Synopses & Reviews
A hundred and thirty years after it was first published, Sarah Orne Jewett’s story of a young medical woman remains an incisive rendering of the dilemmas of gender, society, and self. Nan Prince first becomes interested in medicine as a child, as the ward of the widowed physician Dr. Leslie. In time she becomes his protégée. But when she enters medical college, she realizes that she will have to choose between marriage and her career, between the demands of her society and her obligations to her true self. Inspired by Jewett’s own interests and by her father, A Country Doctor portrays a world very much in flux and Nan, ultimately, as a woman with a new world opening to her.
- First time in Penguin Classics
About the Author
Frederick Wegener is an associate professor of English at California State University at Long Beach and the editor of Edith Wharton: The Uncollected Critical Writings.
Frederick Wegener is an associate professor of English at California State University at Long Beach and the editor of Edith Wharton: The Uncollected Critical Writings.
Table of Contents
A Country Doctor Introduction
Suggestions for Further Reading
A Note on the Text and Acknowledgments
I. The Last Mile
II. The Farm-House Kitchen
III. At Jake and Martin's
IV. Life and Death
V. A Sunday Visit
VI. In Summer Weather
VII. For the Years to Come
VIII. A Great Change
IX. At Dr. Leslie's
X. Across the Street
XI. New Outlooks
XII. Against the Wind
XIII. A Straight Course
XIV. Miss Prince of Dunport
XV. Hostess and Guest
XVI. A June Sunday
XVII. By the River
XVIII. A Serious Tea-Drinking
XIX. Friend and Lover
XX. Ashore and Afloat
XXI. At Home Again
Explanatory Notes
Appendix: "Theodore Herman Jewett, M.D., of South Berwick"