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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of (Theodora) Sarah Orne Jewett, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 6426 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description

Book Description
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett is one of the most important works of New England local color fiction.This collection of essays builds on feminist literary scholarship that affirms the value of Jewett's work, but goes beyond previously published studies by offering an analysis of how race, nationalism, and the literary marketplace shape her narrative. The volume constitutes a major rethinking of Jewett's contribution to American literature, and will be of interest to the fields of American literary studies, feminist cultural criticism, and American studies. ... Read more

Book Description
All of Jewett's best fiction, including her three novels, "Deephaven," "A Country Doctor," and "The Country of the Pointed Firs," and 28 funny, satirical, and poignant sketches and stories. Set against long Maine winters, hardscrabble farms, and the sea, Jewett's stories of gruff, capable farmers and seafolk--and of the rewards and trials of family and communal ties--have a very modern resonance. This comprehensive collection reveals the full stature of the unjustly neglected writer Willa Cather ranked with Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

comforting place to visit
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)(Sarah Orne Jewett1849-1909)

Okay, the time has finally come for me to make a horrible personal admission.I've had a secret foryears now, one that strikes right to the core of my manhood : of an evening, I enjoy a nice cup of tea. Actually, it's an enormous mug and I steep the tea until it looks like coffee, but I still acknowledgehow sketchy it all appears.Nor do I imagine my case will be helped if I state that I most often enjoysaid beverage on Sunday nights during Booknotes on CSPAN, though as a general matter I dooccasionally partake when I sit down to read, after we get the kids to bed.There--I've said it--thatmonkey's off my back.Why here?Why now?Because, this book may be the sine qua non oftea-sipping books.

Perhaps the central theme that we've been developing over the course of these reviews is the existenceof a fundamental tension in human affairs, between the basically feminine desire for security and thebasically masculine desire for freedom.We've examined many examples of the latter--everythingfrom Huckleberry Finn to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--but good examples of the former havebeen rarer, presumably because I just read fewer women authors.(Though we have found some goodexamples, try particularly the review of The House of Gentle Men)Now we come to Sarah OrneJewett's lovely short novel, The Country of Pointed Firs, and the very essence of the book is the valueof friendship (particularly female friendship), community, and continuity in providing an atmosphereof security and a bulwark against the encroachments of a changing world.

The semiautobiographical novel tells of a young woman writer spending a summer in the fictionaltown of Dunnett Landing on the coast of Maine.There she is adopted into a loose knit group ofwomen who weave a web of stories about the town, the surrounding islands and the folks who live, orlived, there.This narrative tradition and the time spent in each others company take on the quality ofritual, and in light of their dismissal of the local pastor, a nearly religious ritual.In addition, Jewett'scomparisons of the women to figures out of Greek drama and classical myth gives them a timelessquality.Most of all, there is her portrayal of the women as a phenomenon of Nature, arisingorganically from, and blending into, the rugged landscape.

The effect of all of this is that as the women speak they seem to be tapping into an eternal tradition. Their voices and stories summoning echoes from the past, not just of Dunnett Landing, but of similarcommunities across time and space.The term that has apparently been adopted to describe this kind ofnovel is "fiction of community," and that's a perfect description.There's something wonderfullycomforting about the togetherness, shared sense of experience and the act of communal memory thatJewett's stories summon.

The flip side of this however is that the novel, not surprisingly since it is so clearly a response toclassic masculine fiction, suffers from some inevitable weaknesses when judged by those standards.Itis almost totally formless and plotless, being little more than a collection of reminiscences.Itcelebrates stasis rather than progress and at some level reflects a genuine and unhealthy fear of humandevelopment in general, and of industrialization specifically.Though relentlessly good natured, thereis a marked indifference or even hostility to traditional religion.Politics and economics arecompletely, and unrealistically, absent from the scene.

Just as the "action" of the novel occurs at the very edge of the nation, figuratively outside the boundsof late 19th Century America, so the community it describes is a utopian one that is an alternative toour actual Western culture.Ultimately, that utopia, like most, seems like it might be a nice place tovisit but like it would prove stultifying to the human spirit, the longing to discover and to achieve, thedesire of the young to create their own place in the world rather than to simply assume a bequeathedplace in their parent's.There's always something comforting about maternal unconditional love, butwe prefer it in smaller doses; too much becomes cloying and suffocating.

The Country of the Pointed Firs is a comforting place to visit--try it with a big mug of tea by yourside--but it's not a place you'd want to live.

GRADE: B ... Read more

Book Description
The highly praised biography of the author of The Country of the Pointed Firs and an enthralling portrait of the literary scene in turn-of-the-century New England. ... Read more

Book Description
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is Sarah Orne Jewett's most popular book. In its elegantly constructed sketches, a worldly, anonymous writer spends the summer in a tiny Maine fishing village where she hopes to find peace and solitude. As she gains the acceptance and trust of her hosts, the community's power and complexity are slowly revealed. While its episodes portray the difficulty and loneliness of rural life, they also display its dignity and strength, particularly as expressed in the bonds between women: mothers, daughters, and friends.

