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The Nymph and the Lamp
The poignant story of Isabel Jardin, a strong and sensitive woman, and the men in her life. Set in the 1920s, the story unfolds against the wild desolation of a wind swept island off the coast of Nova Scotia. In writing The Nymph and the Lamp, Thomas Raddall created a haunting and powerful love story that when first published in 1950, became one of Canada’s best known novels.
376 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
June 17, 2019
You really need to look beyond the weird-ass title and tremendously cheesy cover, because this is a beautifully written book that you just have to savour and wade into like a warm bath. In fact, this is less a novel and more a 300-page Ode to Nova Scotia that also happens to have some characters in it. ;-) It's in no rush to get where it's going, and that's OK, because the writing is so evocative and lush that you can practically smell the sea and feel the force of nostalgia like a physical presence.
Does it make the odd doozy of a sexist pronouncement? Sure, it's from the 50s, and is a product of its time. Did I care? Not really. Isabel Jardine is a fantastic character and this is one hell of an epic romance. It also probably helped that I was in Halifax when I started reading it. :-)
Does it make the odd doozy of a sexist pronouncement? Sure, it's from the 50s, and is a product of its time. Did I care? Not really. Isabel Jardine is a fantastic character and this is one hell of an epic romance. It also probably helped that I was in Halifax when I started reading it. :-)
August 9, 2014
This would conventionally be described as a "chick book", being a romance, but my dad told me I'd enjoy reading it. I'm a man; I read it, and I did enjoy it. The book is about a woman who comes to live on a small Canadian island under strange circumstances in the years just after the Great War (World War I). There is a small community of lifeboat crews, lighthouse keepers, and a shore maritime telegraph station on the island. I believe the island is fictional, but it has many similarities to the real Sable Island southeast of Nova Scotia.
Although this is a romance, it's not the blouse-tearing kind. It's a very well-written story with interesting twists and turns. The author has taken pains to get the historical details as correct as possible. As an amateur radio operator, I appreciated his excellent explanation about what running a large spark station must have been like, and how the ship-to-shore maritime communications on the 500 kHz band during the spark era was. As a keen fan of Hemingway, Ford Madox Ford and other "lost generation" authors, I thought he captured that time well.
Although this is a romance, it's not the blouse-tearing kind. It's a very well-written story with interesting twists and turns. The author has taken pains to get the historical details as correct as possible. As an amateur radio operator, I appreciated his excellent explanation about what running a large spark station must have been like, and how the ship-to-shore maritime communications on the 500 kHz band during the spark era was. As a keen fan of Hemingway, Ford Madox Ford and other "lost generation" authors, I thought he captured that time well.
December 20, 2013
One of my very favourite books....have read it 3 times; the last in Sept as my presentation for my book club and every member also really enjoyed it. A beautiful love story mixed with the mystery of Sable Island "the graveyard of the Atlantic"...a small island which is really not an island but a huge sand bar which continually changes shape. Story of a radio operator in the time when ships needed a relay station to get their messages to Nova Scotia; life on such an isolated place with so few people living there. A book I would recommend to anyone who likes a good story tinted with true history.
February 17, 2026
This was quite possibly my favourite book of all time. I loved Isabel, then I hated Isabel, and then I loved her one again. She completely won me over in the end with two passages. The first being 'She threw back her head and smiled. "Yes - yes, that's it. A lamp for Carney! I've always dreamed of being loved by some man utterly - completely - absolutely - as Matthew loved me. But love by itself wasn't enough. All my life I've wanted - I've craved to have someone need me absolutely and completely. To feel that I was doing something that mattered, that nobody else could do. To feel that my life had a purpose. And not to feel lonely any more. Those are the things I've really wanted."' and of course - "I'm starting a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ponies, too." Dear girl, indeed! There was nuance to her character that I hadn't previously thought a male author could accurately capture. And my god, Thomas Raddall, what a master of language. He clearly loved this province in a way I've never seen in words. I think I read this book at the perfect age, the perfect time of year. As a Nova Scotian, a romantic and a fan of history, I can't recommend this book enough.
March 24, 2017
A nice Canadian romance story with not a lot of romance. Easy on the mind.
