The Country of the Pointed Firs

The Country of the Pointed Firs, collection of sketches about life in a fictional coastal village in Maine by Sarah Orne Jewett; published in 1896, it is an acclaimed example of local colour.

The work is highly regarded for its sympathetic yet unsentimental portrayal of the town of Dunnet Landing and its residents. This episodic book is narrated by a nameless summer visitor who relates the life stories of various inhabitants, capturing the idiomatic language, customs, mannerisms, and humour peculiar to Down-Easters. Among the villagers are the narrator’s landlady, Mrs. Almira Todd, a widow of great inner strength who supports herself through herbal healing; a former seaman, Captain Littlepage, who misses the heyday of the shipping industry and scorns modern ways; Mrs. Todd’s gracious mother, Mrs. Blackett; Mrs. Todd’s brother, William, whom the narrator meets when she sails to Green Island, on which a circle of pointed firs grows; and a former fisherman, Elijah Tilley, an old widower.

The book evokes both the isolation and the sense of community of this small, dying town, whose inhabitants live chiefly to preserve memory and affirm and maintain values of the past.