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148
The Country of the Pointed Firs
·
Sarah Orne Jewett
1
THE
COUNTRY
OF
THE
POINTED
FIRS
By
Sarah
Orne
Jewett
Note:
SARAH
ORNE
JEWETT
(1849-1909)
was
born
and
died
in
South
Berwick,
Maine.
Her
father
was
the
region's
most
distinguished
doctor
and,
as
a
child,
Jewett
often
accompanied
him
on
his
round
of
patient
visits.
She
began
writing
poetry
at
an
early
age
and
when
she
was
only
19
her
short
story
“Mr.
Bruce”
was
accepted
by
the
Atlantic
Monthly.
Her
association
with
that
magazine
continued,
and
William
Dean
Howells,
who
was
editor
at
that
time,
encouraged
her
to
publish
her
first
book,
Deephaven
(1877),
a
collection
of
sketches
published
earlier
in
the
Atlantic
Monthly.
Through
her
friendship
with
Howells,
Jewett
became
acquainted
with
Boston's
literary
elite,
including
Annie
Fields,
with
whom
she
developed
one
of
the
most
intimate
and
lasting
relationships
of
her
life.
The
Country
of
the
Pointed
Firs
(1896)
is
considered
Jewett's
finest
work,
described
by
Henry
James
as
her
“beautiful
little
quantum
of
achievement.”
Despite
James's
diminutives,
the
novel
remains
a
classic.
Because
it
is
loosely
structured,
many
critics
view
the
book
not
as
a
novel,
but
a
series
of
sketches;
however,
its
structure
is
unified
through
both
setting
and
theme.
Jewett
herself
felt
that
her
strengths
as
a
writer
lay
not
in
plot
development
or
dramatic
tension,
but
in
character
development.
Indeed,
she
determined
early
in
her
career
to
preserve
a
disappearing
way
of
life,
and
her
novel
can
be
read
as
a
study
of
the
effects
of
isolation
and
hardship
on
the
inhabitants
who
lived
in
the
decaying
fishing
villages
along
the
Maine
coast.
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