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Ramona

Helen Hunt Jackson,

Michael Dorris (Introduction),

Valerie Sherer Mathes (Afterword)

3.74 · Rating details · 1,899 ratings · 273 reviews

One of the greatest ethical novels of the nineteenth century, this is a tale of true love tested. Set in Old California, this powerful narrative richly depicts the life of the fading Spanish order, the oppression of tribal American communities and inevitably, the brutal intrusion of white settlers. Ramona, an illegitimate orphan, grows up as the ward of the overbearing Sen ...more

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Paperback, 432 pages

Published July 1st 2002 by Signet (first published 1884)

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Aug 24, 2014 Brian rated it liked it · review of another edition

Go with me on this.

It’s the year 2060. We have our flying cars, vat-grown replacement organs and Kim Kardashian’s Skanky Grannies reality TV – but you know what we don’t have? Anybody that remembers The Great Gatsby. Not the book, not the movies – nothing. That seems like an almost impossibility, right? Having finished Ramona, and then reading about the success of this novel and its almost complete obscurity in 2014, I’m not so sure.

This is a romance novel, no doubt about it – my first foray int ...more

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Feb 17, 2010 Tim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

As many of you know, one of my hobbies is to read books that were once popular but have now fallen into obscurity, trying to understand the past through what excited people at the time.

Ramona, a book that has appeared in more than 300 editions since it was first published, was made into a movie four times, and inspired an entire tourist industry in the late 19th and early 20th century, is surely such a book. I've had a copy for years, one belonging to my father-in-law, and it's long been on my t As many of you know, one of my hobbies is to read books that were once popular but have now fallen into obscurity, trying to understand the past through what excited people at the time.

Ramona, a book that has appeared in more than 300 editions since it was first published, was made into a movie four times, and inspired an entire tourist industry in the late 19th and early 20th century, is surely such a book. I've had a copy for years, one belonging to my father-in-law, and it's long been on my to-read list.

It's quite a lovely book - a romance of the old west, and a strong indictment of the treatment of the American Indian (and to a lesser extent, the Mexicans) by the conquering Americans, who brought a long period of California history to a close.

As I wrote in the book's description (see above), the book was written after the failure of Hunt's earlier non-fiction book, A Century of Dishonor to raise consciousness about the plight of the American Indian and their disgraceful treatment by the United States government. However, the charming romance (which turns darker as the story progresses) was what caught people's imagination.

Still, it's an eye-opening look at how the conquering Americans treated the Indian and Mexican inhabitants of California. We like to think we're better than the ethnic cleansers of today's world, but our country was built on ethnic cleansing. For all its storybook romance and idealization of the Franciscan missions and the life on the Mexican ranchos, this book is a great reminder of our own history.

P.S. People who enjoyed this book might also look for The Splendid Idle Forties by Gertrude Atherton, a collection of romantic stories about old California. Another, perhaps more realistic view of old California can be found in Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana. I love the descriptions in Dana's book of San Francisco in 1837 as a wooded peninsula populated by deer and bears, with a tiny fishing village and port, but it's also great to see him refer to this area as the northern part of Mexico, and to meditate on how the things we take for granted weren't always so, and won't always continue to be so. ...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Megan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Helen Hunt Jackson wrote Ramona to draw people's attention to the injustice being done to the Indians living in California. She was friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe and hoped that her story would have the same impact on the nation that Uncle Tom's Cabin had in the 1850's.

Boy was she wrong. Dead wrong. Instead of awakening the rest of America to the plight of the Indians of Southern California people received it as a romance novel. The nation was gripped with Ramona fever and California took n ...more

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Jun 11, 2018 Moonkiszt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: be-outraged, inequity-abuse-persecution, indigenous-peoples, race-felt-it, romance-tragic-starxd, best-of-all-takin-with-me-top-favs, a-mighty-act-of-persuasion, acts-of-unrighteous-dominion, botanicals-flowers-trees-plants, death-grief-loss-processing

First published in 1884, and first read in 1885 by women in my family, there has always been a copy available to me. I've read this book many, many times, and it still hits my heart.

Helen Hunt Jackson was one of the very first to point a big shaming finger at the White Man when it came to all indigenous cultures on the America continent. In this book she is specifically concerned with the native tribes and cultures already settled (Mexican mostly) throughout what would become the southwestern U First published in 1884, and first read in 1885 by women in my family, there has always been a copy available to me. I've read this book many, many times, and it still hits my heart.

