The Lamplighter
1838
In Dickens' forgotten early gem, a blind orphan girl named Emmy lives in darkness until a lamplighter named Tom becomes her unlikely guardian. Through the gaslit streets of London, Emmy must learn to see beyond her sightlessness while Tom, a rough and tumble man with a poet's soul, discovers that love sometimes means letting go. This 1838 novella predates Dickens' masterpieces but contains their beating heart: the conviction that the smallest acts of kindness can illuminate entire lives. It is a story about what it means to be left in the dark, and who shows up with a match.
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“Then he came to a skeleton in a glass case, labelled, "Skeleton of a Gentleman - prepared by Mr. Mooney," - which made him hope that Mr. Mooney might not be in the habit of preparing gentlemen that way without their own consent.””
— Charles Dickens
