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Pemaquid: a Story of Old Times in New England

Elizabeth Prentiss

The structure of this book is altogether unique, and has a charm of its own. It is not a continuous narrative, but the characters are made to introduce themselves, and to portray the persons and incidents of the story from their several points of view, in language and coloring peculiar to themselves. Together they form a thoroughly individualized group, presenting strong contrasts, such as a Puritan village might easily have furnished seventy-five or a hundred years ago. The aim of the book, if aim there be, is to exhibit the religious type of the period at once in its strength and in its tenderness, and to show the power which a well-disciplined and chastened spirit has to subdue at last a most worldly and selfish nature. This is embodied in Squire Woodford. But the character which particularly attracts attention is Keziah Millet, the good-hearted, outspoken, energetic housekeeper, battling her way through manifold temptations, and trying "to live consistent"; provoking one to laughter and to tears at the same moment by her droll speeches, "saying her say out" often in "words of unmeant bitterness," and yet unstinted in her devotion to the welfare of others — altogether a rare creature, something like Mrs. Poyser in her originality. We shall not forget her soon. The story abounds in that delicate humor which plays through all of Mrs. Prentiss's writings, and is thoroughly religious in tone. We regard it as one of her best books. - Summary by The New-York Evangelist: Thursday, December 13, 1877