Helen Hunt Jackson was one of the very first to point a big shaming finger at the White Man when it came to all indigenous cultures on the America continent. In this book she is specifically concerned with the native tribes and cultures already settled (Mexican mostly) throughout what would become the southwestern US and upper Mexico. The beautiful valleys and mountains she described were based on her travels throughout that area, and using her notes the characters with which she peopled Ramona were burdened with the iniquities she observed on these trips and interviews. Her timeline is much earlier than her trip, where she saw ruins, elders and a few relics well-kept for history’s sake. The land was battle-scarred having changed hands from native tribes, to Mexican dons, and then westering pioneers. Jackson got a good whiff of the battles, and the sorry results. And, as a woman with the power of her own voice and pen, along with access to records, she did her research. Beyond this fictional book, she wrote a non-fictional one that was sent with all her information and data to the US government: Century of Dishonor. The sole purpose was to shame and motivate some kind of remediating and restorative action on the part of the government, both state and federal.

Decades later I was born in this valley, a white daughter of immigrants from other states, who settled in the cities built among the ruins and relics well-kept. In fact, I was trotted out to those in field trips on a regular basis, and loved being there. A spirit all its own resides and watches over those places, haunted and wary. Yet, it always draws me in. I spent many summers in the little hot towns around Hemet, which is close by the pageant amphitheater where there is an annual celebration and re-enactment of Ramona’s story. The pageant does a great job of talking more about Helen’s efforts to get America motivated and concerned about the mistreatment of California’s indigenous people. Here’s a link: http://ramonabowl.com/just-love-story/
Quoting that website:

“She called for changes in the government’s Indian policies and documented their past crimes in her 1881 book, “A Century of Dishonor”.

The outlook seemed bleak. Jackson described in vivid detail the broken treaties, brutal murders and evictions the Indians had endured. Forced onto reservations, disease and death soon took their toll. America’s Indians were heading towards extinction. “I sometimes wonder that the Lord does not rain fire and brimstone on this land,” Jackson wrote to a friend, “to punish us for cruelty to these unfortunate Indians.”

Jackson had hoped her book would lift the American people to the same sort of outrage she felt over the treatment of the Indians. When it did not, she decided to try to write a novel that would “move people’s hearts. People will read a novel when they will not read serious books,” she wrote.”

During recent protests and plain speaking, many are moved to examine their own accountability as it relates to social conditioning and that which we were raised into, and then later adopt, evolve and develop as we live in our communities. We carry within our own personal “preferences”, standards and “beliefs” biases to which we may have been blind or have never recognized. Messages have been coming at us from all directions, for hundreds, thousands of years. I see this book by Helen Hunt Jackson as a demand for healing actions for the California tribes. She is waiting for those who have ears to hear, and as my mother always said, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Sadly, by the time anyone listened to Helen, most all of those tribes had been decimated by territorial persecution, bigotry, disease, displacement, and a careful deconstruction of their culture by newcomers.

5 stars for the hope she had that someone would hear her. Still. ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 Kim rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, three-star-no, e-book-online, r-r

Ramona is an American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1884. Who is Helen Hunt Jackson? Well, it's good you waited until now to ask, a few days ago I would have had no idea. Now I do. Helen Hunt Jackson was a writer who became an activist on behalf of Native Americans and how they were treated by the United States government. If they were treated anything like what she wrote in the novel, our government was horrible to these people.

Way back when Jackson was a little girl she attended the Ramona is an American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1884. Who is Helen Hunt Jackson? Well, it's good you waited until now to ask, a few days ago I would have had no idea. Now I do. Helen Hunt Jackson was a writer who became an activist on behalf of Native Americans and how they were treated by the United States government. If they were treated anything like what she wrote in the novel, our government was horrible to these people.

