In the middle of the 19^th century, Englishwoman Mary Anne Evans was afraid she wouldn’t be taken seriously as a writer unless she published under a man’s name. Women writers in the 1860s were stereotyped as writing light and frivolous romances. The mid-century was several decades before women like authors Jane Austen and Agatha Christie exploded on the literary scene along with Americans Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Mary Anne Evans was thought to be unattractive and not easily married off – so her father saw that his daughter was given an education as a young girl, something not afforded many young women in the 1800s. Her father Robert Evans managed a large estate with its own library. Mary Anne was given free access to the library where she honed her classical education aided by correspondence with her previous tutors from her younger years.

After her father’s death in 1949, Mary Anne (also known as Marian) was 30 years old. She soon traveled and lived in Switzerland, further cultivating her worldliness. She had already translated several works into English under her own name and, returning to England, she became a literary editor and reviewer. In 1856 she wrote an essay for a review journal titled “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists”. It’s no wonder that after that she used the pen name George Eliot instead of her own and the fact that “he is a she” has confused many of us ever since.

George Eliot wrote serious novels. Any English literature class or book group that has tackled The Mill on the Floss or Middlemarch learns that Eliot’s psychological insight isn’t for every reader or for uncomplicated discussion. Her first novel, Adam Bede, is not as well known by most readers but it has been in print ever since it was published in 1859. Adam Bede deals with some very real and unromantic themes at the turn of the 18^th century in an English village – a love triangle, an unexpected pregnancy, and the murder by a mother of her child. It was published in three volumes and earned Eliot a respectful comparison to Charles Dickens.

A year later, she finished Mill on the Floss, also published in three volumes and set again in the English countryside in the late 1820s. Middlemarch, published in 1871-1872 was her next to last book and is regarded as her best work. It was published in eight installments over 16 months and one edition is 863 pages.  Middlemarch deals with love, marriage, second changes and, like other important writers in the 19^th century, social and political reform. Her last book, Daniel Deronda is the only one set in contemporary society – in 1870s England and Germany.

Evans had several scandalous affairs during her lifetime and she even considered herself married to philosopher George Lewe’s and changed her last name to his. However, he was already married to another woman at the time. In 1880, at the age of 61, she legally married John Cross, a man 20 years her junior. This marriage ended shortly after when she fell ill from a throat infection and died later that year.

All of Eliot’s works have been adapted to film – and most of them several times as silent movies (Adam Bede 1918), Silas Marner (1913, 1916 and 1922.), or full-length features like Mill on the Floss (1936). The BBC developed all of Eliot’s books for television films or mini-series beginning in the 1970s.

It’s Steve Martin’s genius that took Silas Marner, published by Eliot in 1861, and turned it into one of my favorite movies.  A Simple Twist of Fate was released in 1994 and I could watch this film over and over. Martin wrote the screenplay and stars in the film. The film also features some other great actors – Gabriel Byrne, Laura Linney, blue-eyed Steven Baldwin and comical Catherine O’Hara.

Although Martin as a comedian has serious roles in other films, many of them rely heavily on wisecracks and slapstick. A Simple Twist of Fate relies on Martin’s portrayal of self-loathing, his awkward denial of a world outside of his own shriveled existence, and ultimately, his sweet and honest humanity. Although the film is described as a loose adaptation of Silas Marner, the key elements of Eliot’s work are all there. Martin’s character is school teacher Michael McCann’s whose life is shattered by his pregnant wife’s admission that their soon-to-born baby is not his. He, like Marner, is heartbroken and humiliated and he leaves his home to disappear into another countryside. McCann, like Marner, exists alone and isolated as a  hermit who refuses to become a part of the community surrounding him. They both become obsessed with their craft – Marner with his weaving and McCann with his finish carpentry. They both hoard the gold they earn. McCann turns his hard-earned cash into antique gold coins that he hides in a secret drawer.

When their gold is stolen by a local creep, both characters despair and the plot thickens. However, when a young child shows up one snowy night, she teaches both Marner and McCann that the gold they lost can be replaced by a child’s love. Their humanity is recovered by this simple twist of fate.

Martin’s A Simple Twist of Fate made $3.5M at the box office. It holds only a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes dot com but I never pay much attention to reviews anyway. One of the most positive reviewers, Kevin Thomas of the LA Times, described the movie “as a “charming update of Silas Marner” that is well written, well played and has substance and a musical score that successfully bring [George Eliot’s] 19th century literature into a moving and powerful modern-day film.” I whole-heartily agree.

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte’s column in the January 11, 2018 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

The beginning of a new year brings resolutions. Losing weight, learning a new skill, donating time — we’ve all made them. The thought of resolution makes me reflect on the many transitions in life that we all go through. Whether a welcome transition or an unwelcome change, we all need to adjust and grow.

This past year has been a transition year for my family. We celebrated my daughter’s wedding in May as well as my nephew’s wedding a week later. My husband and I traveled to Los Angeles to celebrate Thanksgiving with my son’s future in-laws. The trip was a major change since I’ve been hosting Thanksgiving at my home for the last 20 years. My husband retired in April from a demanding position and is changing his focus in life. There were unwelcome changes with the passing of my mother at the age of 91 and the death of a close friend of a brain tumor at the age of 56.

We all experience changes. As a children’s librarian, I am often asked for books to help guide children through these transitions. We provide books that address death, divorce, fear, anxiety and anger. There are titles that discuss a jailed parent, a military parent and gay parents.

Throughout the library, foreign language sections have been created, and titles are continually added. The library supports patrons who are in flux, whether a recent immigrant learning a new language or enjoying reading in their first language, or a patron getting familiar with a new language.

