by Jenny Seagrove and older Emma is played by Deborah
Kerr.
The Library owns this title in print and VHS.