Way back when Jackson was a little girl she attended the Ipswich Female Seminary and the Abbott Institute, a boarding school in New York City run by Reverend John Stevens Cabot Abbott. I have no idea whether the Ipswich Female Seminary and the Abbott Institute are the same place or two different places and I didn't look them up yet. I also didn't look up the man who ran the place or places to see why his name is so long, what I did find out is that she was a classmate of Emily Dickinson, and the two wrote to each other for the rest of their lives. When she was 22 she married an Army Captain, Edward Bissell Hunt, they had two sons, one of them died though, and so did her husband, he was killed in an accident that occurred while he was experimenting with one of his own marine inventions. I wish I had more information than that on what he was doing. The second son also died of diphtheria two years later. She isn't having very much luck with her family members, her mother died when she was fourteen, and her father when she was seventeen. Now that she was all alone with nothing else to do I suppose she began to write poetry and she traveled in Europe writing. But, of course something else had to go wrong and she moved to Colorado Springs seeking a cure for tuberculosis, an awful lot of people seemed to have tuberculosis in the 1800s. Finally, something went right and she met and married William Sharpless Jackson, a wealthy banker and railroad executive. I find it interesting that she kept her first husband's last name, and added her second husband's last name behind that. I wonder what her husband thought.

Then in 1879 she went to a lecture in Boston, I have no idea what she is doing in Boston, the lecture is by Chief Standing Bear, of the Ponca Tribe. He described the forcible removal of the Ponca from their Nebraska reservation and transfer to a reservation in Oklahoma where they suffered from disease, harsh climate, and poor supplies. I didn't know Oklahoma had harsh climate. She was so upset by what she heard she decided to take up their cause and started investigating and making known the government misconduct. She did all kinds of things, raising money for them, having heated exchanges with federal officials over the injustices committed, she exposed the government's violation of treaties, she documented corruption of agents, military officers, settlers, anyone who encroached on and stole the Indians land. And it seems like there were a lot of people who stole the Indians land, and that is what the book is about, that plus the story of Ramona and the man she falls in love with, Alessandro, and all those around the couple.

In the story we are in Southern California right after the Mexican-American War, which apparently the Mexicans lost because there are an awful lot of "Americans" showing up. What are called Americans in this story I really hope isn't what all Americans were like back then. There were few of them who weren't horrible. Our heroine in the story is Ramona, her mother was Native American, I can't remember who her father was. She is raised by Señora Gonzaga Moreno, the sister of Ramona's deceased foster mother. Señora Moreno has raised Ramona as part of the family, giving her every luxury, but only because Ramona's foster mother had requested it as her dying wish. Our dear Señora can't stand Ramona, supposedly because of Ramona's mixed Native American heritage, I think she is just mean. That love is reserved for her only child, Felipe Moreno, whom she adores. She adores him so much it is creepy. Señora Moreno is Mexican of Spanish ancestry, although where they live in California has recently been taken over by the United States. She hates the Americans, everyone hates the Americans, after awhile I hate the Americans, who have cut up her huge ranch because that's what they do. I feel sorry for her and her son, Felipe, but I still don't like her.

One day a group of Native American sheep shearers arrive at the ranch, she hires them every year, and the head of the shearers is Alessandro, the son of the chief of the tribe, I forget his name. I found it interesting that he was Catholic, I didn't think Native American Indians were Catholic, but some are. Of course just about everyone in the novel is, it is interesting how many things only get done, or don't get done until the priest is asked, or until a certain Saint is prayed to. There are Rosaries, and statues, and crosses all over the place, I learned a lot about the different Saints. Then Alessandro sees Ramona and falls in love with her, he tries not to let it show, being an Indian and poor, but it wouldn't be much of a love story if she never knew he loved her. She eventually falls in love with him, Felipe is also in love with Ramona, and Margarita also loves Alessandro, it doesn't matter who she is.

So once Señora Moreno and Felipe find out that Ramona and Alessandro love each other, do you really think they will allow a girl raised by them like a daughter and sister (so they say), are going to let her marry an Indian? And if she does marry him, where will they live, the main thing going on in the book during all this is the Indians getting thrown off their land, entire villages, including the one that Alessandro is from are just thrown out and made to leave, to go who knows where, and no one cares. No American cares anyway, and if they don't go they just shoot them. So they move on and find another little village and build houses and plant crops and the Americans come and, well the same thing happens, over and over until the book is over and I don't know where the Indians ended up, but wherever it is, what happened to them wasn't right. And for me what happened to Ramona and Alessandro didn't matter at all. Remember all those black and white Westerns where the Indians rode around on horses killing everyone with their bows and arrows and tomahawks? I'll be thinking of Ramona and Alessandro and their village the next time I see one of them. Oh, here are some of the things I remember the most:

It was the way in the Hyer family to make the best of things; they had always possessed this virtue to such an extent, that they suffered from it as from a vice. There was hardly to be found in all Southern Tennessee a more contented, shiftless, ill-bested family than theirs. But there was no grumbling. Whatever went wrong, whatever was lacking, it was "jest like aour luck", they said, and did nothing, or next to nothing, about it.

