SOURCE: "Mystique of the Mountains," in Mary N. Murfree, Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1967, pp. 45-78.

In the excerpt below, Cary discusses the significance of the mountain milieu in Murfree's short fiction.

The overwhelming central fact of life in Miss Murfree's tales of Tennessee are the mountains. Their presence is felt within the first page of all but one of these eight stories [in In the Tennessee Mountains], . . .

The effect of the mountains is unquestionably pervasive, for Miss Murfree has marvelous evocative powers. Yet, even in this collection, the press of too many recurrences and too many adjectives becomes onerous. She fails not in fidelity to detail so much as in artistic balance. Often she breaks off in the middle of a crucial dialogue or dramatic action to take still another glimpse at a rugged vista. She said in extenuation of this defect that "one observes most keenly and remembers...