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diff --git a/3172-h/3172-h.htm b/3172-h/3172-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..580a046 --- /dev/null +++ b/3172-h/3172-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1027 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences, by Mark Twain + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 5%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) +Last Updated: February 24, 2018 + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #3172] +Last Updated: February 24, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FENIMORE COOPER OFFENCES *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1> + FENIMORE COOPER'S<br /> LITERARY OFFENCES + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Mark Twain + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer stand at the head of Cooper's + novels as artistic creations. There are others of his works + which contain parts as perfect as are to be found in these, and + scenes even more thrilling. Not one can be compared with + either of them as a finished whole. + + The defects in both of these tales are comparatively slight. + They were pure works of art.—Prof. Lounsbury. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The five tales reveal an extraordinary fulness of invention. + ... One of the very greatest characters in fiction, Natty + Bumppo.... + + The craft of the woodsman, the tricks of the trapper, all the + delicate art of the forest, were familiar to Cooper from his + youth up.—Prof. Brander Matthews. + + Cooper is the greatest artist in the domain of romantic fiction + yet produced by America.—Wilkie Collins. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English + Literature in Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and + Wilkie Collins to deliver opinions on Cooper's literature without having + read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent and + let persons talk who have read Cooper. + </p> + <p> + Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in 'Deerslayer,' and in the + restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offences + against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record. + </p> + <p> + There are nineteen rules governing literary art in the domain of romantic + fiction—some say twenty-two. In Deerslayer Cooper violated eighteen + of them. These eighteen require: + </p> + <p> + 1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the + Deerslayer tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in the air. + </p> + <p> + 2. They require that the episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of + the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the Deerslayer tale is not + a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no + rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop. + </p> + <p> + 3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in + the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the + corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the + Deerslayer tale. + </p> + <p> + 4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall + exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been + overlooked in the Deerslayer tale. + </p> + <p> + 5. They require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, + the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings + would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a + discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of + relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be + interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people + cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been + ignored from the beginning of the Deerslayer tale to the end of it. + </p> + <p> + 6. They require that when the author describes the character of a + personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage + shall justify said description. But this law gets little or no attention + in the Deerslayer tale, as Natty Bumppo's case will amply prove. + </p> + <p> + 7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, + gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offering in + the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in + the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the + Deerslayer tale. + </p> + <p> + 8. They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader + as “the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest,” by either + the author or the people in the tale. But this rule is persistently + violated in the Deerslayer tale. + </p> + <p> + 9. They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to + possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the + author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and + reasonable. But these rules are not respected in the Deerslayer tale. + </p> + <p> + 10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep + interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he + shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad + ones. But the reader of the Deerslayer tale dislikes the good people in + it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned + together. + </p> + <p> + 11. They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined + that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given + emergency. But in the Deerslayer tale this rule is vacated. + </p> + <p> + In addition to these large rules there are some little ones. These require + that the author shall: + </p> + <p> + 12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it. + </p> + <p> + 13. Use the right word, not its second cousin. + </p> + <p> + 14. Eschew surplusage. + </p> + <p> + 15. Not omit necessary details. + </p> + <p> + 16. Avoid slovenliness of form. + </p> + <p> + 17. Use good grammar. + </p> + <p> + 18. Employ a simple and straightforward style. + </p> + <p> + Even these seven are coldly and persistently violated in the Deerslayer + tale. + </p> + <p> + Cooper's gift in the way of invention was not a rich endowment; but