Paula Blanchard plunges us into the New England literary life of that time, into the circles of Henry James, Lowell, Howells, Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In chapters of interest to contemporary feminists, she also delves into Jewett's close relationship with women - from the young Willa Cather on whom she had a lasting influence, to the gifted artist and book designer Sarah Wyman Whitman and the flamboyant "Mrs. Jack" Gardner, and especially to Annie Fields, her partner in a sustaining "Boston marriage." Blanchard (Margaret Fuller, Addison-Wesley, 1987) has given us a distinguished biography of American novelist Jewett, best known for The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). She gives ample reasons for the recent resurgence of interest in Jewett, especially among modern feminist critics, spurred by the strength of Jewett's female characters, her inimitable portraits of 19th-century New England, and her confident reassertion of traditional values and optimism in the face of hardships and defeat. Blanchard tells a story rather than simply recounting the facts. Her research into the diaries and letters of Jewett and her associates, her knowledge of the literary criticism of Jewett's works, and her own insightful critical comments on Jewett's novels, sketches, and short stories make this an eminently informative work, especially for readers attracted to 19th-century American cultural history and the formation of its women writers. Marie L. Lally, Alabama Sch. of Mathematics & Science, Mobile Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Scrupulously researched, this definitive biography of Sarah Orne Jewett clarifies the accomplishment of a writer whose most famous work, The Country of the Pointed Firs , continues to enchant readers with its finely etched portraits of nineteenth-century New England. Blanchard traces Jewett's life from a childhood spent hiding among the lilac bushes in her grandparents' garden, skating on the mill pond, and pulling taffy at friends' parties to declining years in which Jewett received an honorary doctorate from Bowdoin College (an all-male institution) and shared tea and conversation with Henry James. Blanchard focuses her narrative on those influences that most shaped Jewett's literary art. Deeply rooted in the stern, rocky soil of Maine, Jewett nonetheless knew and responded to the work of European masters, including Flaubert and Turgenev. By probing the social significance of such works as A Country Doctor and A Marsh Island , Blanchard enriches an already large body of feminist scholarship on Jewett. In her conclusion, Blanchard illuminates the ways in which Jewett's fiction and mentorship helped cultivate the genius of a young woman who would become an even greater writer: Willa Cather. Bryce Christensen A laudable, if cautious, attempt to reclaim the literary status of an important American author from successive waves of neglect and politically charged reinterpretation. Placing Jewett firmly within the pantheon of late 19th century intellectual society, Blanchard (Margaret Fuller, 1978) blends biography and textual analysis to reveal a life of apparently astonishing balance. Born in 1849 in the comfortable and bucolic town of South Berwick, Maine, the daughter of a broad-minded physician, Jewett managed the difficult feat, notes Blanchard, of gaining fame and fortune ``simply by going her own way and doing what she liked to do.'' Although she was past 40 when her most enduring work, The Country of the Pointed Firs, appeared, Jewett, despite crippling bouts of rheumatoid arthritis, began publishing in her teens. At 32 she established her extraordinarily successful liaison with Annie Fields, widow of publisher and Atlantic Monthly founder James T. Fields, and thereafter shuttled happily between her beloved Maine and the highbrow salons of Boston. While giving ample play to Jewett's singular achievement of creating a life and art that constantly sustained and reflected her intellectual and spiritual interests, Blanchard, in her meticulous portrayal of the world of educated 19th-century women, skillfully demonstrates how unexceptional her subject's life appeared within its heady environs. Similarly, her probably asexual relationship with Fields, seen by many as ``perhaps the classic `Boston marriage,' '' was unremarkable in an era of flowery ``romantic friendships'' between accomplished, independent women who rarely had the option of combining work and family. By the same token, Jewett's literary themes--notably the importance of community, a Transcendentalist reverence for nature, and a realism leavened by optimism--were addressed to and embraced by readers of both sexes. Persuasively argued, this spirited work falters only in its failure to measure Jewett's achievements against the best, rather than the whole, literature of her time. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.