![]() ![]() ![]() Matilda Emmerson is 19 and pregnant, and in the hope of preventing scandal, her parents decide to send her away from their home in Ireland to a distant relative in the United States. Grace experiences some unexpected fame as a young heroine, but she also works through a potential romantic relationship with George Emmerson (who happens to be Sarah Dawson’s brother).Ī full century later, in 1938, we follow some of their descendants and a different set of dramas. One of those saved is Sarah Dawson (another real person!) her story is particularly tragic. In 1838, we follow Grace Darling, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper in Northumberland, England, and the aftermath of her saving people after their boat is capsized in a storm. Like so many historical fiction novels lately, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter is divided into two timelines. Learning her story here was fascinating and moving. Wow! I had never heard of Grace Darling and her heroic efforts to save several shipwrecked people in 1838. All of this is to say I essentially went into the book blind.Īnd so I didn’t know until after I’d finished the novel – indeed, until I sat down to write this review – that The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter is actually based on a real person. This fall I finally got The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter on audiobook, and I dove in right away, without even rereading the novel’s summary. I’d enjoyed Hazel Gaynor’s novel The Girl From the Savoy, and in the years since I have collected a few of her other books (still on my TBR!). ReviewĮver since it came out in autumn 2018, I knew I wanted to read The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter. Inspired by true events, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter is a sweeping historical novel that explores how our past shapes our present, and what it truly means to be courageous. As a deadly hurricane approaches, two women, living a century apart, will be forever linked by their instinctive acts of bravery and love. When a discarded, half-finished portrait opens a window into Matilda’s past, she sets out to discover the connection between a Victorian heroine and her own family. Nineteen-years-old and pregnant, Matilda Emmerson arrives in America in disgrace, sent from her home in Ireland to stay with Harriet Flaherty, a reclusive relative and keeper at Rose Island lighthouse. ![]() As George captures Grace with his brushes, she in turn captures his heart, but as the accounts of her heroism escalate, Grace wonders if she has the courage to endure the relentless glare of fame.ġ938: Newport, Rhode Island. As her renown grows, so does her friendship with George Emmerson, an artist visiting the lighthouse. But her solitude is interrupted when she and her father rescue survivors of a shipwreck in a furious storm and Grace becomes celebrated throughout England, a heroine of her time. Grace Darling enjoys her quiet island life at Longstone Lighthouse, at one with nature and the wild sea breezes. The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Hazel GaynorĮngland Ireland Rhode Island, United StatesįROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME AND THE GIRL FROM THE SAVOY COMES A NOVEL INSPIRED BY THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF A REMARKABLE YOUNG WOMAN.ġ838: Northumberland, England. I finally bought the audiobook version of it recently and decided now was a great time to revisit Hazel Gaynor’s work. One of her publications since then was The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter. In summer 2016, I loved The Girl From the Savoy, and I’ve collected a few of her books since then and added the rest to my “to buy” list. 2017.It’s been more than five years since I read my first Hazel Gaynor book. "Bernard Joseph Bretherton." Geocities, Accessed 18 Nov. 2017 "History of the North Head Lighthouse." Keepers of the North Head Lighthouse, /history. "A home on the headlands." Mail Tribune, 31 Oct. Mabel resigned in 1907 and moved to Portland. Lighthouse keepers had a difficult life, often working very long hours. The light functioned from dusk to dawn, limiting cleaning and polishing to the daylight hours. As the only woman assigned there, she assisted with the maintenance of the light and lens, considered the most important job of keepers. ![]() Mabel moved to North Head Lighthouse in 1905. Mabel, widowed with three children under 10, became the assistant lighthouse keeper at Cape Blanco in Port Orford. In those days, the lighthouse service often offered employment to widows of keepers. The jobs allowed him to continue his bird studies. They moved to Newport, Ore., in 1894, where he became assistant keeper at the Yaquina Beach Lighthouse, followed by keeper of the Coquille River Lighthouse in Bandon. They had married in 1892 in Sitka, Alaska, and had three children. The first woman lighthouse keeper in Oregon, Mabel Hatch Bretherton, got her first lighthouse job after her husband, Bernard Bretherton, died in 1903. ![]()
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