This centennial edition contains a facsimile of the original text, thereby restoring the novel to Jewett's own version, which had been considerably altered in other published versions, plus four related stories. Further enhancing the importance of this volume is editor Sarah Way Sherman's introduction, which includes a sketch of Jewett's life and professional development, a commentary on textual accuracy, and a discussion of the book's themes and techiques as well as its historical context.Download Description
Sarah Orne Jewett's place in American letters was assured when this acclaimed collection of stories about her native state of Maine was first published in 1896. Her crisp style and skillful observation of people and places gives her work lasting appeal. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Jewett is a jewel
I enjoyed this book because of Jewett's turn-of-the-century language and simply accurate descriptions of the people living in a fishing town. Although some may wish for a more detailed plot (or any plot at all), "Pointed Firs" is an escape to a seemingly more innocent time.The characters struggle with many of the same issues we do: relationships, war, disease, and death.However, their sense of community, faith, and attitudes toward the sea form and strengthen their relationships with each other.Jewett is worth a read, merely for the beautiful way she creates a picture with the English language.

Wonderful little book
This book is full of timeless short stories that can either be read as a whole story or separately.

Visit Coastal Maine 100 Years Ago
Jewett's Country of the Pointed Firs seemed like a good choice for reading while summering in Maine.Indeed her character who narrates the book is a woman author spending the summer in a small seaside Maine town.
Sara Orne Jewett gets a mention in American literature classes as a local color writer.This book demonstates her style with its descriptions of the Maine countryside, village life in the 1890s, and insight into the lives of island dwellers and retired fishermen and sea captains.
There's not much that would be considered a plot, just casual meetings with interesting characters in the area.To glimpse life in coastal Maine more than a centruy ago, this is the book for you.
I look forward to visiting the author's home in South Berwick.It's a national historic site.

A wonderful read...
This is a beautifully written story.The author provides the reader with words that one can sink his teeth into.The characters are so well described that I would know them if they walked in my door.A beautiful escape from everyday life !!

Visit the Country
Sarah Orne Jewett's THE COUNTRY OF POINTED FIRS is a visitor's tale. Set in the fictional Maine coast town of Dunnet Landing where the author/narrator has settled for the summer to write. As a visitor, the narrator inevitably recounts only the pieces of history she comes in contact with through her landlady and the people she meets in the community. The stories are portraits, bits and pieces, of lives that exist outside the narrator's brief visit. As a result, the reader feels like a companion on this holiday. The novella moves at the pace of a quiet seacoast village, and is refreshing to read for that very reason. Like a vacation, outside cares fade while focusing on the lives, habits and landscape of this place. The writing is finely wrought. A real affection for a place and people one knows briefly shines through the work and makes one wish for a time and place when travel, life and writing unfolded at a the speed of a long walk.

Some editions incorporate other stories written about Dunnet Landing into the body of the novella. This can lead to a change in the narrator's voice that is incongruous with the rest of the work. Look for a version that preserves the order of one of the early publications with other short works in a separate section.
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Book Description
For too long Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) was dismissed as a timid New England local colorist, known principally for her novels and short stories based in her native state of Maine. But in addition to her fiction, she also wrote poetry, plays, and essays. She enjoyed an extensive acquaintance with most of the established writers of her time and was on friendly terms with many lesser-known women of her era. With the publication of a selection of her letters in 1956, scholarly books and articles soon followed. And with the advent of the women's movement came a renewal of interest in Jewett's life and writings. She is now recognized as a uniquely sharp, compassionate observer of women and their lives in 19th-century New England. Included in this reference book are alphabetically arranged entries for Jewett's writings, characters, family members, friends, acquaintances, and professional associates and admirers. Entries on the most important works and persons include brief bibliographies. The volume begins with a concise introductory essay, and a chronology highlights the chief events in Jewett's life and career. The book closes with a general bibliography of works about Jewett. Given Jewett's complex characterizations and her subtle crafting of plots and settings, this book will be a valuable guide both for those approaching Jewett's works for the first time and for more advanced readers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brief Glimpse Into Jewett's Life
Sarah Orne Jewett lived in Maine from 1849-1909.Noted for her local color writing, she is featured in this book which is based on a film of her life.
The old photos show scenes from Maine, each accompanied by a paragraph relating the photo to Jewett's life or her various books.Readers of Country of the Pointed Firs or other Jewett titles will find this quick intro to her life expands their understanding of her writing.
Jewett never married and lived her whole life in a small village (South Berwick) in Maine in the same house where she was born.Possibly if she'd lived today, she would be considered a feminist, as she was quite independent for a woman in the 1800s. ... Read more

Book Description
The tale of Demeter and Persephone, a central myth of Victorian women's culture, is used to interpret the life and work of a 19th-century Maine writer. ... Read more

Book Description
An updated and revised edition of a classic study, this widely cited book presents a lucid review of all of Jewett's work, which includes nearly 200 stories and novels. In a new preface Donovan discusses the "culture war" that has recently erupted over Jewett's works.Download Description
An updated and revised edition of a classic study, this widely cited book presents a lucid review of all of Jewett's work, which includes nearly 200 stories and novels. In a new preface Donovan discusses the "culture war" that has recently erupted over Jewett. ... Read more