April 25, 2026
Thomas Raddall was an Atlantic Canadian writer who wrote several award-winning novels. I have read many of them, but this is my favorite. Originally published in 1950, it gives readers an interesting glimpse of life on an isolated island off the southeastern coast of Nova Scotia during the 1920’s, the growth of wireless technology and the path of two people trying to create a life together.
Isabel Jardine works as a secretary at the government telegraph office in Halifax. In her late twenties, she lives in a rundown boarding house and has come to accept she is quickly approaching spinsterhood, destined to live her life alone. She meets Matthew Carney, a young man on furlough from his job as a telegraph operator on Marina Island, where he has been in charge of the station for the last ten years. Mathew, unlike most others who work on the that isolated windswept locale, loves the life there and has no desire to leave, while others are anxious to complete their work commitment and return to the city.
Mathew is in Halifax hoping to complete some family business and feels uncomfortable from the moment he arrives. He has been away several years and much has changed. People are dressed differently, he feels his clothes are dated, everyone is rushing around and the streets are filled with cars. Even the women look different, with their short hair and provocatively shorter hemlines. He finds it all jarring and just wants to return to Marina as soon as possible. That is, until he meets Isabel, who is running from a past life and sees an off ramp of escape. Initially she rejects him, but finally accepts this unusual man’s attentions and they begin a relationship.
Matthew wants Isabel to return to Marina with him, but knowing she is an independent woman accustomed to city life, might not do well there. He considers buying a small place on the mainland, but she accepts his proposal even though she has known him only a few short days. With Matthew due to return, they quickly decide to marry but have no time for a wedding, so Isabel simply puts a ring on her finger and becomes Mrs. Carney.
Soon after Isabel arrives on Marina she begins to regret her decision. There are few inhabitants, frequent storms and with little to do, she quickly becomes lonely. The couple’s relationship endures some cool moments as she tries to adjust to this new and very different life.
There are other men on this island but few women, creating an environment with jealousies, gossip and fleeting relationships as the two struggle to cement their connection. But Isabel is not just struggling in her relationship with Matthew, she is running from a past life she cannot escape.
This is a love story, but with little romance. What is of more interest is the historical background against which Raddall sets his story. Marina is based on Sable Island, a huge sandy landscape known for its wild, ever-changing weather and its wild ponies. Its population is small, with both permanent residents and those staying temporarily. Among the permanent diehards, are those who support the lighthouses located at each end of the island and the members of the rescue teams that respond to shipwrecks and try to save lives. The transients who typically stayed for a year, are the signalmen employed by the Marconi wireless station, located on the highest point on the island.
The detail describing the morse code operation, the ship rescuing teams, the lighthouses and the pressures created by the evolving technology are all accurate information of the time period. Readers will also note how women were treated at the time, also historically accurate.
Raddall is a master story teller who won three Governor General Awards for his work. In this popular novel, he fills his narrative with rich descriptions of the island’s sea and the beaches, the busy streets in the bustling port of Halifax, and the rich farmlands of the Annapolis Valley on the mainland. It makes for a wonderful read.
Isabel Jardine works as a secretary at the government telegraph office in Halifax. In her late twenties, she lives in a rundown boarding house and has come to accept she is quickly approaching spinsterhood, destined to live her life alone. She meets Matthew Carney, a young man on furlough from his job as a telegraph operator on Marina Island, where he has been in charge of the station for the last ten years. Mathew, unlike most others who work on the that isolated windswept locale, loves the life there and has no desire to leave, while others are anxious to complete their work commitment and return to the city.
Mathew is in Halifax hoping to complete some family business and feels uncomfortable from the moment he arrives. He has been away several years and much has changed. People are dressed differently, he feels his clothes are dated, everyone is rushing around and the streets are filled with cars. Even the women look different, with their short hair and provocatively shorter hemlines. He finds it all jarring and just wants to return to Marina as soon as possible. That is, until he meets Isabel, who is running from a past life and sees an off ramp of escape. Initially she rejects him, but finally accepts this unusual man’s attentions and they begin a relationship.