The adult department provides many “self-help” guides to support readers during transitions. The 2017 title Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy, by Sheryl Sandberg, is an inspiring and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life’s inevitable setbacks; Sheryl’s experience after the sudden loss of her husband provided her with the unfortunate background for the guide. Ask any reference librarian; they will direct you to materials that you seek in your quest for knowledge and strategies. Whether you are creating life changes or reacting to them, the library is a great source.

Make those resolutions, try your best, and best of luck adjusting to the changes in your life — whether good, bad, expected or unexpected. Happy New Year!

Jean Todesca is the head of children’s services at the Morrill Memorial Library.

I have dozens of DVDs in my personal at-home collection. On rainy or wintry weekend, I’ve watched my favorites over and over and over again. One of my movie marathons might feature some of my favorite actors – Pierce Brosnan, Diane Keaton, Amy Adams or Harrison Ford. I could begin with Working Girl, Sabrina and Indiana Jones and end the film fest up with Frantic and Air Force One. Both Brosnan and Adams star in musicals (Mamma Mia and Enchanted, respectively) which might be on my playlist, mixed in, of course, with their films of more serious work (The Thomas Crown Affair and Julia and Julia.)

My husband doesn’t understand my peculiar habit of re-watching the same videos. Viewing a movie once is enough for him (and sometimes once is too much.)
He’s not a movie buff, although I do usually manage to get him to accompany me to most of the Academy Award best picture nominees every year. However, the last way he will spend a weekend afternoon is watching LaLa Land for the umpteenth time, as much as he liked it the first (and only) time.

My movie routine began when my daughters were young and with the advent of VHS. We cheerily sang along with all Disney musicals during their childhood. The practice continued through high school when my daughters and I would movie marathon a Sunday away with American President, Grease and Steel Magnolias. Those films either had us swooning (over Michael Douglas), singing (with Olivia Newton John) or sobbing (after Sally Field lost daughter Julia Roberts).

My daughters’ favorites – the VHS versions of the Star Wars films and Grease, and others from their childhood, have been recycled and not replaced. I brought bags of tapes to my Friends of the Library book sales in the early to mid-2000s. However, DVD-format movies in my current collection are those that replaced the worn-out VHS of my old favorites from the 80s and early 90s – Sleepless in Seattle, Big, Four Weddings and a Funeral and countless others.

Last weekend I thought about a long-ago movie I adored and hadn’t watched in some years because I’d never replaced the VHS tape of Paradise. It’s a bit of a sleeper of a movie starring (then married) Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, released in 1991. It’s one of those romantic dramas that you love … or not. In fact, I’ve yet to find anyone else who has actually seen the film. It also stars a soon-to-be-famous child actor, Elijah Wood who was only 10 years old when Paradise was produced. Eight years later, an eighteen-year old Elijah was cast as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings.

Alongside Elijah is his summer friend, nine-year old actress Thora Birch. Although Birch is not as well-known today as Elijah Wood, she is recognizable in her roles in Hocus Pokus, Monkey Trouble and Now and Then. She’s also known for playing Jack Ryan’s young daughter in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

Paradise’s star Melanie Griffith has had a long and prolific career since infancy through her 50s to the present day. She is the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, who we remember from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Marnie. Having Hollywood parents, Griffith was cast in commercials as early as nine months and was cast as an extra when she was 12 and 16. At 18, she won serious speaking roles in the Drowning Pool (with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward) and Night Moves (with Gene Hackman). By 27 she had been married to and divorced from Don Johnson and was nominated for several Best Actresses performances for Body Double, winning the award from the National Society of Film Critics.

John and Griffith were married briefly while she was still in her teens (he was eight years older); that marriage was annulled in 1976 after only six months. In 1989, when Johnson had proved himself on screen (the television hit Miami Vice starred Johnson for four years), he and Griffith reconciled and married again. Griffith had just starred in the smash hit Working Girl with Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack.

In 1991, Griffith and Johnson worked together in Paradise.  The film did not do well with critics or the box office. In fact, several critics gave it horrible reviews and Rotten Tomatoes has rated it only 36 tomatoes! I’ve found, however, that some of my favorite movies are never loved by critics. The film is actually a remake of Le Grand Chemin, a French film that received awards and audiences alike. Paradise follows the same story line, but apparently with a less powerful message to American audiences.

Griffith and Johnson play husband and wife, who having lost their only child, are well on the way to irreconcilable differences because of it. Griffith suffers unbearable grief and guilt. Johnson feels lost and unloved, suffering from the same unspeakable loss of their son. Bits and pieces of this story are revealed out throughout the film.

Elijah Wood is the young son of a friend who has dropped him off for part of the summer with her desperately unhappy friends, Griffith and Johnson. Thora Birch is their wild and precocious next-door neighbor. Through misdeeds and older-than-her-years insight, Birch helps Elijah deal with his own feelings of loss. In turn, Elijah is the catalyst for helping his older summer caretakers, Griffith and Johnson, heal.

I loved this story because it is raw and simple and set in small-town America. Watching a preventable tragedy (the end of a marriage), I’m always swept up in the story’s angst AND the charm of the easy solution. I want to yell at both the adults and care for and love the younger ones.

Johnson and Griffith, the real-life actors, ended up divorcing for the second time just five years after this film was released. Their daughter, Dakota Johnson (born in 1989 and now 28-years old) is, of course, a film star herself.

Not one of the Minuteman Libraries had a copy of Paradise when I searched to re-watch it last weekend. Fortunately, the Morrill Memorial Library has now purchased one. I hope you’ll take a chance and perhaps you’ll prove the critics wrong about Paradise. If not, it’s still a short afternoon or evening spent back in small-town America with a family desperate to heal their pain.

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte’s column in the November 16, 2017 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.