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Excerpts from Girl from the Lighthouse
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Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
May 28, 2019 by Deanne Patterson
Deserted by their wife and mother Emma Dobbins is raised by her father the lighthouse keeper at Point Conception in California. There are three other lighthouse keepers there and after her father’s death she must leave her only home she has ever known and make it on her own.
Fascinated with art since an early age when she would sketch everything she saw around her she is thrilled when she receives an invitation to study art in Paris. A lost invitation makes for a sad and lost girl once she arrives in Paris especially since she has no where to live.
Feeling adrift in a sea of business in Paris she can’t get into art schools there, men are the only artist they are interested in.
As luck would have it she finds a working class girl that convinces her family to take Emma into their family. She must learn French as coming from America she has no knowledge of the language.
She becomes and accomplished artist. Emma experiences great joys and devastating lows, loves lost and found. You feel as if you are experiencing this right along with Emma, the descriptions are fabulous. From the French baguettes to the fancy French gowns to the magnificent landscape it’s all here at your fingertips when you read this.
5 Stars
by Brenda V. Rupp
Loved the book – didn’t like the ending. It seemed abrupt and not well thought out like the rest of the book. I guess it had to end somewhere. Emma Dobbins is raised in a lighthouse by her Father, her Mother left when she was 5. She never learned all the rules of living with others that most women just know….what they get from their Mothers. She only attended one year of schooling and she wouldn’t do her studies there. All she wanted to do was her drawing and her art. When her Father died she had to leave the lighthouse. She was headed to Paris with a companion to an Art School, her companion took ill. She had to leave her in a hospital and go into Paris alone without being able to speak the language. She was befriended by a young woman working at the railroad when it came in.
She was only 17 then. Although she couldn’t get into an Art School, she lost the paper her companion and written down who she was supposed to contact, so she didn’t know where to go. The schools she tried all said only men make it into our schools. Somehow, she learns the language and lives for a long time at the home of the gal she met at the railroad. She has to leave them as during the outbreak of war no one has enough food or work. She does eventually meet many of the painters who are a part of the impressionist movement.
Many want to paint her, many want her body, she just wants to paint but she does what she can to make enough money to practice her craft. The story is well written and well researched. Much of what happened really happened, Emma was really the only part of the story not based on fact. The story sucks you in and you really want to finish it. You learn a lot while following Emma through her story. It was a really great book and I did enjoy it immensely, except for the last few paragraphs at the end. It all though has to end somewhere.
I received this book through NetGalley.com in the ereader format. The hope is that I’ll be willing to give the book a review which I have above and it deserved a very favorable review the book was a really good one!! #NetGalley #TheGirlFromTheLighthouse
5.0 out of 5 stars You won’t want to put it down
May 28, 2019 by Joyce
Excellent read. Loved the story and watching as Emma grew and navigated her life through much distress and turmoil on her own and in a strange city with little knowledge of city life. A good example of a strong women in a time when women were not expected to be independent. Enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down.