In this paper, the author briefly describes the developments in American society that led to the emergence of the cult of domesticity, one of the central tenets of sentimental fiction. These developments explain why American women wrote sentimental novels to begin with. The author’s aim is to give insight into the status and development of translated sentimental fiction in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century. Most particularly, the author tries to explain when and how sentimental fiction came to be known in the Netherlands, and in her discussion of two examples, the translations of Maria Cummins’ The Lamplighter and Susan Warner’s The Wide, Wide World, the author concentrates on their reception in the Netherlands and on the extent to which the Dutch translators maintain their sentimental character.