Matthew wants Isabel to return to Marina with him, but knowing she is an independent woman accustomed to city life, might not do well there. He considers buying a small place on the mainland, but she accepts his proposal even though she has known him only a few short days. With Matthew due to return, they quickly decide to marry but have no time for a wedding, so Isabel simply puts a ring on her finger and becomes Mrs. Carney.
Soon after Isabel arrives on Marina she begins to regret her decision. There are few inhabitants, frequent storms and with little to do, she quickly becomes lonely. The couple’s relationship endures some cool moments as she tries to adjust to this new and very different life.
There are other men on this island but few women, creating an environment with jealousies, gossip and fleeting relationships as the two struggle to cement their connection. But Isabel is not just struggling in her relationship with Matthew, she is running from a past life she cannot escape.
This is a love story, but with little romance. What is of more interest is the historical background against which Raddall sets his story. Marina is based on Sable Island, a huge sandy landscape known for its wild, ever-changing weather and its wild ponies. Its population is small, with both permanent residents and those staying temporarily. Among the permanent diehards, are those who support the lighthouses located at each end of the island and the members of the rescue teams that respond to shipwrecks and try to save lives. The transients who typically stayed for a year, are the signalmen employed by the Marconi wireless station, located on the highest point on the island.
The detail describing the morse code operation, the ship rescuing teams, the lighthouses and the pressures created by the evolving technology are all accurate information of the time period. Readers will also note how women were treated at the time, also historically accurate.
Raddall is a master story teller who won three Governor General Awards for his work. In this popular novel, he fills his narrative with rich descriptions of the island’s sea and the beaches, the busy streets in the bustling port of Halifax, and the rich farmlands of the Annapolis Valley on the mainland. It makes for a wonderful read.
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July 25, 2021It is a strange book... a love story, a romance, but a realistic romance and really truly deeply a book about the life of the Marconi men...
People who "pounded the brass" and lived on remote islands preventing wrecking and sinking but also transmitting messages by telegraphs on sand bars far away in wind swept places...
Living with delivery of mail by those big packet boats 3 or 4 times a year...
It tells you about the women as well as the men... and the passion for the telegraphs and the "tapping"
We always complain about technologies and AI changing the job place...
but it happened before...
on the island there was the lighthouse, and then teh lighthouse and the rescue teams, and then the lighthouse, the rescue teams and the wireless station...
And then Broadcasting started... and the wireless station was cut from 3 or 4 men to 1 then to none, and the rescue teams were eliminated almost totally... and then later the lighthouses were automated...
and the island went back to the crabs and to the seals... adn to the ghosts of all the sinking ships... and the one of the wreckers...
and then did the sand bar disappear period...
and all those people had to find other jobs, start other lives...
FASCINATING STORY about far away island in a far away era
The comments about the "nature of women" can be irritating but the poor guy was just trying to express what his characters, so anchored in the era of the changing world after WW1, were thinking about women... about men... about nature... So one should read these comments as part of the history writing... and we should not remove these comments, make less of them... or make more of them...
this is how the nice people as well as the bad people of the 20s thought about women, and let's not forget it...
People who "pounded the brass" and lived on remote islands preventing wrecking and sinking but also transmitting messages by telegraphs on sand bars far away in wind swept places...
Living with delivery of mail by those big packet boats 3 or 4 times a year...
It tells you about the women as well as the men... and the passion for the telegraphs and the "tapping"
We always complain about technologies and AI changing the job place...
but it happened before...
on the island there was the lighthouse, and then teh lighthouse and the rescue teams, and then the lighthouse, the rescue teams and the wireless station...
And then Broadcasting started... and the wireless station was cut from 3 or 4 men to 1 then to none, and the rescue teams were eliminated almost totally... and then later the lighthouses were automated...
and the island went back to the crabs and to the seals... adn to the ghosts of all the sinking ships... and the one of the wreckers...
and then did the sand bar disappear period...
and all those people had to find other jobs, start other lives...
FASCINATING STORY about far away island in a far away era
The comments about the "nature of women" can be irritating but the poor guy was just trying to express what his characters, so anchored in the era of the changing world after WW1, were thinking about women... about men... about nature... So one should read these comments as part of the history writing... and we should not remove these comments, make less of them... or make more of them...
this is how the nice people as well as the bad people of the 20s thought about women, and let's not forget it...
