Customer Reviews

John Sherwood, ironmaster

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John Sherwood almost works himself to death at his iron works in Pennsylvania. To restore his health he goes off to a remote spot on the coast of Maine where he sets up a camp and lives in a tent. Nearby, deep in the woods, lives a mysterious hermit. Sherwood learns that this man believes he has killed his wife, for which he has spent time in an insane assylum, and from which he has escaped. In a somewhat confusing sequence of events, Sherwood becomes acquainted with the hermit's wife, both try to convince him that he never killed anyone (not too successfully), the hermit dies in a fall, and Sherwood and the now-widowed woman eventually marry.

Mitchell, a famous physician in Philadelphia, interested in diseases inflicting the nervous system, including their psychological effects, shows a careful concern and curiosity for his main character and the hermit. The early part of the book is very good, but once the hermit's wife is found by Sherwood and both try to help the man, things begin to fall apart. This was one of Mitchell's last novels, and it still shows him in full control of his narrative powers.