Alessandro, I am almost afraid to tell you what I have done. I took the little Jesus out of the Madonna's arms and hit it! Did you never hear, that if you do that, the Madonna will grant you anything, to get him back again in her arms. Did you ever hear of it?"
"Never!" exclaimed Alessandro, with horror in his tone. "Never, Mejella! How dared you?"
"Oh, I have heard, many times, women tell the Senora they had done this, and always they got what they wanted. Never will she let the Jesus be out of her arms more than three weeks before she will grant any prayer one can make.'

Felipe went to the Madonna's picture and falling on his knees, began to pray as simply as if he were alone. The Indians, standing on the doorway, also fell on their knees, and a low-whispered murmur was heard.
For a moment Aunt Ri looked at the kneeling figures with contempt. "Oh, Lawd!" she thought, "the pore heathen, prayin' ter a picter!" Then a sudden revulsion seized her. "I allow I ain't gwine ter be the unly one out er the hull number thet don't seem to hev nothin' ter pray ter; I allow I'll jine in prayer, tew, but I shan't say mine ter no picter!" And Aunt Ri fell on her knees; and when a young Indian woman by her side slipped a rosary into her han, Aunt Ri did not repulse it, but hid it in the folds of her gown till the prayers were done. It was a moment and a lesson Aunt Ri never forgot."

The novel was so popular it had more than 300 printings, and attracted many tourists to Southern California who wanted to see places from the book. I don't want to see the places in the book, it is too depressing. I'm not sure how many stars to give it, I didn't care what happened to Ramona and Alessandro, in fact they got on my nerves at times. I certainly didn't care about Señora Moreno and her son giving in to her for everything. I wouldn't read it again for any of them, and the Indian parts were so sad I wouldn't read it again for that, but even though when I was stuck in the Ramona/Alessandro/Felipe stuff at the ranch I almost quit reading, when it got to the Indian villages I couldn't put it down. I'll give it 3 stars, maybe 3.5. On to the next book, happy reading. ...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Cathy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

This wasn't at all what I expected! I'd always had a vague sense that Ramona was ridiculously rosy picture of "romantic Olde California" full of caballeros and things, but as it turns out it was intended as a propaganda novel about the rotten treatment of Californian Indians and Mexican landholders after the U.S. acquired California. Of course, everyone back East read it as the former, hence the Ramona pageant and an influx of Ramona tourism that accomplished the opposite of what Jackson hoped f ...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Austen to Zafón rated it liked it

Shelves: historical, classic

As three stars indicates, I liked this book. Actually, I wish I could give it 3.5. I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I could do it again as it was so sad. I can't believe I'd never heard of it before, especially since I was a born and raised until I was 12 in San Diego. I guess in grade school, they don't begin yet to touch on the injustices done to the Native Americans and even to the Mexicans. We were still just learning what a mission was and some Spanish words. But I was in SD this sprin As three stars indicates, I liked this book. Actually, I wish I could give it 3.5. I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I could do it again as it was so sad. I can't believe I'd never heard of it before, especially since I was a born and raised until I was 12 in San Diego. I guess in grade school, they don't begin yet to touch on the injustices done to the Native Americans and even to the Mexicans. We were still just learning what a mission was and some Spanish words. But I was in SD this spring and took time to go by myself to the San Diego History Museum in Balboa Park, and there, on a placard, I read a bit about the dreadful history of the Native Americans in Southern California along with mention of this "famous" book that fictionalized it. I didn't actually expect the Seattle library to have it, but they did. It's a very long book and I admit to skimming the last 100 pages or so because it was just so damned depressing and I could see what was coming. But the first 300 was a pleasure. Now I've read a number of reviews that call the book propaganda or boringly stilted and I take exception to the grumbling. Of *course* it's propaganda. Helen Hunt Jackson gave the best years of her life trying to convince the American gov't to ease up on the Indians (esp. with her book, A Century of Dishonor)and finally, in desperation, she wrote Ramona as a way to "move people's hearts." She had hoped that Romona would be the Uncle Tom's Cabin of California natives. Sadly, her wildly popular novel, although printed in 300 editions, adapted for 4 films, and turned into a play that has run every year in CA since 1923, was taken as more of a lady's romance than a political statement. Addressing the other common complaint, of *course* it's stilted. It was written in 1884! Did people honestly expect a breezy, modern style? Given the intent, the period, and the writer, I think the book is wonderful and I would give it more stars if it hadn't been so depressing for me personally. As an historical document, I think it's still important to read. It's out of copyright, so it's available for free online. I will say that Jackson's book helped change the way people viewed the Native Americans of S. CA and it created an emormous influx of tourist dollars into the area when the railroad finally went there. Everyone wanted to see where "Ramona" lived, married, & died. She was sort of the Harry Potter of the turn of the century. Now if only the letters between Jackson and her friend Emily Dickenson still survived, that would be real reading! They were born 2 months apart in Amherst, went to school togther, and wrote letters to one another all their lives. ...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Jane rated it liked it