October 4, 2024
MR RADDALL.. GAH DAMN. Fuck this book was some good. SOOO well written and unpredictable. Had no idea how it was gonna end. Isabel is a fucking bitch no matter how the story went and the all the explanations though. Carney deserves someone better, what an angel.
Favourite passages-
“The people of the North Atlantic coasts and islands, where the winds are strong and the waters cold, have no illusions about the sea. It is their enemy. Their lives are fixed in its grasp, they must battle for an existence, each day's survival is a little victory; but like all wars their struggle is in great part a monotony, an eternal waiting for tides to rise, for storm to subside.”
“Kingsbridge looked the same but all the faces were strange and most of the old ways were as dead as William the Fourth.”
“But it was a shock to come back to the valley after eight years and find nothing familiar in what she had considered a scene and a way of life as fixed and eternal as the stars.”
“They were sailors, or perhaps merchant marine officers waiting for a ship, for their arms were tattooed and muscular. Miss Jardine watched them as they flicked the cards and passed a bottle back and forth. There were times when she longed to be a man like one of these, with their reckless faces, their hard bodies, their unconscious attitudes of utter fearlessness. She wondered how many of them had loved women, and what sort, and where, and if they ever thought of them. Probably not. You knew what sailors were. And yet how wonderful to be so free and so utterly sure of everything, from women to the chances of the sea, with that same careless confidence in the next shuffle of the cards, and never a look back!”
Favourite passages-
“The people of the North Atlantic coasts and islands, where the winds are strong and the waters cold, have no illusions about the sea. It is their enemy. Their lives are fixed in its grasp, they must battle for an existence, each day's survival is a little victory; but like all wars their struggle is in great part a monotony, an eternal waiting for tides to rise, for storm to subside.”
“Kingsbridge looked the same but all the faces were strange and most of the old ways were as dead as William the Fourth.”
“But it was a shock to come back to the valley after eight years and find nothing familiar in what she had considered a scene and a way of life as fixed and eternal as the stars.”
“They were sailors, or perhaps merchant marine officers waiting for a ship, for their arms were tattooed and muscular. Miss Jardine watched them as they flicked the cards and passed a bottle back and forth. There were times when she longed to be a man like one of these, with their reckless faces, their hard bodies, their unconscious attitudes of utter fearlessness. She wondered how many of them had loved women, and what sort, and where, and if they ever thought of them. Probably not. You knew what sailors were. And yet how wonderful to be so free and so utterly sure of everything, from women to the chances of the sea, with that same careless confidence in the next shuffle of the cards, and never a look back!”
October 12, 2018
4.5 stars
This sounds cheesy, but it's not. It's a beautiful picture, caught in time, of this province I have come to call 'home'.
Published 1950 set 1920& 21 in Nova Scotia (Halifax & Annapolis Valley) and on offshore island of Marina. (I was reading a library copy of an old first first edition. What a treat!)
Matthew Carney, Operator-in-Charge, comes ashore for his three-month leave to find his mother who gave him up to an orphanage when she married a man that was not his father. (His father was a Norwegian sailor who impregnated her.)
Meets and falls in love with Isabel Jardine who is working in the shipping office in Halifax. They marry on the spur of the moment & she moves to Marina, where she adjusts badly, especially as winter sets in and Matthew withdraws (we find out at the end that he knew he was going blind but did not tell her).
Isabel has an affair with 2nd in command, Greg Skane, & is shot by a jealous island girl, transported to hospital on the mainland, and after release moves to the Valley & gets a job as personal assistant to a self-made millionaire who loses it all in the recession of 1921.
Skane tracks her down just then and wants to take her away to Montreal. She has almost accepted when he plays what he feels is his trump card: that Matthew is going blind and deceived her. She realizes that Matthew loved her all along and returns to Marina.
This sounds cheesy, but it's not. It's a beautiful picture, caught in time, of this province I have come to call 'home'.
Published 1950 set 1920& 21 in Nova Scotia (Halifax & Annapolis Valley) and on offshore island of Marina. (I was reading a library copy of an old first first edition. What a treat!)
