The Country of the Pointed Firs

The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), a novella by American writer Sarah Orne Jewett, is considered by many to be her finest literary work.

The novella opens with a nameless female narrator describing Dunnet’s Landing, an idyllic coastal village in eastern Maine and a place that she always dreamed of moving to in her retirement years to escape the bustle of city life and to be able to carve out time and space to complete her writing projects. She had first visited Dunnet’s Landing years before and had fallen in love with the place; now she is returning for another visit. However, she realizes that in moving there she has become a part of a new social circle and a new set of obligations that demand her time, distracting her from her artistic pursuits.

The narrator lives as a tenant of Mrs. Almira Todd, a sixty-seven-year-old widow who spends most of her time tending to her herbs, which she uses to make folk medicine. Local villagers come to her in search of healing remedies, which she sells to them at a price. Mrs. Todd is, therefore, seen as an integral part of communion, a key theme throughout the book, as her home becomes a kind of meeting place for the villagers where they can chat and exchange information. In this way, Mrs. Todd helps to sustain the deeply rooted relationships that exist within the community.

She grows the herbs in her own garden but also scavenges them from the natural surroundings. The narrator helps Mrs. Todd with her business by aiding her in the gathering of herbs and by taking care of the house while Mrs. Todd is away. The narrator enjoys assisting Mrs. Todd with her business, but soon finds that it is interfering with her own work on her unspecified writing project. Realizing that she cannot avoid the interference of others in her life, and it is impossible to live entirely reclusively to do her work, she is inherently drawn into her new community.

The narrator is astounded at the depth of the ties that exist between the people of Dunnet’s Landing, believing them to have an almost mystical sense of connection that goes beyond verbal communication. As the novel progresses, the narrator understands more about the way these people communicate, therefore becoming more involved in the community herself. Naturally curious and observant, the narrator is open to developing friendships, which leads her to become an integral part of the community; she really feels that Dunnet’s Landing has become a home to her in a way that makes it almost painful for her to leave.

As the narrator’s relationship with Mrs. Todd grows increasingly intimate, she finds it impossible to write in her home. She decides to rent the local schoolhouse to use as her summer office. Their relationship continues to grow stronger when the narrator visits Mrs. Todd’s mother and brother who live out on Green Island. As she gets to know Mrs. Todd’s relative, she begins to feel strongly bonded to the woman.

Mrs. Blackett is described as the center of the community of Dunnet’s Landing and is seen as a kind of matriarch. The narrator remarks on Mrs. Blackett’s strength of character which enables her to be there to support all of her friends and family, and her love and affection acts as a wellspring for all who come into contact with her.

Mrs. Fosdick is another character that features prominently throughout the novella. She is described as a desirable guest who acts as somewhat of a traveling newspaper, reporting on family and communal events and relating them within the context of the community’s history. One of the stories she harps on continually is of ‘Poor Joanna.’ According to Mrs. Fosdick, after being jilted by her lover, Joanna grew angry with God. Feeling her sins are so awful that she should isolate herself from the community, she banishes herself to a life on Shell-Heap Island. This was a defining event in the community’s history, and many of the locals still struggle to understand how someone could cut themselves off from such a rich and vibrant community.

The narrator feels that she can identify with Joanna, as she believes that she herself was heading down the same path at the beginning of the summer. This moment in the novella demonstrates how deeply involved the narrator has become in the community, as she is included in the conversation with Mrs. Fosdick just as a local would be. Although she was originally looking for a place in which to seclude herself, the narrator realizes that she has instead found a community and a place where she feels truly at home.