''The Lamplighter'' is a

sentimental novel The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th-century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sens ...

written by Maria Susanna Cummins and published in 1854, and a best-selling novel of its era.

Plot synopsis

A female

Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...

, ''The Lamplighter'' tells the story of Gertrude Flint, an abandoned and mistreated orphan rescued at the age of eight by Trueman Flint, a

lamplighter A lamplighter is a person employed to light and maintain candle or, later, gas street lights. Very few exist today as most gas street lighting has long been replaced by electric lamps. Function Lights were lit each evening, generally by means ...

, from her abusive guardian, Nan Grant.Saulsbury, Rebecca. ''The Lamplighter''. The Literary Encyclopedia. 24 January 2002

/ref> Gertrude is lovingly raised and taught virtues and religious faith. She becomes a moralistic woman. In adulthood, she is rewarded for her long suffering with marriage to a childhood friend.

Response

''The Lamplighter'' was Cummins's first novel and was an immediate best-seller, selling 20,000 copies in twenty days. The work sold 40,000 in eight weeks, and within five months it had sold 65,000. At the time it was second in sales only to Harriet Beecher Stowe's ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...

''. It sold over 100,000 copies in Britain and was translated into multiple different languages.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

wrote of the novel in an 1855 letter to

William Ticknor William Davis Ticknor I (August 6, 1810 – April 10, 1864) was an American publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and a founder of the publishing house Ticknor and Fields. Life and work William Davis Ticknor was born on August 6, 1810, on th ...

: "What is the mystery of these innumerable editions of ''the Lamplighter'', and other books neither better nor worse?" In this same letter Hawthorne made his infamous remark, "America is now wholly given over to a d—d mob of scribbling women." (He had censored the word "damned.") His letter today is posited as the primary "claim to fame" of the novel.Williams, Susan S
Reclaiming Authorship: Literary Women in America, 1850-1900
Ch. 3 (2006) In 1950, James D. Hart (author of ''The Oxford Companion to American Literature'') noted that ''The Lamplighter'' could provide insight into the American culture of its time: The character of Gerty MacDowell in

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

's '' Ulysses'' is based on the heroine of the novel, Gerty Flint, in a portion of ''Ulysses'' generally believed to be a parody of Cummins' writing style. The connection of Gerty with The Lamplighter has been recognised as long back as Stanley Sultan's book ''The Argument of Ulysses'' published in 1964. ''The Lamplighter'' was widely read for close to a century; for example, in 1915, the New York Public Library ordered 250 copies of a new edition.Frederick, John T., ''Hawthorne's "Scribbling Women"'', ''

The New England Quarterly ''The New England Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal consisting of articles on New England's cultural, literary, political, and social history. The journal contains essays, interpretations of traditional texts, essay reviews and book ...

'', Vol. 48, No. 2 (Jun., 1975), pp. 231-240

Adaptations

The novel's success saw it quickly adapted for the stage. It was presented in numerous productions in the United States and England in the 1850s. It was also made into a silent film in 1921 with Shirley Mason playing the role of Gertie.Bolton, H. Philip
Women Writers Dramatized
pp. 126-28 (2000)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamplighter, The Sentimental novels 1854 American novels American bildungsromans American novels adapted into films American novels adapted into plays Orphan characters in literature