such + as it was he liked to work it, he was pleased with the effects, and indeed + he did some quite sweet things with it. In his little box of stage + properties he kept six or eight cunning devices, tricks, artifices for his + savages and woodsmen to deceive and circumvent each other with, and he was + never so happy as when he was working these innocent things and seeing + them go. A favorite one was to make a moccasined person tread in the + tracks of the moccasined enemy, and thus hide his own trail. Cooper wore + out barrels and barrels of moccasins in working that trick. Another + stage-property that he pulled out of his box pretty frequently was his + broken twig. He prized his broken twig above all the rest of his effects, + and worked it the hardest. It is a restful chapter in any book of his when + somebody doesn't step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for + two hundred yards around. Every time a Cooper person is in peril, and + absolute silence is worth four dollars a minute, he is sure to step on a + dry twig. There may be a hundred handier things to step on, but that + wouldn't satisfy Cooper. Cooper requires him to turn out and find a dry + twig; and if he can't do it, go and borrow one. In fact, the Leather + Stocking Series ought to have been called the Broken Twig Series. + </p> + <p> + I am sorry there is not room to put in a few dozen instances of the + delicate art of the forest, as practised by Natty Bumppo and some of the + other Cooperian experts. Perhaps we may venture two or three samples. + Cooper was a sailor—a naval officer; yet he gravely tells us how a + vessel, driving towards a lee shore in a gale, is steered for a particular + spot by her skipper because he knows of an undertow there which will hold + her back against the gale and save her. For just pure woodcraft, or + sailorcraft, or whatever it is, isn't that neat? For several years Cooper + was daily in the society of artillery, and he ought to have noticed that + when a cannon-ball strikes the ground it either buries itself or skips a + hundred feet or so; skips again a hundred feet or so—and so on, till + finally it gets tired and rolls. Now in one place he loses some “females”—as + he always calls women—in the edge of a wood near a plain at night in + a fog, on purpose to give Bumppo a chance to show off the delicate art of + the forest before the reader. These mislaid people are hunting for a fort. + They hear a cannonblast, and a cannon-ball presently comes rolling into + the wood and stops at their feet. To the females this suggests nothing. + The case is very different with the admirable Bumppo. I wish I may never + know peace again if he doesn't strike out promptly and follow the track of + that cannon-ball across the plain through the dense fog and find the fort. + Isn't it a daisy? If Cooper had any real knowledge of Nature's ways of + doing things, he had a most delicate art in concealing the fact. For + instance: one of his acute Indian experts, Chingachgook (pronounced + Chicago, I think), has lost the trail of a person he is tracking through + the forest. Apparently that trail is hopelessly lost. Neither you nor I + could ever have guessed out the way to find it. It was very different with + Chicago. Chicago was not stumped for long. He turned a running stream out + of its course, and there, in the slush in its old bed, were that person's + moccasin-tracks. The current did not wash them away, as it would have done + in all other like cases—no, even the eternal laws of Nature have to + vacate when Cooper wants to put up a delicate job of woodcraft on the + reader. + </p> + <p> + We must be a little wary when Brander Matthews tells us that Cooper's + books “reveal an extraordinary fulness of invention.” As a rule, I am + quite willing to accept Brander Matthews's literary judgments and applaud + his lucid and graceful phrasing of them; but that particular statement + needs to be taken with a few tons of salt. Bless your heart, Cooper hadn't + any more invention than a horse; and I don't mean a high-class horse, + either; I mean a clothes-horse. It would be very difficult to find a + really clever “situation” in Cooper's books, and still more difficult to + find one of any kind which he has failed to render absurd by his handling + of it. Look at the episodes of “the caves”; and at the celebrated scuffle + between Maqua and those others on the table-land a few days later; and at + Hurry Harry's queer water-transit from the castle to the ark; and at + Deerslayer's half-hour with his first corpse; and at the quarrel between + Hurry Harry and Deerslayer later; and at—but choose for yourself; + you can't go amiss. + </p> + <p> + If Cooper had been an observer his inventive faculty would have worked + better; not more interestingly, but more rationally, more plausibly. + Cooper's proudest creations in the way of “situations” suffer noticeably + from the absence of the observer's protecting gift. Cooper's eye was + splendidly inaccurate. Cooper seldom saw anything correctly. He saw nearly + all things as through a glass eye, darkly. Of course a man who cannot see + the commonest little every-day matters accurately is working at a + disadvantage when he is constructing a “situation.” In the Deerslayer tale + Cooper has a stream which is fifty feet wide where it flows out of a lake; + it presently narrows to twenty as it meanders along for no given reason; + and yet when a stream acts like that it ought to be required to explain + itself. Fourteen pages later the width of the brook's outlet from the lake + has suddenly shrunk thirty feet, and become “the narrowest part of the + stream.” This shrinkage is not accounted for. The stream has bends in it, + a sure indication that it has alluvial banks and cuts them; yet these + bends are only thirty and fifty feet long. If Cooper had been a nice and + punctilious observer he would have noticed that the bends were oftener + nine hundred feet long than short of it. + </p> + <p> + Cooper made the exit of that stream fifty feet wide, in the first place, + for