A Country Doctor was inspired by Jewett s own father, a doctor in Maine s rural countryside. The heroine of this novel, Nan Prince, finds herself the ward of a kindly widowed doctor, Dr. John Leslie, who takes her along on his patient visits and inspires in her an interest in medicine and the desire to become a doctor herself. Despite the disapproval of the women around her with Dr. Leslie s encouragement she does pursue a medical career even though it means declining a sincere offer of marriage.
