User:Piri/J.F. Cooper

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John Wesley Jarvis által készített Cooper-portré, 1822
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John Wesley Jarvis által készített Cooper-portré, 1822

James Fenimore Cooper (1789 szeptember 15. – 1851 szeptember 14.) a 19. század elején tevékenykedő termékeny és népszerű amerikai regényíró volt, aki számtalan tengeri-történetet és történelmi kalandregényt írt, melyek Bőrharisnya-történetekként váltak ismertté, melynek főszereplője a pionír Natty Bumppo. Híres munkája, a romantikus regény, Az utolsó mohikán-nak köszönhetően sok ember elismerte munkásságát.

Lánya, Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813—1894), íróként és filantrópusként vált ismertté.

Tartalomjegyzék

[szerkesztés] Korai élete

Cooper Burlingtonban, New Jersey-ben született 1789 szeptember 15-én, William és Elizabeth Cooper tizenkét gyermeke közül a tizenegyedikként. Amikor James egy éves volt, családja az Otsego-tó, New York, határvidékére költözött, ahol where his father established a settlement on his yet unsettled estates which became modern-day Cooperstown, New York. His father was a judge and member of Congress. James was sent to school at Albany and at New Haven, and entered Yale at fourteen, remaining for some time the youngest student on the rolls.

Three years afterwards he joined the United States Navy; but after making a voyage or two in a merchant vessel, to perfect himself in seamanship, and obtaining his lieutenancy, he married Susan Augusta de Lancey and resigned his commission (1811).

[szerkesztés] Írói pályafutása

James Fenimore Cooper
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James Fenimore Cooper

He settled in Westchester County, New York, the “Neutral Ground” of his earliest American romance, and produced anonymously (1820) his first book, Precaution, a novel of the fashionable school. This was followed (1821) by The Spy, which was very successful at the date of issue; The Pioneers (1823), the first of the Leatherstocking series; and The Pilot (1824), a bold and dashing sea-story. The next was Lionel Lincoln (1825), a feeble and unattractive work; and this was succeeded in 1826 by the famous Last of the Mohicans, a book that is often quoted as its author's masterpiece. Quitting America for Europe he published at Paris The Prairie (1826), the best of his books in nearly all respects, and The Red Rover, (1828), by no means his worst.

At this period the unequal and uncertain talent of Cooper would seem to have been at its best. These excellent novels were, however, succeeded by one very inferior, The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1829); by The Notions of a Travelling Bachelor (1828); and by The Waterwitch (1830), one of his many sea-stories. In 1830 he entered the lists as a party writer, defending in a series of letters to the National, a Parisian journal, the United States against a string of charges brought against them by the Revue Britannique; and for the rest of his life he continued skirmishing in print, sometimes for the national interest, sometimes for that of the individual, and not infrequently for both at once.

This opportunity of making a political confession of faith appears not only to have fortified him in his own convictions, but to have inspired him with the idea of elucidating them for the public through the medium of his art. His next three novels, The Bravo (1831), The Heidenmauer (1832) and The Headsman: or the Abbaye of Vigneron (1833), were expressions of Cooper's republican convictions. The Bravo depicted Venice as a place where a ruthless oligarchy lurks behind the mask the "serene republic." All were widely read on both sides of the Atlantic,though The Bravo was a critical failure in the United States.[1]

Photograph by Matthew Brady c.1850
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Photograph by
Matthew Brady c.1850
Engraving by F.O.C. Darley
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Engraving by
F.O.C. Darley

In 1833 Cooper returned to America, and immediately published A Letter to my Countrymen, in which he gave his own version of the controversy he had been engaged in, and passed some sharp censure on his compatriots for their 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 England (1837), in. three volumes, a burst of vanity and illtemper; and with Homeward Bound, and 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 press was virulent and scandalous in its comments, and Cooper plunged into a series of actions for libel. Victorious in all of them, he returned to his old occupation with something of his old vigour and success. A History of the Navy of the United States (1839), supplemented (1846) by a set of Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, was succeeded by The Pathfinder (1840), a good “Leatherstocking” novel; by Mercedes of Castile (1840); The Deerslayer (1841); by The Two Admirals and by Wing and Wing (1842); by Wyandotte, The History of a Pocket Handkerchief, and Ned Myers (1843); and by Afloat and Ashore, or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford (1844).

From pure fiction, however, he turned again to the combination of art and controversy in which he had achieved distinction, and in the two Littlepage Manuscripts (1845—1846) he wrote with a great deal of vigour. His next novel was The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak (1847), in which he attempted to introduce supernatural machinery; and this was succeeded by Oak Openings and Jack Tier (1848), the latter a curious rifacimento of The Red Rover; by The Sea Lions (1849); and finally by The Ways of the Hour (1850), another novel with a purpose, and his last book.

[szerkesztés] Last years and legacy

James Fenimore Cooper statue
Nagyít
James Fenimore Cooper statue

Cooper spent the last years of his life in Cooperstown, New York (named for his father). He died of dropsy on the 14th of September 1851 and a statue was later erected in his honor.

Cooper was certainly one of the most popular 19th century American authors. His stories have been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe and into some of those of Asia. Balzac admired him greatly, but with discrimination; Victor Hugo pronounced him greater than the great master of modern romance, and this verdict was echoed by a multitude of inferior readers, who were satisfied with no title for their favourite less than that of “the American Scott.” As a satirist and observer he is simply the “Cooper who's written six volumes to prove he's as good as a Lord” of Lowell's clever portrait; his enormous vanity and his irritability find vent in a sort of dull violence, which is exceedingly tiresome. He was most memorably criticised by Mark Twain whose vicious and amusing "The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper" is still read widely in academic circles. It is only as a novelist that he deserves consideration. His qualities are not those of the great masters of fiction; but he had an inexhaustible imagination, some faculty for simple combination of incident, a homely tragic force which is very genuine and effective, and up to a certain point a fine narrative power.

