Sarah Orne Jewett - Complete Works of Sarah Orne Jewett

The Complete Works of

SARAH ORNE JEWETT

(1849-1909)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2020

Version 1

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The Complete Works of

SARAH ORNE JEWETT

By Delphi Classics, 2020

Complete Works of Sarah Orne Jewett

First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2020.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 91348 726 3

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South Berwick, a town in York County, Maine Jewetts birthplace

Central Square, South Berwick, c. 1910

Deephaven was first published in America in book form in 1887. The novel developed from a collection of short sketches of New England life, some of which had previously been published in the literary magazine The Atlantic Monthly . One of Jewetts sketches, which would later be revised and included in Deephaven , first appeared in the magazine fourteen years earlier in 1873. It was her editor, William Dean Howells, who encouraged Jewett to collect the sketches into a book. Howells was the editor of The Atlantic Monthly from 1871 until 1881, as well as being a successful novelist, literary critic and playwright. When Jewett decided to turn her hand to novel writing, she realised it would be necessary to extensively alter and revise many of the sketches in order to create a cohesive and coherent narrative.

Jewetts first novel centres on two wealthy young women from Boston, Helen and Kate, who visit the sleepy, fictional coastal village of Deephaven in Maine for the summer. It opens with the women preparing for their trip and ends after they have returned home. Kate and Helen find themselves changed by their experiences in Deephaven. They not only come to appreciate the natural beauty of the locale, but they also develop and grow as individuals after encountering a way of life very different from their own. Jewett fills the novel with vivid depictions of local characters, ranging from an old fisherman to the resident gossip, as she paints an intimate portrait of life in rural New England communities.

Jewett as a young woman

William Dean Howells, c. 1880

The first edition

The first editions title page

T HIS BOOK IS not wholly new, several of the chapters having already been published in the Atlantic Monthly. It has so often been asked if Deephaven may not be found on the map of New England under another name, that, to prevent any misunderstanding, I wish to say, while there is a likeness to be traced, few of the sketches are drawn from that town itself, and the characters will in almost every case be looked for there in vain.

I dedicate this story of out-of-door life and country people first to my father and mother, my two best friends, and also to all my other friends, whose names I say to myself lovingly, though I do not write them here.

S. O. J.

I HAD BEEN spending the winter in Boston, and Kate Lancaster and I had been together a great deal, for we are the best of friends. It happened that the morning when this story begins I had waked up feeling sorry, and as if something dreadful were going to happen. There did not seem to be any good reason for it, so I undertook to discourage myself more by thinking that it would soon be time to leave town, and how much I should miss being with Kate and my other friends. My mind was still disquieted when I went down to breakfast; but beside my plate I found, with a hoped-for letter from my father, a note from Kate. To this day I have never known any explanation of that depression of my spirits, and I hope that the good luck which followed will help some reader to lose fear, and to smile at such shadows if any chance to come.