no particular reason; in the second place, he narrowed it to less than + twenty to accommodate some Indians. He bends a “sapling” to the form of an + arch over this narrow passage, and conceals six Indians in its foliage. + They are “laying” for a settler's scow or ark which is coming up the + stream on its way to the lake; it is being hauled against the stiff + current by a rope whose stationary end is anchored in the lake; its rate + of progress cannot be more than a mile an hour. Cooper describes the ark, + but pretty obscurely. In the matter of dimensions “it was little more than + a modern canal-boat.” Let us guess, then, that it was about one hundred + and forty feet long. It was of “greater breadth than common.” Let us + guess, then, that it was about sixteen feet wide. This leviathan had been + prowling down bends which were but a third as long as itself, and scraping + between banks where it had only two feet of space to spare on each side. + We cannot too much admire this miracle. A low-roofed log dwelling occupies + “two-thirds of the ark's length”—a dwelling ninety feet long and + sixteen feet wide, let us say a kind of vestibule train. The dwelling has + two rooms—each forty-five feet long and sixteen feet wide, let us + guess. One of them is the bedroom of the Hutter girls, Judith and Hetty; + the other is the parlor in the daytime, at night it is papa's bedchamber. + The ark is arriving at the stream's exit now, whose width has been reduced + to less than twenty feet to accommodate the Indians—say to eighteen. + There is a foot to spare on each side of the boat. Did the Indians notice + that there was going to be a tight squeeze there? Did they notice that + they could make money by climbing down out of that arched sapling and just + stepping aboard when the ark scraped by? No, other Indians would have + noticed these things, but Cooper's Indians never notice anything. Cooper + thinks they are marvelous creatures for noticing, but he was almost always + in error about his Indians. There was seldom a sane one among them. + </p> + <p> + The ark is one hundred and forty feet long; the dwelling is ninety feet + long. The idea of the Indians is to drop softly and secretly from the + arched sapling to the dwelling as the ark creeps along under it at the + rate of a mile an hour, and butcher the family. It will take the ark a + minute and a half to pass under. It will take the ninety foot dwelling a + minute to pass under. Now, then, what did the six Indians do? It would + take you thirty years to guess, and even then you would have to give it + up, I believe. Therefore, I will tell you what the Indians did. Their + chief, a person of quite extraordinary intellect for a Cooper Indian, + warily watched the canal-boat as it squeezed along under him, and when he + had got his calculations fined down to exactly the right shade, as he + judged, he let go and dropped. And missed the house! That is actually what + he did. He missed the house, and landed in the stern of the scow. It was + not much of a fall, yet it knocked him silly. He lay there unconscious. If + the house had been ninety-seven feet long he would have made the trip. The + fault was Cooper's, not his. The error lay in the construction of the + house. Cooper was no architect. + </p> + <p> + There still remained in the roost five Indians. + </p> + <p> + The boat has passed under and is now out of their reach. Let me explain + what the five did—you would not be able to reason it out for + yourself. No. 1 jumped for the boat, but fell in the water astern of it. + Then No. 2 jumped for the boat, but fell in the water still farther astern + of it. Then No. 3 jumped for the boat, and fell a good way astern of it. + Then No. 4 jumped for the boat, and fell in the water away astern. Then + even No. 5 made a jump for the boat—for he was a Cooper Indian. In + the matter of intellect, the difference between a Cooper Indian and the + Indian that stands in front of the cigarshop is not spacious. The scow + episode is really a sublime burst of invention; but it does not thrill, + because the inaccuracy of the details throws a sort of air of + fictitiousness and general improbability over it. This comes of Cooper's + inadequacy as an observer. + </p> + <p> + The reader will find some examples of Cooper's high talent for inaccurate + observation in the account of the shooting-match in The Pathfinder. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “A common wrought nail was driven lightly into the target, its + head having been first touched with paint.” + </pre> + <p> + The color of the paint is not stated—an important omission, but + Cooper deals freely in important omissions. No, after all, it was not an + important omission; for this nail-head is a hundred yards from the + marksmen, and could not be seen by them at that distance, no matter what + its color might be. + </p> + <p> + How far can the best eyes see a common house-fly? A hundred yards? It is + quite impossible. Very well; eyes that cannot see a house-fly that is a + hundred yards away cannot see an ordinary nailhead at that distance, for + the size of the two objects is the same. It takes a keen eye to see a fly + or a nailhead at fifty yards—one hundred and fifty feet. Can the + reader do it? + </p> + <p> + The nail was lightly driven, its head painted, and game called. Then the + Cooper miracles began. The bullet of the first marksman chipped an edge + off the nail-head; the next man's bullet drove the nail a little way into + the target—and removed all the paint. Haven't the miracles gone far + enough now? Not to suit Cooper; for the purpose of this whole scheme is to + show off his prodigy, Deerslayer Hawkeye—Long-Rifle—Leather-Stocking—Pathfinder—Bumppo + before the ladies. