Though not as well known as the writers she influenced, Sarah Orne Jewett remains one of the most important American novelists of the late nineteenth century. A Country Doctor, Jewettโs first novel, is a luminous portrayal of rural Maine and a look at the authorโs own world. In it, Nanโs struggle to choose between marriage and a career as a doctor, between the confining life of a small town and a self-directed one as a professional, mirrors Jewettโs own conflicts as well as eloquently giving voice to the leading womenโs issues of her time.
Jewettโs perfect details about wildflowers and seaside wharfs, farm women knitting by the fireside and sailors going upriver to meet the moonlight convey a realism that has seldom been surpassed.
Sarah Orne Jewett (1849โ1909), novelist and short-story writer, was born and raised in South Berwick, Maine. The daughter of a country doctor, she received a ladyโs education but maintained that her real learning came from her father, who fostered her writing talents and let her accompany him on his rounds. At age nineteen, she had her first short story published in the Atlantic Monthly. Her vignettes of the gently perishing glory of the Maine countryside and ports won her a place among the most successful of the local-color writers.
Kate Reading, named an AudioFile Golden Voice, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirtyโyear plus career and won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. Among other awards, she has been recognized as an AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and winner of an Publisherโs Weeklyโs Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.