Matthew Carney, Operator-in-Charge, comes ashore for his three-month leave to find his mother who gave him up to an orphanage when she married a man that was not his father. (His father was a Norwegian sailor who impregnated her.)
Meets and falls in love with Isabel Jardine who is working in the shipping office in Halifax. They marry on the spur of the moment & she moves to Marina, where she adjusts badly, especially as winter sets in and Matthew withdraws (we find out at the end that he knew he was going blind but did not tell her).
Isabel has an affair with 2nd in command, Greg Skane, & is shot by a jealous island girl, transported to hospital on the mainland, and after release moves to the Valley & gets a job as personal assistant to a self-made millionaire who loses it all in the recession of 1921.
Skane tracks her down just then and wants to take her away to Montreal. She has almost accepted when he plays what he feels is his trump card: that Matthew is going blind and deceived her. She realizes that Matthew loved her all along and returns to Marina.
March 16, 2026
Raddall hooked me early on by beginning this tale through the eyes of an old solitary sailor. I had no idea this book would delve so deeply into the life of Isabel and quickly become focused on her challenges and her unique perspective.
I have read a few books now in this mold - books that are general fiction, not genre specific, and that slowly wind there way into telling tales of lost loves, new dreams, and endeavors usually challenged by natural environments.
This was a rich book that on occasion felt a bit like a Knots Landing episode - but never in the extreme.
If you enjoyed this book I would recommend reading the fiction of David Manners.
I have read a few books now in this mold - books that are general fiction, not genre specific, and that slowly wind there way into telling tales of lost loves, new dreams, and endeavors usually challenged by natural environments.
This was a rich book that on occasion felt a bit like a Knots Landing episode - but never in the extreme.
If you enjoyed this book I would recommend reading the fiction of David Manners.
May 29, 2025
A love story set against the hardships and romance of the radio operator/telegraph era, mainly occurring on a fictitious island (Sable island in reality?) with strange characters. The idea that a city girl would up and leave Halifax, for a remote island existence, seems a stretch in belief. Wonderfully captures a time and place in Nova Scotia, with great eloquence and pathos. As an amateur radio operator myself, I loved the descriptions of a time greatly predating our instant connections today by phone and internet.
February 22, 2018
Beautifully written romance set on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1920. Fascinating insight into the earliest days of radio and life in a Marconi Wireless station. A picturesque view of pastoral Canadian life after the Great War, of the decline of Halifax after the Explosion of 1917, and one woman's return to a sort of Eden.
March 11, 2025
This is my favorite classic. The writing is beautiful, and Nova Scotia is so well described it's like a character in the book. I've read it twice; once in university and once about ten-twelve years ago for a book club. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I think it's probably time to read it again.
March 2, 2026
It’s no wonder this book is considered a Nova Scotian classic, written in the 1950s. I never knew Thomas Raddall was an author, and a great one at that. Even with the “outdated language”, this man was a wordsmith and the story drew me in, as a Nova Scotian myself and loved being able to relate to all of the references of Halifax and Nova Scotia. I am a romantic at heart and love history, so this book was totally up my alley. Would recommend, 5 stars.
January 19, 2018
One of those books that teaches you about a time and place in your own country, then sends you off to learn even more. A random choice that happily turned out to be my favourite kind of book.
December 11, 2018
Excellent! I would have given this more stars if I could have.
July 4, 2020
Delightful book, very well written, and for me, a surprise, in that it appears to be a Romance, but is a beautiful book about struggles and growth in life.
March 25, 2021
Word porn. It's more about tone and the appreciation of Nova Scotia. I wished there had been more going on with the characters.
August 19, 2022
Makes me so want to go to Sable Island
April 5, 2025
love love love i cried
very descriptive & heartfelt
the love & selflessness
very descriptive & heartfelt
the love & selflessness
August 4, 2019
I ultimately liked the book. It helps being in Nova Scotia when reading it. I didn't like the main female at first and the male ones were distant too but the denouement was worth it.
