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Oldtown folks is of interest as being undoubtedly the last of Mrs. Stowe's works which will outlive the generation for which it was written.
Besides its intrinsic merit as a work of fiction, it has a certain historic value as being a faithful study of “New England life and character in that particular time of its history which may be called the seminal period.”
Whether Mrs. Stowe was far enough away from the time and people she attempts to describe to “make (her) mind as still and passive as a looking-glass or a mountain lake, and to give merely the images reflected there,” is something that will in great part determine the permanent value of this work.
Its interest as a story merely is of course ephemeral.
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1889.
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