[[Sarah Orne Jewett]] was a late 19th/early 20th century American author that I had not yet read. When I saw that she was from Maine and that this novel was set there, I knew I had to read it during our vacation. I really enjoyed it. There isn't a lot of plot in this slim novel - basically a woman writer goes to Maine for the summer looking for a quiet place to write and instead finds herself enamored of both the setting and the people in the community. The nature writing is beautiful and really captures the beauty of coastal Maine - the fir trees, rocky coasts, and fresh pine and ocean smells. And she captures the lifestyle as well - the reliance on the sea, coastal farming, and close-knit though reserved communities.

I enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone who enjoys American writers from this era. It's slow and filled with conversation in dialect, but I liked it. ( )

What a sweet, lovely book. Composed of a series of vignettes that are bound together by an overstory of a young lady spending the summer in Dunnet Landing, Maine. Jewett does a spectacular job of portraying the people who populate this seafarer's town and its neighboring islands. She captures both their relationships and sense of community and their naturally reticent and independent natures.

Every occupant of this town has his own unique tale, and while there is no driving plotline, but more a kind of folklore that is being passed, reminiscent of The Canterbury Tales but even less plot-driven than that. I felt amazingly attached and involved with these people, even though they might only make an appearance in one chapter and then fade from view in the next.

The descriptions Jewett offers of both the land and its people are astoundingly visual:

"A long time before we landed at Green Island we could see the small white house, standing high like a beacon, where Mrs. Todd was born and where her mother lived, on a green slope above the water, with dark spruce woods still higher."

"I wondered, as I looked at him, if he had sprung from a line of ministers, he had the refinement of look and air of command which are the heritage of the old ecclesiastical families of New England. But as Darwin says in his autobiography, 'there is no such king as a sea-captain.'"

And, she sprinkles some astute observations among her flowing descriptions of the land and its people:

"Conversation's got to have some root in the past, or else you've got to explain every remark you make, an' it wears a person out." If you have a friend who has been with you since childhood, or a sibling with which you are very close, you will understand this perfectly. No new friend can fill that same purpose because with the old friend or sibling no explanation is necessary and with the new friend no amount of explanation could be enough.

"There, you never get over bein' a child long's you have a mother to go to." Again, if you have lost a mother you know the truth of this statement. While your mother lives there is always "home".

I have long wanted to read this book, having come across an excerpt from it years ago in a Victorian magazine. I was not disappointed. It roused a kind of nostalgia in me for a time and place I have never known but would love to be a part of. It suggests a kind of serenity, camaraderie, industry and love of life that is often sorely missing from our modern existence. The closest modern-era book I have found to this is [b:At Home in Mitford|71776|At Home in Mitford (Mitford Years, #1)|Jan Karon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924130s/71776.jpg|1222486].


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What an absorbing set of tales of a visiting author following her lovely, soothing title...

...the characters of Mrs.Todd, her Mother, William, and the Sea Captains keep the plot gently flowing.

"We were standing where there was a fine view of the harbor
and its long stretches of shore all covered by the great army of the pointed firs,
darkly cloaked and standing as if they waited to embark.

The sunburst upon that outermost island made it seem like a sudden revelation
of the world beyond this which some believe to be so near."

Just wish that Ada had left a beautiful gift for her host, and friend, Mrs. Todd. ( )

This is a lovely work which, in structure, put me slightly in mind of 'Cranford'- the narrator plays a minor role, being there mainly to describe the characters around her.
She- a writer- spends a summer in the idyllic Maine fishing village of Dunnet's Landing. Accompanying her landlady- a widowed herbalist- on frequent plant foraging expeditions; visiting the woman's elderly mother on a remote island; chatting with local seafarers...There's no plot, as such, it's just beautifully written and the reader feels a sense of loss as her sojoorn comes to an end, and the vividly drawn Maine community is left behind...
Quite lovely! ( )

A lovely, charming, and occasionally haunting series of sketches set in a declining fishing village in coastal Maine. I can see why Willa Cather admired Jewett’s sense of place. ( )