`I like to think with pleasure with what a sense of rich discovery the young student of American literature in far distant years to come will take up this book and say " A Masterpiece".' Willa Cather Willa Cather's assessment of The Country of the Pointed Firs has done much to ensure a growing recognition of its qualities. In this novella, a writer moves to the quiet Maine village of Dunnet Landing, seeking a hermitage away from the busy city. Instead of isolation she discovers a rich community in an enchanting setting that exercises and extends her powers as an observer and conversationalist. She returns to the city refreshed, her vision broader and her relationships strengthened. This volume combines Jewett's classic novella and its four short sequels with nine more of her best stories, illustrating the range of her literary style and exemplifying her interest in the position of women in nineteenth-century America. Terry Heller's introduction examines Jewett's work within the mainstream of American literature. Useful annotation, plus a helpful list of the plant and herb lore to which Jewett makes frequent reference, further illuminates her stories for the reader.
This book is intended for general; students of American Literature from High/Secondary school of undergraduate and postgraduate level; also students of Women's studies at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

The Country of Pointed Firs

by Sarah Orne Jewett

Published 11 February 1954
...it was touching to discover that this lonely spot was not without its pilgrims.

The story of an endearing, unlikely friendship set against the backdrop of a remote and beautiful Maine coastal town, The Country of Pointed Firs is one of Sarah Orne Jewett's most loved works, and it quickly earned her a reputation as a talented writer upon its publication. Praised by Alice Brown for its "idyllic atmosphere of country life," Jewett's moving novel shows her intimate understanding of New England and its unique inhabitants, whose prickly exteriors often concealed a warm and loyal nature.

Willa Cather (My Antonia, Death of The Archbishop) remarked that The Country of The Pointed Firs was one of three American books destined for imortality, placing it beside Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.