This new edition of a beloved American story cycle includes a rich selection of appendices on the work's literary, critical, and biographical contexts. Originally published in four installments of the ""Atlantic Monthly"" in 1896, ""The Country of the Pointed Firs"" is Sarah Orne Jewett's most popular and enduring work. It is commonly regarded as the best and most successful example of local color or regionalist literature in the nineteenth century. This edition is based on the ""Atlantic"" serialization and also includes the four related Dunnet Landing stories. The critical introduction situates the text in its historical, cultural and literary milieu, attending to the place of this novel in Jewett's oeuvre and in her biography, as well as to its inclusion within a tradition of local color literature. Appendices include earlier local color writing by Jewett and others, Jewett's letters, and contemporary reviews of the novel. This is the only edition with appendices.