The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is considered Sarah Orne Jewett's finest work, described by Henry James as her "beautiful little quantum of achievement." Despite James's diminutives, the novel remains a classic. Because it is loosely structured, many critics view the book not as a novel, but a series of sketches; however, its structure is unified through both setting and theme. Jewett herself felt that her strengths as a writer lay not in plot development or dramatic tension, but in character development. Indeed, she determined early in her career to preserve a disappearing way of life, and her novel can be read as a study of the effects of isolation and hardship on the inhabitants who lived in the decaying fishing villages along the Maine coast. Sarah Orne Jewett Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American author whose works were set in her native New England. ...
Background information from the Gutenberg text: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/367
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Dunnet Landing, the surrounding islands, and the north country where the reunion takes place are all parts of "the country of the pointedfirs", and each small environment is remindful of the relationship between nature and spirit.
As Sherman points out, also in relation to Donovan, the narrator's vocation is by nature isolated: "I agree with Donovan about the central importance of communion; however, I would also stress the importance of solitude and the narrator's dedication to her vocation.
The narrator watches her: "I lost sight of her as she slowly crossed an open space on one of the higher points of land, and disappeared again behind a dark clump of juniper and the pointedfirs" (159).
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