41 The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett – a novella from 1896. Sarah Orne Jewett was born in New England and lived there and in Boston. The daughter of a rural doctor, as a child Jewett accompanied him on visits, her early experiences fostered an interest in New England and an affection for its inhabitants which informed her later writing. Jewett’s classic novella is narrated by a woman staying at Mrs Todd’s boarding house in a small coastal town Dunnet Landing, in New England. Mrs Todd’s house is scented with the herbs that she uses for healing balms, which make her known throughout the area. The nameless narrator is here to write but as time passes she slowly becomes acquainted with the town, its people, their stories and memories: Captain Littlepage the retired seafarer, widow Fosdick, the tragic recluse Joanna, the local farmers and fishermen.
A favourite of writers as diverse as Willa Cather, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ursula Le Guin, this is a calm, gentle, insightful book filled with descriptions of the sea, the local plants and landscape, punctuated by conversations and the narrator’s observations.
Just to give a sense of the tone here’s a short extract (a bit downbeat but overall the story isn’t):
‘I could hear no voices but those of the birds, small and great, - the constant song sparrows, the clink of a yellow-hammer over in the woods, and the far conversation of some deliberate crows…Captain Littlepage was sitting behind his closed window as I passed by, watching for some one who never came. I tried to speak to him, but he did not see me. There was a patient look on the old man’s face, as if the world were a great mistake and he had nobody with whom to speak his own language or find companionship.’
Short with no overarching plot, reading this was like eavesdropping on the life of a community at a specific point in time - Jewett is particularly strong in her portrayal of female friendship, which was an important part of her own life. I think it’s a book that has to be read in a contemplative mood and I’m sure many readers would find it immensely dull but I really enjoyed it, I was immersed in the world it recreated and I was particularly taken with the indomitable Mrs Todd. (BTW there are different editions some incorporate additional Dunnet stories, some don’t. The edition I have finished with the chapter ‘The Backward View’ but had three of Jewett’s four Dunnet stories at the back - worth it for ‘The Queen’s Twin’ about a local woman born on the same day as Queen Victoria.)