33 episodes listed below
PRESS PLAY
Ramona, a novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson (1884), is the story of a part-Scottish and part-Native American orphan girl growing up and getting married in Southern California, suffering racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely popular. Overall, it has had more than 300 printings, been made into four film versions, and has been performed as an outdoor play annually since 1923. The impact the novel had on the culture and image of Southern California was enormous. Its romanticization of Mexican colonial life gave the region a unique cultural identity and its publication coincided with the arrival of railroad…
A saddle slipped out past the corral, and your grand romance has become a stealth operation.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A housebound silence turns to dread as Ramona waits for Alessandro and Felipe struggles to reach her.
The chapter makes the household feel like a watchtower, with the Senora forcing silence between Felipe and Ramona as everyone waits for news that does not come.
Antri's unexpected prayer gives a moonlit journey its most lasting turn.
Joss's muddled title to Benito and Baber gives the chapter its first real charge. Felipe presses for an explanation, but Joss answers with the slow confidence of a man who treats urgency as someone else's burden.
A weary monk arrives, and Ramona's beauty quietly draws Felipe's reverence and Alessandro's stunned gaze.
Chapter IV lets Father Salvadera's late arrival carry the larger loss of the missions. His failing body can manage only a short day's journey, and the memory of lost estates and the government's decision on mission lands turns grief into something measured by each tired mile.
A mountain refuge, a threatening rider, and a baby's eyes give Alessandro's grief a frightening shape.
Chapter XXIII, Part II makes Alessandro's postponed killing of the cow feel like a sign of a life narrowing from every side. The green canyon where he once pictured a house is now shadowed by fenced land, cattle that can no longer range freely, and the Saboba people facing the…
A dangerous escape becomes a tender test of love, survival, and the name Ramona will carry next.
Chapter XV makes devotion feel less like a vow than a hard bargain with danger. Alessandro holds Ramona close, but he will not let her throw her life away, while she insists she is strong enough to work, endure the ground, and face what comes.
This episode is a reading of Chapter III of the novel Ramona, introducing the character Ramona and her relationship with the Signora.
A reading of Chapter VI of the novel Ramona, describing misfortunes during sheep-shearing at the Senora Moreno's ranch.
This episode is a reading of Chapter V of the novel Ramona, describing a morning scene with a sunrise hymn and a character watching for dawn.
Ramona, in Chapter 14 Part 1 of Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona, waits for Alessandro after he promises to return in four days.
In Chapter XXIII, Part II of Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona, Alessandro and Ramona face dispossession as white ranchmen fence the San Jacinto Valley and threaten Saboba's cattle-based livelihood.
Chapter IV of Ramona follows Father Salvadera across the Santa Barbara hills, where the downfall of the missions and the loss of their lands dominate his thoughts.
["Felipe learns Alessandro has been killed, and Chapter XXV Part 2 turns into a night ride toward Ramona's mountain village.", "Joss first argues over Benito and Baber, then repeats his answer in Spanish so Felipe understands the horses are not stolen.", "Aunt Tree rushes in with the murder news, joins the journey, and the Merrill family provides a guide and stronger horses for the steep San Jacinto road.", "At the Cahier village Ramona lies fevered on a pallet, and Aunt Tree uses grey leaves, a bitter infusion, and a rosary-lit prayer scene to hold the room together."]
Chapter XV of Ramona follows Ramona and Alessandro as they argue over whether a nighttime flight can survive hunger, pursuit, and the Senora's control.