Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

Best known for her masterpiece, The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) is a writer with enormous resonance for our time. Our fascination with place, with traditional values, and our yearning for a rural utopia all find fulfillment in Jewett's portrayal of the "grand and simple lives" of coastal Maine. In this delicious portrait, Paula Blanchard (biographer of Margaret Fuller and Emily Carr) plunges us into New England literary life in turn-of-the-century Boston, into the circles of Henry James, Lowell, Howell, Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. She delves into Jewett's close friendships with women, from the young Willa Cather and the flamboyant "Mrs. Jack" Gardner, and especially to Annie Fields, her partner in a sustaining "Boston marriage." Her enthralling and insightful glimpses into Jewett's fiction will send readers racing back to a writer of whose work Kipling said "it is the very life."

A brilliant and ambitious woman is eager to establish her career as a doctor but is forced to choose between her occupation and married life. This timely tale presents an internal conflict facing women in the nineteenth century and beyond. Nan is a bright young woman who grows up under the tutelage of the widowed physician, Dr. Leslie. She became interested in medicine at an early age and decides to pursue it as an adult. Unfortunately, her desire to start a career goes against the social conventions of the day. Women are expected to prioritize marriage and children over any profession. Yet, Nan struggles to desert her goals to appease others. It’s a trying dilemma that pits her against her family, friends and local residents. A Country Doctor is a semiautobiographical story influenced by the author’s personal path to independence. The novel explores the many limitations women encounter when attempting to establish a career. It’s a forward-thinking tale and source of encouragement for those seeking professional growth. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of A Country Doctor is both modern and readable.

This beloved short story - a classic coming-of-age tale by the author of The Country of the Pointed Firs is gloriously illustrated with pencil drawings by Maine artist Douglas Alvord. Sylvia, a city girl more at home with animals than with people, has come to the Maine Woods to live with her grandmother. One summer afternoon in the late 1800s, her life is changed forever when she meets an attractive young ornithologist searching for birds to snare, stuff, preserve, and display.

"This is Miss Jewett's first novel, her former efforts having been confined to short stories. To a plot of unusual interest she brings, as a physician's daughter, a close familiarity with the incidents of a doctor's life; and this, combined with wonderful acuteness of observation and a graceful styled, make a book of very unusual interest. " --publisher's summary.