The Lamplighter

This first novel of Maria S. Cummins was first published in 1854. It was an immediate best-seller selling 20,000 copies in twenty days and 65,000 copies in five months. The Lamplighter tells the story of Gertrude Flint, an orphan rescued by a old lamplighter and in the process learns the principles of domesticity and becomes a self-reliant, independent woman.