January 11, 2017
This was a fun romance book- clean and interesting. I'm reading books about Nova Scotia and this was a book about an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. When it was first published in the 50's this was a very popular book. The author spent time on the island. Life on the island was interesting and makes you really appreciate the amenities we have now. I wondered about the loudness of the Morse code machines. I hadn't heard that they were really noisy before. Interesting. **stop here for spoilers** Our young girl is an office worker who has taught school too. She meets our hero and on a whim they decide to get married. They get a license and don't have 3 days to wait for the preacher. So, they aren't really married when they go off to their island to live. The only ones who know this are the two of them. They are in love- and are happy. He is patient and they are happy. I didn't understand why he grew apart from her- later we find out that it is because he is going blind. He lets her leave, and doesn't want her to be saddled with him, a blind man. But when she finally finds out she realizes that she does still love him- the other love, was just lust, and she goes back to him. It's quite dramatic and fun. A good romance.
April 26, 2013
Another great bookclub read which is I consider to be pure Canadiana. I hadn't previously heard of this book however after talking to people about it (and find many who also hadn't heard of it and few who had) I have to wonder why this Canadian gem doesn't get more attention.
A coworker compared the book to Margaret Lawerence's Stone Angel, a favorite of mine, I was about 2/3 through the book and the time and completely disagreed - I found myself later revoking my disagreement.
The main character is Isobel, a single 30 something in the maritimes following the war, however the story starts out with Matthew Carney, a radio dispatcher from "Marina" a remote and isolated island, on a journey to the mainland - his first since before the war and many years more.
The story is interesting, captures the time when it was written and seeps reality from it's characters.
I would recommend for anyone who enjoys fiction from that time, Canadiana and, of course, Stone Angle.
A coworker compared the book to Margaret Lawerence's Stone Angel, a favorite of mine, I was about 2/3 through the book and the time and completely disagreed - I found myself later revoking my disagreement.
The main character is Isobel, a single 30 something in the maritimes following the war, however the story starts out with Matthew Carney, a radio dispatcher from "Marina" a remote and isolated island, on a journey to the mainland - his first since before the war and many years more.
The story is interesting, captures the time when it was written and seeps reality from it's characters.
I would recommend for anyone who enjoys fiction from that time, Canadiana and, of course, Stone Angle.
March 28, 2015
A classic Maritime story. Timeless, well told tale of hard won love and redemption. Published in 1950, Raddall's The Nymph and the Lamp was the first novel he wrote set in a near contemporary period (1920s Halifax and Sable Island). The compelling story of Matthew Carney and Isabel Jardine eschews fake charm and sentiment in favour of a kind of rough-hewn realism and is surprisingly modern in its attitudes. This novel is a triumph of storytelling.
September 19, 2015
This was a library book club pick, thank goodness I could tick off "a book whose author has the same initials as you" from my 2015 ultimate reading challenge because it had few other redeeming qualities. I disliked all the characters, I found her to be selfish and stupid and he was naive and stupid. The best part was that parts of it took place in Halifax. The rest was as boring as the miles of sand that were described.
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April 27, 2016This was mostly a cute story of an little known part of the Canadian Atlantic history. A young lady get swept off her feet by a Paul Bunyan like guy to a small isolated community, and it just doesn't fit. They seemed to make bad choices in many areas and din't prepare for the difficult possibilities. Love supposedly conquers all, you know!
I read the 1951 Reader's Digest Condensed version found at our Malian guest house library.
I read the 1951 Reader's Digest Condensed version found at our Malian guest house library.
May 31, 2009
This novel was May's book in my book club group. Set in Halifax and on a small island, I delighted in the language of this novel--clear, precise and lyrical language that one rarely finds in recent fiction. The novel was written in the 1960's but could have been written in the 1920's. Nearly F. Scott and a joy to read.
July 29, 2014
I'm not usually a fan of romance books, but there was more to this book than that. Characters were not well-developed, but the setting took on a role as a major character in the story and the descriptions of the scenery were exquisite. Loved the Nova Scotia history and locations (even when they were acting under pseudonyms!).
November 27, 2013
The most beautiful book I read this summer.
December 13, 2016
This book makes you want to live on a miserable lonely island. Also makes you never want to take a boat anywhere. One of my top five books. Bonus: helped me deal with my fear of horses
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews