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Vishy's Reviews > The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories
The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories (Signet Classics)
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#BookReview – The Country of the Pointed Firs and other stories by Sarah Orne Jewett
After reading Sarah Orne Jewett's 'A Country Doctor', I decided to read another book by her, 'The Country of the Pointed Firs'.
'The Country of Pointed Firs' is a short novel at around 130 pages. The story is set in a coastal town in Maine called Dunnet Landing. Our unnamed narrator is a woman who is a writer. She comes to this town during summer to spend time writing. She stays at the place of a person called Mrs.Todds. What happens to our narrator during the course of the summer, the different fascinating people she meets, and the interesting experiences she has forms the rest of the story.
'The Country of Pointed Firs' doesn't feel like one continuous novel with an overarching plot, but it feels like a collection of anecdotes. It made me remember Tove Jansson's 'The Summer Book' and Ray Bradbury's 'Dandelion Wine' which have a similar structure. It also made me remember Joseph Mitchell's masterpiece, 'Up in the Old Hotel', which was his love letter to the New York of a bygone era, and which is also a collection of anecdotes. Sarah Orne Jewett's book came out in 1896, much before these other ones. It makes one think how much of a risk she must have taken during those times, publishing a novel like this, with such an unusual structure. Novels of that era had a clear overarching plot with a beginning, middle, and an end, and a book like this which calls itself a novel, but feels like a collection of anecdotes, must have been unheard of. It is a pioneering book. It is regarded as Sarah Orne Jewett's finest work, and I can understand why.
The narrator and Mrs.Todd are part of most of the anecdotes in the book, and there is one character who stars in each of those anecdotes. My favourites out of those characters were Joanna, who after a heartbreak, moves to an island and lives there alone and doesn't talk to anyone, Mrs.Blackett, Mrs.Todd's mom, who lives in an island with her grown-up son, William, Mrs.Todd's brother, and Elijah Tilley, an old fisherman, who knows everything there is to be known about the sea and fishing, and who doesn't talk much. I also loved Esther the schoolteacher who becomes a shepherdess, and Captain Tolland's wife. These two characters come in the other stories in the book.
There are four other related stories in the book – A Dunnet Shepherdess, The Foreigner, The Queen's Twin, William's Wedding. They are shorter and they have the same two main characters, our unnamed narrator and Mrs.Todd. I loved them too. They could have been easily reworked into the main story, because they fit in there naturally. I don't know why they exist as separate stories.
I loved 'The Country of the Pointed Firs and other stories'. The depiction of a fictional coastal town in the Maine of the 19th century, and its people and culture and their way of speaking and their way of life, is so beautifully done. The characters in the stories are beautiful and charming. Mrs.Todd is a wonderful character and I loved her presence throughout the book. Joanna's story was heartbreaking. When the narrator and Mrs.Todd part at the end of the summer, that scene is very moving and it made me cry. I'm hoping to read more of Sarah Orne Jewett's stories.
Sharing some of my favourite parts from the book.
#Quote1
"When one really knows a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the growth of true friendship may be a lifelong affair."
#Quote2
"It is very rare in country life, where high days and holidays are few, that any occasion of general interest proves to be less than great. Such is the hidden fire of enthusiasm in the New England nature that, once given an outlet, it shines forth with almost volcanic light and heat. In quiet neighborhoods such inward force does not waste itself upon those petty excitements of every day that belong to cities, but when, at long intervals, the altars to patriotism, to friendship, to the ties of kindred, are reared in our familiar fields, then the fires glow, the flames come up as if from the inexhaustible burning heart of the earth; the primal fires break through the granite dust in which our souls are set. Each heart is warm and every face shines with the ancient light. Such a day as this has transfiguring powers, and easily makes friends of those who have been cold-hearted, and gives to those who are dumb their chance to speak, and lends some beauty to the plainest face."
#Quote3
"The leave-takings were as affecting as the meetings of these old friends had been. There were enough young persons at the reunion, but it is the old who really value such opportunities; as for the young, it is the habit of every day to meet their comrades – the time of separation has not come. To see the joy with which these elder kinsfolk and acquaintances had looked in one another's faces, and the lingering touch of their friendly hands; to see these affectionate meetings and then the reluctant partings, gave one a new idea of the isolation in which it was possible to live in that after all thinly settled region. They did not expect to see one another again very soon; the steady, hard work on the farms, the difficulty of getting from place to place, especially in winter when boats were laid up, gave double value to any occasion which could bring a large number of families together. Even funerals in this country of the pointed firs were not without their social advantages and satisfactions. I heard the words "next summer" repeated many times, though summer was still ours and all the leaves were green."
#Quote4
"At first he had seemed to be one of those evasive and uncomfortable persons who are so suspicious of you that they make you almost suspicious of yourself. Mr. Elijah Tilley appeared to regard a stranger with scornful indifference. You might see him standing on the pebble beach or in a fishhouse doorway, but when you came nearer he was gone. He was one of the small company of elderly, gaunt-shaped great fishermen whom I used to like to see leading up a deep-laden boat by the head, as if it were a horse, from the water's edge to the steep slope of the pebble beach. There were four of these large old men at the Landing, who were the survivors of an earlier and more vigorous generation. There was an alliance and understanding between them, so close that it was apparently speechless. They gave much time to watching one another's boats go out or come in; they lent a ready hand at tending one another's lobster traps in rough weather; they helped to clean the fish, or to sliver porgies for the trawls, as if they were in close partnership; and when a boat came in from deep-sea fishing they were never far out of the way, and hastened to help carry it ashore, two by two, splashing alongside, or holding its steady head, as if it were a willful sea colt. As a matter of fact no boat could help being steady and waywise under their instant direction and companionship. Abel's boat and Jonathan Bowden's boat were as distinct and experienced personalities as the men themselves, and as inexpressive. Arguments and opinions were unknown to the conversation of these ancient friends; you would as soon have expected to hear small talk in a company of elephants as to hear old Mr. Bowden or Elijah Tilley and their two mates waste breath upon any form of trivial gossip. They made brief statements to one another from time to time. As you came to know them you wondered more and more that they should talk at all. Speech seemed to be a light and elegant accomplishment, and now their unexpected acquaintance with its arts made them of new value to the listener. You felt almost as if a landmark pine should suddenly address you in regard to the weather, or a lofty-minded old camel make a remark as you stood respectfully near him under the circus tent.
I often wondered a great deal about the inner life and thought of these self-contained old fishermen; their minds seemed to be fixed upon nature and the elements rather than upon any contrivances of man, like politics or theology. My friend, Captain Bowden, who was the nephew of the eldest of this group, regarded them with deference; but he did not belong to their secret companionship, though he was neither young nor talkative.
"They've gone together ever since they were boys, they know most everything about the sea amon'st them," he told me once. "They was always just as you see 'em now since the memory of man.""
#Quote5
"The days were few then at Dunnet Landing, and I let each of them slip away unwillingly as a miser spends his coins. I wished to have one of my first weeks back again, with those long hours when nothing happened except the growth of herbs and the course of the sun. Once I had not even known where to go for a walk; now there were many delightful things to be done and done again, as if I were in London. I felt hurried and full of pleasant engagements, and the days flew by like a handful of flowers flung to the sea wind."
Have you read 'The Country of Pointed Firs'? What do you think about it?
After reading Sarah Orne Jewett's 'A Country Doctor', I decided to read another book by her, 'The Country of the Pointed Firs'.
'The Country of Pointed Firs' is a short novel at around 130 pages. The story is set in a coastal town in Maine called Dunnet Landing. Our unnamed narrator is a woman who is a writer. She comes to this town during summer to spend time writing. She stays at the place of a person called Mrs.Todds. What happens to our narrator during the course of the summer, the different fascinating people she meets, and the interesting experiences she has forms the rest of the story.
'The Country of Pointed Firs' doesn't feel like one continuous novel with an overarching plot, but it feels like a collection of anecdotes. It made me remember Tove Jansson's 'The Summer Book' and Ray Bradbury's 'Dandelion Wine' which have a similar structure. It also made me remember Joseph Mitchell's masterpiece, 'Up in the Old Hotel', which was his love letter to the New York of a bygone era, and which is also a collection of anecdotes. Sarah Orne Jewett's book came out in 1896, much before these other ones. It makes one think how much of a risk she must have taken during those times, publishing a novel like this, with such an unusual structure. Novels of that era had a clear overarching plot with a beginning, middle, and an end, and a book like this which calls itself a novel, but feels like a collection of anecdotes, must have been unheard of. It is a pioneering book. It is regarded as Sarah Orne Jewett's finest work, and I can understand why.
The narrator and Mrs.Todd are part of most of the anecdotes in the book, and there is one character who stars in each of those anecdotes. My favourites out of those characters were Joanna, who after a heartbreak, moves to an island and lives there alone and doesn't talk to anyone, Mrs.Blackett, Mrs.Todd's mom, who lives in an island with her grown-up son, William, Mrs.Todd's brother, and Elijah Tilley, an old fisherman, who knows everything there is to be known about the sea and fishing, and who doesn't talk much. I also loved Esther the schoolteacher who becomes a shepherdess, and Captain Tolland's wife. These two characters come in the other stories in the book.
There are four other related stories in the book – A Dunnet Shepherdess, The Foreigner, The Queen's Twin, William's Wedding. They are shorter and they have the same two main characters, our unnamed narrator and Mrs.Todd. I loved them too. They could have been easily reworked into the main story, because they fit in there naturally. I don't know why they exist as separate stories.
I loved 'The Country of the Pointed Firs and other stories'. The depiction of a fictional coastal town in the Maine of the 19th century, and its people and culture and their way of speaking and their way of life, is so beautifully done. The characters in the stories are beautiful and charming. Mrs.Todd is a wonderful character and I loved her presence throughout the book. Joanna's story was heartbreaking. When the narrator and Mrs.Todd part at the end of the summer, that scene is very moving and it made me cry. I'm hoping to read more of Sarah Orne Jewett's stories.
Sharing some of my favourite parts from the book.
#Quote1
"When one really knows a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the growth of true friendship may be a lifelong affair."
#Quote2
"It is very rare in country life, where high days and holidays are few, that any occasion of general interest proves to be less than great. Such is the hidden fire of enthusiasm in the New England nature that, once given an outlet, it shines forth with almost volcanic light and heat. In quiet neighborhoods such inward force does not waste itself upon those petty excitements of every day that belong to cities, but when, at long intervals, the altars to patriotism, to friendship, to the ties of kindred, are reared in our familiar fields, then the fires glow, the flames come up as if from the inexhaustible burning heart of the earth; the primal fires break through the granite dust in which our souls are set. Each heart is warm and every face shines with the ancient light. Such a day as this has transfiguring powers, and easily makes friends of those who have been cold-hearted, and gives to those who are dumb their chance to speak, and lends some beauty to the plainest face."
#Quote3
"The leave-takings were as affecting as the meetings of these old friends had been. There were enough young persons at the reunion, but it is the old who really value such opportunities; as for the young, it is the habit of every day to meet their comrades – the time of separation has not come. To see the joy with which these elder kinsfolk and acquaintances had looked in one another's faces, and the lingering touch of their friendly hands; to see these affectionate meetings and then the reluctant partings, gave one a new idea of the isolation in which it was possible to live in that after all thinly settled region. They did not expect to see one another again very soon; the steady, hard work on the farms, the difficulty of getting from place to place, especially in winter when boats were laid up, gave double value to any occasion which could bring a large number of families together. Even funerals in this country of the pointed firs were not without their social advantages and satisfactions. I heard the words "next summer" repeated many times, though summer was still ours and all the leaves were green."
#Quote4
"At first he had seemed to be one of those evasive and uncomfortable persons who are so suspicious of you that they make you almost suspicious of yourself. Mr. Elijah Tilley appeared to regard a stranger with scornful indifference. You might see him standing on the pebble beach or in a fishhouse doorway, but when you came nearer he was gone. He was one of the small company of elderly, gaunt-shaped great fishermen whom I used to like to see leading up a deep-laden boat by the head, as if it were a horse, from the water's edge to the steep slope of the pebble beach. There were four of these large old men at the Landing, who were the survivors of an earlier and more vigorous generation. There was an alliance and understanding between them, so close that it was apparently speechless. They gave much time to watching one another's boats go out or come in; they lent a ready hand at tending one another's lobster traps in rough weather; they helped to clean the fish, or to sliver porgies for the trawls, as if they were in close partnership; and when a boat came in from deep-sea fishing they were never far out of the way, and hastened to help carry it ashore, two by two, splashing alongside, or holding its steady head, as if it were a willful sea colt. As a matter of fact no boat could help being steady and waywise under their instant direction and companionship. Abel's boat and Jonathan Bowden's boat were as distinct and experienced personalities as the men themselves, and as inexpressive. Arguments and opinions were unknown to the conversation of these ancient friends; you would as soon have expected to hear small talk in a company of elephants as to hear old Mr. Bowden or Elijah Tilley and their two mates waste breath upon any form of trivial gossip. They made brief statements to one another from time to time. As you came to know them you wondered more and more that they should talk at all. Speech seemed to be a light and elegant accomplishment, and now their unexpected acquaintance with its arts made them of new value to the listener. You felt almost as if a landmark pine should suddenly address you in regard to the weather, or a lofty-minded old camel make a remark as you stood respectfully near him under the circus tent.
I often wondered a great deal about the inner life and thought of these self-contained old fishermen; their minds seemed to be fixed upon nature and the elements rather than upon any contrivances of man, like politics or theology. My friend, Captain Bowden, who was the nephew of the eldest of this group, regarded them with deference; but he did not belong to their secret companionship, though he was neither young nor talkative.
"They've gone together ever since they were boys, they know most everything about the sea amon'st them," he told me once. "They was always just as you see 'em now since the memory of man.""
#Quote5
"The days were few then at Dunnet Landing, and I let each of them slip away unwillingly as a miser spends his coins. I wished to have one of my first weeks back again, with those long hours when nothing happened except the growth of herbs and the course of the sun. Once I had not even known where to go for a walk; now there were many delightful things to be done and done again, as if I were in London. I felt hurried and full of pleasant engagements, and the days flew by like a handful of flowers flung to the sea wind."
Have you read 'The Country of Pointed Firs'? What do you think about it?
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