The Unlit Lamp and Selected Stories

THE UNLIT LAMP

Claudine has been raised in a liberal, accepting family, and is used to getting her way. When she decides to marry Gilbert Vincelle, her mother is shocked. He just isn’t right for her. Her mother sees him as a pompous, obstinate youth, humorless and hidebound. But Claudine is adamant. After the wedding, she quickly realizes her mistake. But her family is just as adamant—Claudine has made her choice, and now must adapt to her new husband. Which she does by withdrawing into herself, stifling her creative and carefree nature, and accommodating her stodgy new husband.

As the years go by, Claudine has three wonderful children, and pours all her energy and love into them instead. There is Bertie, the youngest, careless and flippant; Edna, the accepting middle child; and Andrée, her first born, her favorite…and headstrong, so like herself. But when Andrée falls in love with the wrong man, Claudine is quick to forget her own experiences, and does everything in her power to discourage her young daughter. After all, how could Andrée do this to her … and how will Claudine live without her?

The Unlit Lamp is an emotionally charged social drama from 1922, filled with the issues that burned so bright during the Roaring 20s as changing morals began to break down the traditional family structures of the past.

Also included are six stories from Munsey magazines of the 1920s, each one an incisive delight, filled with the contrary-but-well-meaning characters that Elisabeth Sanxay Holding portrays so well.