There's a backstory here! While reading Passing Strange, I found a reference to Ramona (the novel shares the theme of interracial love). I couldn't help but be curious when I saw the author's name. Helen Hunt Jackson was my grandmother's maiden name. As she was born in 1889, not too long after Ramona became a popular sensation, I thought it impossible that her newspaper-publishing father (Andrew Jackson, my great-grandfather) could not have known about Jackson when he named his eldest daughter. ...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Brooke rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I had a hard time with this book. The political issues overpowered character development and plot which made the whole book slow and a little boring.

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Nov 15, 2017 Krista the Krazy Kataloguer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own-ebook, read-historical-fiction, read-native-americans, read-adult-fiction, read-classics

What a great book! I'm so glad I chose it for my book discussion group. Written in 1884, this historical novel, set in southern California in the early part of the 19th century, is a doomed love story as well as propaganda about the terrible treatment of the Native Americans by the Americans who moved in after the Mexican War. Land granted to both Native Americans and Mexicans by the Mexican government were declared no longer valid, and the new American government sold off peoples' lands without What a great book! I'm so glad I chose it for my book discussion group. Written in 1884, this historical novel, set in southern California in the early part of the 19th century, is a doomed love story as well as propaganda about the terrible treatment of the Native Americans by the Americans who moved in after the Mexican War. Land granted to both Native Americans and Mexicans by the Mexican government were declared no longer valid, and the new American government sold off peoples' lands without telling them. One day they had a house, fields, and pastures, and the next day they were homeless, and usually without monetary compensation.

The novel begins with a vivid description of the ranch of Senora Moreno and her son, Felipe. The immediate impression the reader gets is of a way of life on its way out, just like the plantations before the Civil War. Ramona is half Scottish and half Indian, which was not a good thing then. She's given to Senora Moreno's sister to raise, but when the sister dies, Ramona is sent to live with nasty Senora Moreno, who raises her out of duty, not out of love. There Ramona lives until she falls in love with the Indian Alessandro Assis, who has come to assist in the sheep shearing on the ranch. From here on it the novel feels like a soap opera/Romeo-and-Juliet story. The reader is compelled to keep reading to find out what will happen to these two. Along the way, Jackson, in a not-so-subtle manner, shows the reader how the Native Americans are treated.

Jackson intended the novel to open readers' eyes to the plight of the Native Americans in California. The book was popular, but not so much for its propaganda as for its sentimental drama. It was subsequently made into 4 silent films and one talkie, as well as, recently, a Mexican TV serial. I think readers today would enjoy this novel for both of its aspects. Certainly one cannot help but feel as enraged and despondent as Alessandro at the treatment of his people.

The Signet Classics edition of the book includes an afterword that tells us that Jackson actually visited the places mentioned in the book, and based the story on a real-life couple. She nagged the Department of the Interior with letters until they appointed her to be the first female Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which gave her some power to help the Indians. The novel is, therefore, a true historical novel in that she based almost everything on real places, people, and events that she mostly witnessed with her own eyes.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I enjoyed it immensely, and would like to see more readers young and old delve into its pages. Highly recommended!! ...more

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Nov 19, 2018 Judy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: us-calif, classics, fic-historical-us

I first heard about Ramona from an old friend (94) who loved the story and wanted me to read it. I should have done so, but I was swamped with work projects. When she passed away, I inherited her books, and this title moved to my shelves. One day I read the first few pages, but it reminded me of a Zane Grey book that I had just plowed through. I promptly gave up and donated the book (an ex-library book).

