The Pathfinder: or the Inland Sea, Svazek 3

James Fenimore Cooper

SUNY Press, 1. 1. 1981 - Počet stran: 569

With the publication of The Pathfinder in 1840, James Fenimore Cooper engaged in what he called the "hazardous experiment" of reviving one of his most popular characters who had been allowed to die in a previous novel.

Natty Bumppo--who had appeared as Leatherstocking in The Pioneers, as Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans, and who had died as the Trapper in The Prairie--appears again as the hero of The Pathfinder. Encouraged by his British publisher to write another tale of the American frontier, Cooper revived his character to take him to the shores of Lake Ontario, the Inland Sea, for an adventurous story of sailors, Indians, and hunters. Inspired by his own experiences as a mid-shipman on Lake Ontario in 1808-09, Cooper writes in his most picturesque fashion of the wilderness of the Great Lakes, the Thousand Islands, and Niagara.

"Never did the art of writing tread more closely upon the art of the painter," wrote Honoré de Balzac in his review of The Pathfinder. Cooper writes of places that were wilderness in his youth and that changed rapidly in his own lifetime as cities and commerce developed around the Great Lakes. Cooper's attitude toward this development was ambivalent, as he indicated in his Preface: "That great results are intended to be produced by means of these wonderful changes, we firmly believe...but that they will prove to be of the precise results now so generally anticipated, in consulting the experience of the past, and taking the nature of man into account, the reflecting and intelligent may be permitted to doubt."

The Pathfinder remains a classic and entertaining account of the American wilderness and of aspects of human experience in the New World.

Obsah

• Preface 1840: 1
• Textual Commentary: 473
• Textual Notes: 487
• Rejected Readings: 549
• WordDivision: 568

O autorovi

James Fenimore Cooper, acclaimed as one of the first American novelists, was born in Burlington, N.J., on September 15, 1789. When he was one year old, his family moved to Cooperstown, N.Y., which was founded by his father. Cooper attended various grammar schools in Burlington, Cooperstown, and Albany, and entered Yale University in 1803 at the age of 13. In 1806, Cooper was expelled from Yale for pushing a rag with gunpowder under a classmate's door, causing it to explode. He then spent some time as a merchant seaman and served as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy from 1808-1811. In 1811, Cooper married Susan De Lancey, and lived the life of a country gentleman until one day in 1820. Cooper and his wife were reading a book together. When Cooper told Susan that he could write a better book than the one they were reading, she challenged him to do so. Thus began his career as an author, with Precaution (first published anonymously). Cooper is known for writing more than 50 works under his own name, Jane Morgan, and Anonymous. His works included fiction, nonfiction, history, and travel sketches. He gained insight for his travel works while the Cooper family lived in Europe from 1826 to 1833. Cooper is best known for the novel The Last of The Mohicans, which has been made into several motion picture adaptations, the most recent starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye. The Last of the Mohicans is part of The Leatherstocking Tales, which includes the other novels, The Pioneers, The Deerslayer, and The Pathfinder. Hawkeye, whose given name is Nathaniel Bumpo, is a recurring character in the series which accurately chronicles early American pioneering life and events during the French and Indian War. In 1851, Cooper developed a liver condition, dying on September 14th of that year, just one day before his 62nd birthday.

Bibliografické údaje

• Název: The Pathfinder: or the Inland Sea, Svazek 3; Cooper, James F. : [Werke]. 2; G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series; Selected works; The writings of James Fenimore Cooper; Writings / James Fenimore Cooper. James Franklin Beard, ed. u.a
• Autor: James Fenimore Cooper
• Redaktor: Richard Dilworth Rust
• autor textu k fotografiím: Richard Dilworth Rust
• Spolupracovník: Richard Dilworth Rust
• Vydání: ilustrované vydání
• Vydavatel: SUNY Press, 1981
• ISBN: 0873953606, 9780873953603
• Délka: Počet stran: 569