The Country of the Pointed Firs. Sarah Orne Jewett.

The Country of the Pointed Firs.
Sarah Orne Jewett.
New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. 1896 (1994)

Stories of the people of the rural seacoast of Maine. To appreciate this novel, you have to be in the mood to listen--to the people themselves--to let them tell their stories in their own way and at their own pace. You can't hurry them. You're their guest and they are going to tell the story in their own way. If you can't be patient, then don't bother "visitin' "

Jewett captures the colorful language of the people and the combination of the richness and loneliness of their lives and the twists of fate which they must endure.

"Recluses are a sad kindred, but they are never commonplace."

"Yes, Mari was one o' them pretty little lambs that make dreadful homely old sheep."

"It was not the first time that I was full of wonder at the waste of human ability in the world, as a botanist wonders at the wastefulness of nature, the thousand seeds that die, the unused provision of every sort."

"A narrow set of circumstances caged a fine able character and held it captive."

Captain Littlepage: "There is a strange sort of a country 'way up north beyond the ice, and strange folks living in it...believed it was the next world to this. They could see the shapes of folks, but they never could get near them--all blowing gray figures that would pass along alone, or sometimes gathered in companies as if they were watching. They acted as if they didn't see us, but only felt us coming towards them. Say what you might, they all believed 'twas a kind of waiting place between the world an' the next."

"On a larger island, farther out to sea, my entertaining companion showed me with glee the small houses of two farmers who shared the island between them, and declared that for three generations the people had not spoken to each other even in times of sickness or death or birth."

"There, you never get over bein' a child long's you have a mother to go to."

"Her hospitality was something exquisite; she had the gift which so many women lack, of being able to make themselves and their houses belong entirely to a guest's pleasure, that charming surrender for the moment of themselves and whatever belongs to them.... Sympathy is of the mind as well as the heart and Mrs. Blackett's world and mine were one from the moment we met. Besides, she had that final, that highest gift of heaven, a perfect self-forgetfulness."

"I think it is well to see anyone so happy an' makin' the most of life just as it falls to hand."

"...he never had Mother's power o' seein' things just as they be."

"At sea there is nothing to be seen close by, and this has its counterpart in a sailor's character, in the large and brave and patient traits that are developed, the hopeful pleasantness that one loves so in a seafarer."

"To see these affectionate meetings and then the reluctant parting, gave one a new idea of the isolation in which it was possible to live in that...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 satisfaction."

"I try to keep things looking right, same's poor dear left 'em. I do miss her....; folks all kep' repeatin' that time would ease me, but I can't find it does; no, I miss her just the same every day. I get so some days it feels as if poor dear might step right back into the kitchen; I keep a-watchin' them doors as if she might step in to ary one.... I can't get over losin' of her no way nor no how. There's that little rockin' chair of her'n. I set an' notice it an' think how strange 'tis a creatur' like her should be gone an' that chair be here right in its old place."

"No, I shan't trouble the fish a great sight more."

"...and I knew how it would seem when Mrs. Todd came back and found her lodger gone; so we die before our own eyes, so we see some chapters of our lives come to their natural end."