Well, I recently came across this old book and decided to give it another try. It's not "just ...more

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Feb 13, 2015 Elevetha rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: People I dislike

Shelves: broken-pencils, once-is-enough, failure-to-launch, historical-whatnot, mind-numbingly-boring, oh-hell-no, shaving-cream, life-is-too-short, insta-love, 2015

1.5 stars.

Yikes.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Ramona rated it it was amazing

I was named for this romance novel that was made into a movie a long time ago. It is a great story of the hardships of the Indians and Mexicans during the time that California was transitioning from mission districts under Mexican rule and admittance into the United states. A great love story but a bit tragic.

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Jun 22, 2020 Linda Martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: california, romance, families, kindle, fiction, historical-fiction, classics, native-americans, 2020

Ramona was born to a Native American woman in Southern California. Her father was from Scotland. He took the infant girl from her mother and gave her to his ex-girlfriend, a Californio (Hispanic) woman of considerable wealth. Unfortunately that woman died and her husband didn't want the child, so she was passed on to Señora Moreno, a widowed woman with a large estate and a son.

The Moreno ranch needed sheep shearers and that is how a tribe of Native Americans came to live there temporarily, for ...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Jennifer rated it liked it

Shelves: 2010-books

Ramona started out well and pulled me in; it looked like it was going to win at least four stars, if not five. I was impressed with the characters, the beautiful descriptions of California, and the sweet love story that was developing. I feel like the story started to go downhill from the middle. As Ramona goes through one hardship after another you wonder if it will ever stop and it doesn't.

Also in the interest of playing up the plight of the American Indians in the late 18th century, Helen Hu ...more

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Dec 12, 2016 Paul Gaya Ochieng Simeon Juma rated it did not like it

Shelves: classic, america, historical-fiction, family-saga, difficult-read

There are books we read because they are difficult to understand. This is what happened to this book. When we finish we feel relieved because we didn't give up. Case in point, Ramona. The books may be so boring, like this one here, yet we still fight on.

Ramona, is a novel about love. The couple are indians living in America. Ramona and Alessandro. They meet in Ramona's foster home where she lives with Senora Monero, Felipe, Margaritta, Marda, Juan Can, and other servants. She is happy with ever ...more

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Sep 12, 2009 Katie Wahlquist rated it it was amazing

What can I say? I just re-read this book for my book club and I think I loved it even more this time around. I am totally in love with Alessandro!

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Dec 22, 2017 Kkraemer rated it really liked it

This is a wonderful 19th century romance about a young woman who marries against the wishes of her step-mother, wanders through the mountains and valleys with her husband, and is, at long last, reunited with a life that might offer some semblance of comfort and joy.

Her husband was wonderful; however, he was an "Indian" in Southern California, where such people were both respected and held in contempt...often by the same people. The book takes place after the Americans have invaded California and ...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Amy rated it it was ok

Shelves: 12-grade-quarter-1

Ramona
By: Helen Hunt Jackson

With a bit of tragedy, history and love, it tried to make this book interesting; but it was not . The story of Ramona is set in Spanish California and the beginning of American California. Ramona is caught up in the tangle of races found in Southern California - Mexican, Spanish, Indian and American, and for me, this book failed to draw me a picture.

It's an old fashioned love story, a bit slow in parts, but with a noble and pure hero and heroine. Indian Alessandro an ...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Karye rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 10, 2012 StrangeBedfellows rated it did not like it

I was assigned to read this for my American Lit class. The class is structured around the topic of the Wild West, and Westerns apparently developed as a response to something called domestic fiction. What is domestic fiction, you might ask. Well, imagine a bunch of self-righteous middle class women seeking to reform society through tales of disadvantaged young heroines who triumph over adversity through virtue, piety, and kindness. Are you nauseous yet? Now add some saccharine-sweet sentimentali ...more

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Feb 22, 2014 Colleen rated it it was amazing

This is a heartbreaking and yet uplifting tale of a young woman named Ramona. Through life's ups and downs Ramona experiences despair, love, passion, freedom, frustration and loss. It is truly a masterpiece. Although my heart was crushed into tiny slobbery bits, this book still left me happy. Maybe it was the epic tale, the brilliant writing, the beautiful descriptions. Or perhaps it was Ramona herself. She is one of those unforgettable characters who will stay with you always. Like Jane Eyre or ...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Paty rated it really liked it

I loved it. A beautiful but tragic romance between two lovers (one a half-breed, the other a Native American) during the time American settlers took over California displacing the Native Americans, Mexicans, and Spanish landowners who had been living there.
Helen Hunt Jackson really paints a vivid picture of what life was like during those times in California and the horrors of being cast of one's land using cruel and injustice tactics.

