Charles Dickens 
Lamplighter 

Charles Dickens’ ‘The Lamplighter’ is a short story that will take the reader on a comical adventure bringing together the philosopher’s stone, some fortune-telling stars, an eccentric astronomer, and all-in-all, some downright hilarious characters. In this novella, we meet Tom Grig, a lamplighter who ends up in the home of a strange astronomer. It seems ‘the stars’ have decreed that Tom will marry the astronomer’s beautiful niece and not only that — Grig is then to inherit the secret of the philosopher’s stone, making him the richest man on earth. Happy days! There’s just one problem though. The stars have also predicted Tom’s imminent death, just two short months from now, which leads to other members of the household coming up with their own alternative theories and ideas resulting in laugh-out-loud consequences. —