His literary training was inadequate; his vocabulary is limited and his style awkward and pretentious; and he had a fondness for moralizing tritely and obviously, which mars his best passages. In point of conception, each of his three-and-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 escape of the Yankee man-of-war through the shoals and from the 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 reason that The Last of the Mohicans, which as a chain of brilliantly narrated episodes is certainly the least faulty in this matter of sustained excellence of execution, should be held to be the best of his works. Sablon:1911

[szerkesztés] Cooper munkái

Date Title: Subtitle Műfaj Téma, helyszín, korszak
1820 Precaution: A Novel regény England, 1813-1814
1821 The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground regény Westchester County, New York, 1778
1823 The Pioneers: or The Sources of the Susquehanna regény Leatherstocking, Otsego County, New York, 1793-1794,
1823 Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart 2 kisregény written under the pseudonym: "Jane Morgan"
1823 The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea regény John Paul Jones, Anglia, 1780
1825 Lionel Lincoln: or The Leaguer of Boston regény Battle of Bunker Hill, Boston, 1775-1781
1826 The Last of the Mohicans: A narrative of 1757 regény Leatherstocking, French and Indian War, Lake George & Adirondacks, 1757
1827 The Prairie regény Bőrharisnya, American Midwest, 1805
1828 The Red Rover: A Tale regény Newport, Rhode Island & Atlantic Ocean, pirates, 1759
1828 Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor non-fiction America for European readers
1829 The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish: A Tale regény Western Connecticut, Puritans and Indians, 1660-1676
1830 The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas regény New York, smugglers, 1713
1830 Letter to General Lafayette politika France vs. US, cost of government
1831 The Bravo: A Tale regény Venice, 18. század
1832 The Heidenmauer: or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine regény German Rhineland, 16th century
1832 No Steamboats novella  
1833 The Headsman: The Abbaye des Vignerons regény Genf, Svájc, Alpok, 18. század
1834 A Letter to His Countrymen politika Miért nem hagyta abba Cooper ideiglenesen az írást
1835 The Monikins regény Antarktisz, arisztokrata majmok. 1830-as évek
1836 The Eclipse emlékirat Napfogyatkozás Cooperstown-ban, New York 1806
1836 Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland (Sketches of Switzerland) útibeszámoló Kirándulás Svájcban, 1828
1836 Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine (Sketches of Switzerland, Part Second) útibeszámoló Franciaországi utazások, Rhineland és Svájc, 1832
1836 A Residence in France: With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland útibeszámoló  
1837 Gleanings in Europe: France útibeszámoló Élet, utazás Franciaországban, 1826-1828
1837 Gleanings in Europe: England útibeszámoló Travels in England, 1826, 1828, 1833
1838 Gleanings in Europe: Italy útibeszámoló Living, travelling in Italy, 1828-1830
1838 The American Democrat : or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America non-fiction US society and government
1838 The Chronicles of Cooperstown history Local history of Cooperstown, New York
1838 Homeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea regény Atlantic Ocean & North African coast, 1835
1838 Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound regény Eve Effingham, New York City & Otsego County, New York, 1835
1839 The History of the Navy of the United States of America history US Naval history to date
1839 Old Ironsides history History of the Frigate USS Constitution, 1st pub. 1853
1840 Nyomkereső: or the Inland Sea regény Leatherstocking, Western New York, 1759
1840 Mercedes of Castile: or, The Voyage to Cathay regény Kolombusz Kristóf a Nyugat-Indiák-on, 1490-es évek
1841 Vadölő: avagy az első hadi ösvény regény Bőrharisnya, Otsego-tó 1740-1745
1842 The Two Admirals regény England & English Channel, Skót felkelés, 1745
1842 The Wing-and-Wing: le Le Feu-Follet (Jack o Lantern) novel Itáliai partok, Napoleoni háborúk, 1745
1843 Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief, also published as
  • Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance
  • The French Governess: or The Embroidered Handkerchief
  • Die franzosischer Erzieheren: oder das gestickte Taschentuch
novelette Social satire, France & New York, 1830s
1843 Richard Dale    
1843 Wyandotté: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale [2] regény Butternut Valley of Otsego County, New York, 1763-1776
1843 Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast életrajz of Cooper's shipmate
1844 Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale regény Ulster County & worldwide, 1795-1805
1844 Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore regény Ulster County & worldwide, 1795-1805
1844 Proceedings of the Naval Court-Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, &c.    
1845 Satanstoe: or The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony regény New York City, Westchester County, Albany, Adirondacks, 1758
1845 The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts regény Westchester County, Adirondacks, 1780s (next generation)
1846 The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts regény Anti-rent wars, Adirondacks, 1845
1846 Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers életrajz  
1847 novel New Jersey & Pacific desert island, early 1800s
1848 Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs
a.k.a. Captain Spike: or The Islets of the Gulf
novel Florida Keys, Mexican War, 1846
1848 A méhvadász: elbeszélés a nyugati vadonból regény Kalamazoo River, Michigan, 1812-es háború
1849 The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers regény Long Island & Antarctica, 1819-1820
1850 The Ways of the Hour regény "Dukes County, New York," murder/courtroom mystery novel, legal corruption, women's rights, 1846
1850 Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats színdarab satirization of socialism
1851 The Lake Gun novella Seneca Lake in New York, political satire based on folklore
1851 New York: or The Towns of Manhattan history Befejezetlen, New York City történelme, 1. kiadás 1864

Sources for this table include:

[szerkesztés] External links

Sablon:Wikisource author