Cooper James Fenimore is a famous American writer, author of 33 novels. His style combined elements of romanticism and enlightenment. For a long time, Cooper's work was the personification of American adventure literature. Of course, similar works were written before him. But Fenimore became the first writer to be recognized by a European audience. And his novels have firmly entered the circle of interests of a huge number of children. This article will present a brief biography of the writer, as well as describe his key works.
Childhood
James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey. The boy's father was a large landowner. The childhood of the future writer passed in the village of Cooperstown, located in the state of New York, on the lake. He was so named after his father James. Of course, the origin left its mark on the formation of the political views of the hero of this article. Fenimore preferred the way of life of "country gentlemen" and remained an adherent of large landownership. And he connected democratic land reforms only with rampant demagogy andbourgeois money-grubbing.
Studies and travels
First, Cooper James Fenimore was educated at a local school, and then entered Yale College. After graduation, the young man had no desire to continue his studies. Seventeen-year-old James became a sailor in the merchant navy and later in the navy. The future writer crossed the Atlantic Ocean, traveled a lot. Fenimore also studied the Great Lakes region well, where the action of his works will soon unfold. In those years, he accumulated a lot of material for his literary work in the form of a variety of life experiences.
Career start
In 1810, after his father's funeral, Cooper James Fenimore married and settled with his family in the small town of Scarsdale. Ten years later, he wrote his first novel called "Precaution". James later recalled that he created this work "on a bet." Fenimore's wife was fond of English novels. Therefore, the hero of this article half-jokingly, half-seriously took up writing such a book.
Spy
The War of Independence was a topic that James Fenimore Cooper was very interested in at the time. The Spy, written by him in 1821, was entirely devoted to this problem. The patriotic novel brought the author great fame. It can be said that with this work, Cooper filled the void that had formed in national literature and showed the guidelines for its future development. From that moment on, Fenimore decided to devote himself entirely to literary creativity. In the next six years, he wrote several more novels, including threeworks included in the future pentalogy about the Leather Stocking. But we will talk about them separately.
Europe
In 1826, James Fenimore Cooper, whose books were already quite popular, went to Europe. He lived for a long time in Italy, France. The writer also traveled to other countries. New impressions forced him to turn to the history of both the Old and New Worlds. In Europe, the hero of this article wrote two nautical novels ("Sea Witch", "Red Corsair") and a trilogy about the Middle Ages ("Executioner", "Heidenmauer", "Bravo").
Return to America
Seven years later, Cooper James Fenimore came home. During his absence, America has changed a lot. The heroic time of the revolution was in the past, and the principles of the Declaration of Independence were forgotten. In the United States, a period of industrial revolution began, which destroyed the remnants of patriarchy both in human relations and in life. "Great moral eclipse" - so Cooper dubbed the disease that has penetrated American society. Money has become the highest interest and priority for people.
A call to fellow citizens
James Fenimore Cooper, whose books were known far beyond America, decided to try to "reason" his fellow citizens. He still believed in the advantages of the socio-political system of his own country, considering bad phenomena superficial, external perversion of initially he althy and reasonable foundations. And Fenimore published Letters to Compatriots. In them, he called to rise up to fight against the "distortions" that appeared.
Butit did not end with success. On the contrary, much secret slander and open hatred fell upon James. Bourgeois America did not ignore his call. She accused Fenimore of arrogance, quarrelsomeness, lack of patriotism and lack of literary talent. After that, the writer retired to Cooperstown. There he continued to create journalistic works and novels.
The last period of creativity
During this period of time, James Fenimore Cooper, whose complete works are now in almost any library, completed the last two novels of the Leather Stocking pentalogy ("Deerslayer", "Pathfinder"). In 1835, he published the satirical novel The Monokins about the naked vices of the socio-political system in the United States and England. In the book, they are bred under the names Low-jump and High-jump. Also noteworthy is his trilogy on land rent ("Surveyor", "Devil's Finger", "Redskins"), published in the forties. In ideological and artistic terms, Cooper's latest works are very unequal. In addition to criticizing the bourgeois system, they contain components of a conservative utopia that give readers false ideas about the "landed aristocracy". But, despite this, the writer always adhered to critical anti-bourgeois positions.
