Reviews for Lamplighter

The average rating for Lamplighter based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-12-24 00:00:00 Kelly Conrad "...for whoever heard of a traitorous lamplighter?"  .              lamplighter. noun. (historically) a person employed to light street lamps by hand.               The Lamplighter is a short story by Charles Dickens that is lighter than most of his other works. It's mostly on the funnier side- the bizarre scenes might leave us thinking 'what just happened' a few times.  In a lamplighter's meeting (yes, there was such a thing it seems), one member (the unspoken leader) narrates the legendary tale of Tom Grig, a lamplighter who was fated by the stars to make a great marriage to a beautiful, wealthy heiress. Sounds romantic, right? Wrong! The exaggerated narration would make you think twice about that statement, especially after it takes the story into strange tidings.  When I was halfway through, the one thing going through my mind was that, if this was published now, it would've been considered a crackfic. The ending honestly left me drowned in confusion. I was like, 'is that it? What happened with the old man, his daughters, the waiting-maid, the Gifted, and the Salamander?!' That was one time I desperately wished I could meet the author if only to ask- no, demand, for answers.           Dickens' writing is a gem, I tell you. He was truly clever at making little jabs at the faults of society. Even the ones as subtle as some of them in this story would feel like a slap to the face. His humor is something I always look forward to in his books and I am inordinately pleased to tell you that I laughed out loud many times while reading this. The quick dialogues and exaggerated accounts appealed to me very much. Though the Salamander's name had me wondering if Dickens was suggestively trying to make another barb there or if I was looking into it too much? Knowing me, probably the latter…             'Twas a light and fascinating read. If thou love Dickens' humor, this short story will give thee a break from his heavier works:-D

Review # 2 was written on 2014-02-21 00:00:00 Robin Hu Started 20 Feb 2014 finished 21 Feb 2014 Read as part of my self imposed Dickens challenge to read all his works. Another short story so giving me the false impression of making progress once more on this challenge! This one, as the title says, is about a lamplighter. Its one of Dickens' more fantastical tales. I say this because of the reference to a philosopher's stone which is in the process of being boiled up by a mad scientist, who reads futures in the stars, in order to make gold. There's some weird attempt on his part to marry a lamplighter to his niece while his daughter is promised to a Mr Mooney, another mad scientist, all because it is written in/ordained by astronomy. Daft story and the only moral I can put to it is relating to the obsessive pursuit of wealth or greed although I'm not certain of this either. One thing I don't much enjoy in any of his stories is the reality of how woman were treated in his time, not even having the right to choose their own husbands, amongst a myriad of other rights we simply take for granted today.