美国文学史Cooper.ppt

James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851) novelist He developed three kind of novels: 1. novels about revolutionary past. The Spy. 2. sea novels: The Pilot (1824) 3. Novels about American frontier. Leatherstocking series: Natty Bumppo—an ideal, innocence and purity wildness and the frontier for the first time He wrote 32 novels in all. 1) Life Born into a rich land-holding family of New Jersey, Cooper was one of the new American authors who did not have to worry about money. He was sent to Yale at 14, but was expelled in his junior year because of improper behavior. He went and spent five years at sea; then, while still in his early twenties, he inherited his father’s vast fortune and settled down to a life of comfort and even luxury. The Bet Challenged by his wife to write a novel better than the one he was reading. 2. His Works Precaution --(1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”) His second book, The Spy, a novel about the American Revolution, proved to be an immense success. Best known and remembered by Leatherstocking Tales 3. Leatherstocking Tales The Pioneers 1823 ……………………….. 4 The Last of the Mohicans 1826 ……..….2 The Prairie 1827 ………………………..…5 The Pathfinder 1840 ………………..……3 The Deerslayer 1841 …………….............1 Title Publication Date Natty Bumppos Age Set in Year The Pioneers 1823 70 1793 Natty Bumppo first appears as a seasoned scout in advancing years, with the dying Chingachgook, the old Indian chief and his faithful comrade, as the eastern forest frontier begins to disappear and Chingachgook dies. The Last of the Mohicans 1826 40 1757 An adventure of the French and Indian Wars in the Lake George county. The Prairie 1827 90 1804 Set in the new frontier where the Leatherstocking dies. The Pathfinder 1840 40 1757 Continuing the same border warfare in the St. Lawrence and Lak