Leather Stocking Pentalogy
This series of books is the pinnacle of Cooper's work. It includes five novels: The Pioneers, The Prairie, The Last of the Mohicans, Deerslayer, and The Pathfinder. All of them are united by the image of the main character named Nathaniel Bumpo. He is a hunter whomany nicknames: Long Carbine, Leather Stocking, Hawkeye, Pathfinder, St. John's Wort.
The pentalogy represents the whole life of Bampo - from youth to death. But the stages of Nathaniel's life do not coincide with the order in which the novels are written. James Fenimore Cooper, whose collected works are available to all admirers of his work, began to describe the life of Bumpo from an advanced age. The epic continued with a story about Natty's mature age, then there was old age. And only after a thirteen-year break, Cooper again took up the story of the Leather Stocking and described his youth. Below we list the works of the pentalogy exactly in the order of the main character growing up.
St. John's wort
Here Nathaniel Bumpo is in his early twenties. The young man's enemies are the Indians from the Huron tribe. Fighting them, Natty meets Chingachgook on his way. With this Indian from the Mohican tribe, Bumpo will make friends and will maintain relations until the end of his life. The situation in the work is complicated by the fact that Natty's white allies are unfair and cruel to foreign people. They themselves provoke bloodshed and violence. Dramatic adventures - captivity, escape, battles, ambushes - unfold against the backdrop of a very picturesque nature - the wooded shores of the Shimmering Lake and its mirror-like surface.
Last of the Mohicans
Perhaps Fenimore's most famous novel. Here the antipode of Bampo is the insidious and cruel leader Magua. He kidnapped Alice and Cora, the daughters of Colonel Munro. Bumpo leda small detachment and went to free the captives. Natty also accompanies Chingachgook along with her son Uncas. The latter is in love with one of the kidnapped girls (Cora), although Cooper does not really develop this line. Chingachgook's son dies in battle while trying to save his beloved. The novel ends with the funeral scene of Cora and Uncas (the last of the Mohicans). After Chingachgook and Natty go on new journeys.
Pathfinder
The plot of this novel is based on the Anglo-French war of 1750-1760. Its members try to trick or bribe the Indians to their side. Natty and Chingachgook fight on Lake Ontario helping their brethren. However, Cooper, through Bumpo, sharply condemns the war unleashed by the colonialists. He emphasizes the senselessness of the death in this battle of both Indians and whites. A significant place in the work is given to the lyrical line. Leatherstocking is in love with Mabel Dunham. The girl appreciates the nobility and courage of a scout, but still goes to Jasper, who is close to her in character and age. Frustrated, Natty leaves for the west.
Pioneers
This is the most troubled novel ever written by James Fenimore Cooper. "Pioneers" describes the life of Leatherstocking at the age of seventy. But despite this, Bumpo has not yet lost his vigilance, and his hand is still firm. Chingachgook is still nearby, only from a mighty and wise leader he turned into a drunken decrepit old man. Both characters are inthe settlement of colonists, where the laws of a "civilized" society apply. The central conflict of the novel lies in the opposition of far-fetched social orders and natural laws of nature. At the end of the novel, Chingachgook dies. Bumpo leaves the settlement and hides in the forest.
Prairie
The final part of the pentalogy written by James Fenimore Cooper. "Prairie" tells the story of Nathaniel's life in old age. Bumpo has made new friends. But now he helps them not with a well-aimed shot, but with great life experience, the ability to conduct a conversation with a stern Indian leader and hide from a natural disaster. Natty and his friends confront the Bush family and the Sioux Indians. But the adventurous plot ends quite well - a double wedding. The finale of the work describes a heartfelt and solemn scene of the last moments of Bumpo's life and death.
Conclusion
James Fenimore Cooper, whose biography was presented above, left behind an extensive literary heritage. He wrote 33 novels, as well as several volumes of travel writing, journalism, historical research and pamphlets. Cooper played a huge role in the development of the American novel, inventing several of its subgenres: utopian, satiric-fiction, social, nautical, historical. The writer's works were characterized by an epic reflection of the world. This is what contributed to the unification of a number of his novels into cycles: a dilogy, a trilogy, a pentalogy.
In his work, James Fenimore Cooper covered three main themes: frontier life, the sea and the war for independence. This choice reveals the romantic basis of his method. To American society, overwhelmed by the thirst for profit, he opposes the freedom of the sea element and soldier's heroism. This gap between reality and the romantic ideal is at the heart of the artistic and ideological design of any work by Cooper.
