The Dark Lantern (A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight)

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Lanterns are used in many Asian festivals. During the Ghost Festival, lotus shaped lanterns are set afloat in rivers and seas to symbolically guide the lost souls of forgotten ancestors to the afterlife. During the Lantern Festival, the displaying of many lanterns is still a common sight on the 15th day of the first lunar month throughout China. During other Chinese festivities, kongming lanterns (sky lanterns) can be seen floating high into the air. However, some jurisdictions, such as in Canada, some states in the U.S., and parts of India, as well as some organizations, ban the use of sky lanterns because of concerns about fire and safety. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] A fascinating portrayal of a vanished England as well as an unconventional mystery, The Dark Lantern exposes the grand “upstairs” of a Victorian home and the darker underbelly of its servants’ quarters. The clash between the classes makes for a suspenseful novel of mistaken identities, intriguing women, and dangerous deceptions. The opening scene of The Dark Lantern (and so of the Chronicle of Ancient Sunlightas a whole) is a superb evocation of time and atmosphere and place. It is as a great painting in the style of Constable, Turner, or Whistler: that is, a great painting in words in the traditional English style. But not only can one see the scene, one is immediately inside it, participating in the events that unfold. The opening sentence:

Antique Railroad Lanterns and Lamps". Collectors Weekly. Auctions Online USA Ltd. n.d . Retrieved 17 February 2020.

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In a writing career of some 25 years Mr. Williamson has tried his hand at a great variety of work, with no less varying degrees of success. The world in which he was brought up fell in ruins in the 1914-18 war and he appeared on the literary scene as the sensitive and rebellious young man in whom a feeling for beauty and a bad temper were inextricably mixed. . . . It is a pity that he should have chosen such a [slow] framework [as the present book] because he is still at his best when writing of nature. Extremely atmospheric–reminded me of Sarah Water’s Fingersmith—yet the period detail does not obscure the narrative tension. I loved the various story lines of upstairs and downstairs life, and the waythe twists and turns of the plot were interwoven to keep me guessing–and reading.”

Is this a book I would want to read again? Sadly, no. The negatives for me outweighed the positives by far. And the biggest negative of all was more a reflection of my own reading taste than it was of the author’s talent. Plain and simple: I like a happy ending with my books. While some of the characters achieved that, others did not. Regrettably for me, the characters who did have “happy endings” were the characters I least personally cared about, while those that I had found myself rooting for were the ones who were left miserable in the end. However, since each reader will likely find herself/himself attracted to different characters, you may find yourself quite satisfied where I was disappointed.Richard and Hetty are the main characters of this first volume. The story revolves and evolves around their complicated courtship and marriage. Due to the antipathy of Mr Turney to Richard, the latter is reduced to visiting Hetty clandestinely, through a door in their garden wall, behind which is an orchard and a summerhouse. It seems likely that HW based this garden door on the actual door pictured below; it is close to the ponds, and old maps of Carshalton show that there was once indeed an orchard behind it. Today the whole area is a small nature reserve. Wheldon, Anne (March 2006). "Affordable solar lanterns to replace kerosene lamps". Ashden Awards for sustainable energy. The Ashden Awards. Archived from the original on 15 July 2006. Several other members of both families are also established, who are to weave in and out of the tale as it progresses. Hetty’s parents, Thomas and Sarah Turney, are very firmly based on HW’s mother’s parents, Thomas Leaver and his wife Henrietta (née Turney). The well-to-do Turney family live in Cross Aulton (Carshalton, a stone’s throw from the real family home at Sutton in real life). One of the great lyrical passages in the novel is the description of the herb fields, particularly of lavender, that used to grow in the Sutton/Carshalton area. Mentioned too are the series of ponds that characterise the village, which form one of the sources of the River Wandle (thinly disguised as the River Vandle). Battery technology evolved and in the mid 1890s the first portable electric lanterns were offered for sale. However, the simple and reliable oil lanterns continued to be used for many years. Dietz in particular continued to make oil-burning dark lanterns until at least the late 1920s. In London, the Metropolitan Police converted to electric lanterns, reportedly with some reluctance, in the 1920s. But rural America was still not fully electrified and in small communities, a simple lantern fueled by easily found oil might have engendered more confidence in a policeman than a lantern powered by a battery. Beadles New York Dime Library, 1890. A dark lantern in use. It is described in the story as a bullseye lantern, but is the same as a police lantern, or dark lantern. https://darklanterntales.wordpress.com/