Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
|
See also: Of these the first is by no means a See also:bad story, but the others are among the dullest ever written; all were widely read on both sides of the See also:Atlantic . In 1833 Cooper returned to America, and immediately published A See also:Letter to my Countrymen, in which he gave his own version of the controversy he had been engaged in, and passed some See also:sharp censure on his compatriots for their See also:share in it . This attack he followed up with The Monikins (1835) and The American Democrat (1835); with several sets of notes on his travels and experiences in Europe, among which may be remarked his See also:England (1837), in three volumes, a burst of vanity and See also:ill-See also:temper; and with Homeward See also:Bound, and See also:Home as Found (1838), noticeable as containing a highly idealized portrait of himself . All these books tended to increase the ill-feeling between author and public; the Whig See also:press was virulent and scandalous in its comments, and Cooper plunged into a series of actions for See also:libel . Victorious in all of them, he returned to his old occupation with something of his old vigour and success . A See also:History of the Navy of the United States (1839), supplemented (1846) by a set of Lives of Distinguished American See also:Naval See also:Officers, was succeeded by The Pathfinder (184o), a See also:good "Leatherstocking" novel; by Mercedes of See also:Castile (184o); The Deerslayer (1841); by The Two Admirals and by Wing and Wing (1842); by See also:Wyandotte, The History of a See also:Pocket Handkerchief, and Ned See also:Myers (1843); and by Afloat and Ashore, or the Adventures of See also:Miles See also:Wallingford (1844) . From pure fiction, however, he turned again to the See also:combination of art and controversy in which he had achieved distinction, and in the two Littlepage See also:Manuscripts (1845-1846) be fought with a See also:great See also:deal of vigour . His next novel was The See also:Crater, or See also:Vulcan's See also:Peak (1847), in which he attempted to intro-duce supernatural machinery with indifferent success; and this was succeeded by See also:Oak Openings and See also:Jack Tier (1848), the latter a curious rifacimento of The Red Rover; by The Sea Lions (1849); and finally by The Ways of the See also:Hour (185o), another novel with a purpose, and his last book . He died of See also:dropsy on the 14th of September 1851 at See also:Cooperstown, New See also:York . His daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894), was known as an author and philanthropist . Cooper was certainly one of the most popular authors that have ever written . His stories have been translated into nearly all the See also:languages of Europe and into some of those of See also:Asia .
See also:Balzac admired him greatly, but with discrimination; See also:Victor See also:Hugo pronounced him greater than the great See also:master of See also:modern romance, and this See also:verdict was echoed by a multitude of inferior readers, who were satisfied with no See also:title for their favourite less than that of "the American See also:Scott." As a satirist and observer he is simply the "Cooper who 's written six volumes to prove he's as good as a See also:Lord" of See also:Lowell's See also:clever portrait; his enormous vanity and his irritability find vent in a sort of dull violence, which is exceedingly tiresome
.
It is only as a novelist that he deserves See also:consideration
.
His qualities are not those of the great masters of fiction; but he had an inexhaustible See also:imagination, some See also:faculty for See also:simple combination of incident, a homely tragic force which is very genuine and effective, and up to a certain point a See also:fine narrative See also:power
.
His See also:literary training was in-adequate; his vocabulary is limited and his See also:style awkward and pretentious; and he had a fondness for moralizing tritely and obviously, which See also:mars his best passages
.
In point of conception, each of his three-and-See also:thirty novels is either absolutely good or is possessed of a certain amount of merit; but hitches occur in all, so that every one of them is remarkable rather in its episodes than as a whole
.
Nothing can be more vividly told than the See also:escape of the See also:Yankee See also:man-of-See also:war through the shoals and from the See also:English cruisers in The Pilot, but there are few things flatter in the range of fiction than the other incidents of the novel
.
It is therefore with some show of See also:reason that The Last of the Mohicans, which as a See also:chain of brilliantly narrated episodes is certainly the least faulty in this See also:matter of sustained excellence of See also:execution, should be held to be the best of his See also:works
.
The personages of his See also:drama are rather to be accounted as so much painted See also:cloth and cardboard, than as anything approaching the nature of men and See also:women
.
As a creator of aught but romantic incident, indeed, Cooper's claims to renown must rest on the fine figure of the Leatherstocking, and, in a less degree, on that of his friend and See also:companion, the Big See also:Serpent
.
The latter has many and obvious merits, not the least of which is the pathos See also:shed about him in his last incarnation as the See also:Indian See also:
But on the whole the impression See also:left is good and true
.
In the dignity and simplicity of the old backwoodsman there is something almost Hebraic
.
With his naive vanity and strong reverent piety, his valiant wariness, his discriminating See also:cruelty, his fine natural sense of right and wrong, his rough limpid honesty, his kindly See also:humour, his picturesque See also:dialect, and his rare skill in woodcraft, he has all the breadth and roundness of a type and all the eccentricities and peculiarities of a portrait
.
See See also: |
|
|
[back] CHARLES HENRY COOPER (18o8-1866) |
[next] PETER COOPER (1791-1883) |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.