I can understand why Alessandro withers away from the man he ...more

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Dec 26, 2014 Alicia rated it liked it

Shelves: usa-california

This book is on a fascinating range of lists - the first California love story, the book that gave Southern California an identity, the "Anne of Green Gables" of So. Cal., one of the most popular books ever written (and then forgotten), the official state play of California, etc.

It's interesting. Definitely not a work of art, but as a historical time capsule and literary work, worth reading. ...more

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Jan 05, 2015 EBirdy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-book-group

Some of the dialogue seems very stereotypical, and I can see why the message about the plight of the Indians in California might have been lost on some, but much of Hunt's story retains it's original power, and it reads easily 130 years later. ...more

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Mar 01, 2017 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: california-bay-area-interest

Grad school penance. Was supposed to read it back then. Long read, longer than its page count, but worth it. Especially if you've spent any time down around Santa Barbara and Ventura. ...more

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May 21, 2019 Virginia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I first read this as a California schoolgirl. I’m very glad that I reread this as an adult. The story had remained with me, but I now better appreciate the late-Victorian era style of writing itself. It’s a flowery discursive style, with insights into the human psyche and condition. Villains, victims, and heroes are clearly defined by speech and actions. Think of Dickens, and you’ll get my meaning.

Helen Jackson (raised a Unitarian) had been an activist against the brutal treatment of Indians by ...more

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Dec 31, 2018 Dree rated it liked it

Shelves: california, 2018-reads

I have wanted to read this book for a long time, simply because it had so much influence on how Americans saw California.

The descriptions of the climate, geography, and people of Southern California do make the place and people very distinctive. Jackson's take on how Americans treated California Indians, Mexicans, and Catholics was very progressive at the time. Now it feels painfully dated. Another character that feels dated (and forced) is the character of Aunt Ri, from Tennessee, with her dial ...more

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Jan 12, 2019 Sarah R rated it liked it

To my modern mind, RAMONA is what happens when a wealthy white liberal lady of leisure suddenly decides to take up a pet cause and does so after only half-finishing her research.

I don't doubt Jackson's feelings were sincere, and she did have an ample platform from which she could signal boost the sufferings of Native Americans, so for doing that she does deserve a lot of credit. But the book she wrote to highlight the plight of those pushed aside by Manifest Destiny is full of unrealistically pe ...more

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Dec 05, 2020 Julia rated it it was amazing

Excellent story of Old California - the struggles of the Indians against the Mexicans and the "Americans" as the Indians are forced out of their villages and ways of life by the incursion of those who seek to profit from the land. The book was written in the 1880s; the author's writing style reflects the times and was interesting to read.

I picked this book up at the recommendation of my daughter after we hiked around Helen Hunt Falls outside Colorado Springs. ...more

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500 Great Books B...: Ramona - Helen Hunt Jackson	2	34	Dec 17, 2014 12:33PM

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About Helen Hunt Jackson

Helen Hunt Jackson

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Helen Maria Hunt Jackson was an American writer best known as the author of Ramona, a novel about the ill treatment of Native Americans in Southern California, and as an activist for Native American rights

Books by Helen Hunt Jackson

A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with some of the Indian Tribes

Mammy Tittleback and Her Family A True Story of Seventeen Cats

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Quotes from Ramona

“We have flattered ourselves by inventing proverbs of comparison in matter of blindness,--"blind as a bat," for instance. It would be safe to say that there cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any other creature, so blind in its own range of circumstance and connection, as the greater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families. Tempers strain and recover, hearts break and heal, strength falters, fails, and comes near to giving way altogether, every day, without being noted by the closest lookers-on.” — 10 likes

“Next time!" In what calendar are kept the records of those next times which never come?” — 9 likes

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