| Top | Primary Works

Tom's Husband, 1882, A Country Doctor, 1884; A White Heron and Other Stories, 1886; The Landscape Chamber, 1887; Deephaven, 1887; The Country of Pointed Firs, 1896; A Dunnett Shepherdess, 1899; In the Dark New England Days, 1900; The Foreigner, 1900;

Letters, with an introd. and notes by Richard Cary. Waterville, Me.: Colby College P, 1967. PS2133 .A3

The best stories of Sarah Orne Jewett; selected and arranged with a pref. by Willa Cather. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1959 c1927 . PS2130 .A2

The country of the pointed firs. by Sarah Orne Jewett; with a preface by Willa Cather. London: J. Cape, 1951. PS2132 .C6

Novels and stories of Sarah Orne Jewett. NY: Penguin Books, 1994. PS2131

| Top | Selected Bibliography

Auchincloss, Louis. Pioneers & caretakers; a study of 9 American women novelists. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P 1965. PS151 .A8

Cary, Richard. ed. Appreciation of Sarah Orne Jewett; 29 interpretive essays. Waterville, Me.: Colby College P 1973. PS2133 C28

---. Sarah Orne Jewett. NY, Twayne Publishers 1962. PS2133 .T47

Donovan, Josephine. Sarah Orne Jewett. NY: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1980. PS2133 .D6

Frost, John E. Sarah Orne Jewett. Kittery Point, Maine: Gundalow Club 1960. PS2133 .F7

Joseph, Philip. "Landed and Literary: Hamlin Garland, Sarah Orne Jewett, and the Production of Regional Literatures." Studies in american fiction 26.2 (Fall 1998): 147-71.

Matthiessen, F. O. Sarah Orne Jewett. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1965,1929. PS2133 .M3

Nagel, Gwen L. Critical essays on Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1984. PS2133 .C74

---, and James. Sarah Orne Jewett: a reference guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978. Z8455.27 .N34

Westbrook, Perry D. Acres of flint: Sarah Orne Jewett and her contemporaries. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow P, 1981. PS243 W4

| Top | Study Questions

1. Compare and contrast Jewett's Sylvy in A White Heron with May Bartram of James's The Beast in the Jungle.

2. The tree, the hunter, the cow, and the heron all seem to possess mythical significance in A White Heron. Choose to discuss one of them in relationship to Sylvy, and explore the way Jewett combines elements of folk or fairy tale and literary realism.

3. Compare and contrast the relationship between James's governess/narrator and Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw with the relationship between the narrator and Mrs. Todd in Jewett's The Foreigner.

4. Read T. B. Thorpe's The Big Bear of Arkansas (NAAL, Volume 1). Viewing the Southwest humorists as precursors of the late-nineteenth-century local color writers, contrast Thorpe's attitude toward the bear hunt with Jewett's attitude toward Sylvy's search for the bird in A White Heron. Or imagine A White Heron told from the point of view of the young ornithologist, and explain why this other story might have been accepted for publication in the sporting magazine of the Southwest humorists, The Spirit of the Times.

5. Unlike Clemens, Howells, and James, Jewett did not write essays about writing or reading. Fill in the gap in literary history, using the two anthologized stories as a foundation, and write the essay that wasn't: "How to Tell a Story," by Sarah Orne Jewett. You may also choose to title the essay, "Fiction-Writing and Fiction-Reading" or "The Art of Fiction."

6. In an attempt to differentiate between regionalism and realism, compare and contrast Jewett's The Foreigner and James's The Turn of the Screw as ghost stories.

7. Research other writers in the regionalist tradition and write about work by Alice Cary, Rose Terry Cooke, Harriet Beecher Stowe (The Pearl of Orr's Island), or Mary Austin, all of which are available in paperback texts.

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 5: Late Nineteenth Century - Sarah Orne Jewett." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap5/jewett.html (provide page date or date of your login).  

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