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'Be all ready to clench it, boys!' cried out Pathfinder, + stepping into his friend's tracks the instant they were vacant. + 'Never mind a new nail; I can see that, though the paint is + gone, and what I can see I can hit at a hundred yards, though + it were only a mosquito's eye. Be ready to clench!' +</pre> + <p> + “The rifle cracked, the bullet sped its way, and the head of the nail was + buried in the wood, covered by the piece of flattened lead.” + </p> + <p> + There, you see, is a man who could hunt flies with a rifle, and command a + ducal salary in a Wild West show to-day if we had him back with us. + </p> + <p> + The recorded feat is certainly surprising just as it stands; but it is not + surprising enough for Cooper. Cooper adds a touch. He has made Pathfinder + do this miracle with another man's rifle; and not only that, but + Pathfinder did not have even the advantage of loading it himself. He had + everything against him, and yet he made that impossible shot; and not only + made it, but did it with absolute confidence, saying, “Be ready to + clench.” Now a person like that would have undertaken that same feat with + a brickbat, and with Cooper to help he would have achieved it, too. + </p> + <p> + Pathfinder showed off handsomely that day before the ladies. His very + first feat was a thing which no Wild West show can touch. He was standing + with the group of marksmen, observing—a hundred yards from the + target, mind; one Jasper raised his rifle and drove the centre of the + bull's-eye. Then the Quartermaster fired. The target exhibited no result + this time. There was a laugh. “It's a dead miss,” said Major Lundie. + Pathfinder waited an impressive moment or two; then said, in that calm, + indifferent, know-it-all way of his, “No, Major, he has covered Jasper's + bullet, as will be seen if any one will take the trouble to examine the + target.” + </p> + <p> + Wasn't it remarkable! How could he see that little pellet fly through the + air and enter that distant bullet-hole? Yet that is what he did; for + nothing is impossible to a Cooper person. Did any of those people have any + deep-seated doubts about this thing? No; for that would imply sanity, and + these were all Cooper people. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The respect for Pathfinder's skill and for his 'quickness and + accuracy of sight'” (the italics [''] are mine) “was so + profound and general, that the instant he made this declaration + the spectators began to distrust their own opinions, and a + dozen rushed to the target in order to ascertain the fact. + There, sure enough, it was found that the Quartermaster's + bullet had gone through the hole made by Jasper's, and that, + too, so accurately as to require a minute examination to be + certain of the circumstance, which, however, was soon clearly + established by discovering one bullet over the other in the + stump against which the target was placed.” + </pre> + <p> + They made a “minute” examination; but never mind, how could they know that + there were two bullets in that hole without digging the latest one out? + for neither probe nor eyesight could prove the presence of any more than + one bullet. Did they dig? No; as we shall see. It is the Pathfinder's turn + now; he steps out before the ladies, takes aim, and fires. + </p> + <p> + But, alas! here is a disappointment; an incredible, an unimaginable + disappointment—for the target's aspect is unchanged; there is + nothing there but that same old bullet-hole! + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'If one dared to hint at such a thing,' cried Major Duncan, 'I + should say that the Pathfinder has also missed the target!'” + </pre> + <p> + As nobody had missed it yet, the “also” was not necessary; but never mind + about that, for the Pathfinder is going to speak. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'No, no, Major,' said he, confidently, 'that would be a risky + declaration. I didn't load the piece, and can't say what was + in it; but if it was lead, you will find the bullet driving + down those of the Quartermaster and Jasper, else is not my name + Pathfinder.' + + “A shout from the target announced the truth of this + assertion.” + </pre> + <p> + Is the miracle sufficient as it stands? Not for Cooper. The Pathfinder + speaks again, as he “now slowly advances towards the stage occupied by the + females”: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'That's not all, boys, that's not all; if you find the target + touched at all, I'll own to a miss. The Quartermaster cut the + wood, but you'll find no wood cut by that last messenger.” + </pre> + <p> + The miracle is at last complete. He knew—doubtless saw—at the + distance of a hundred yards—that his bullet had passed into the hole + without fraying the edges. There were now three bullets in that one hole—three + bullets embedded processionally in the body of the stump back of the + target. Everybody knew this—somehow or other—and yet nobody + had dug any of them out to make sure. Cooper is not a close observer, but + he is interesting. He is certainly always that, no matter what happens. + And he is more interesting when he is not noticing what he is about than + when he is. This is a considerable merit. + </p> + <p> + The conversations in the Cooper books have a curious sound in our modern + ears. To believe that such talk really ever came out of people's mouths + would be to believe that there was a time when time was of no value to a + person who thought he had something to say; when it was the custom to + spread a two-minute remark out to ten; when a man's mouth was a + rolling-mill, and busied itself all day long in turning four-foot pigs of + thought into thirty-foot bars of conversational railroad iron by + attenuation; when subjects were seldom faithfully stuck to, but the talk + wandered all around and arrived nowhere; when conversations consisted + mainly of irrelevancies, with here and there a relevancy, a relevancy with + an embarrassed look, as not being able to explain how it got there. + </p> + <p> + Cooper was certainly not a master in the construction of dialogue. + Inaccurate observation defeated him here as it defeated him in so many + other enterprises of his. He even failed to notice that the man who talks + corrupt English six days in the week must and will talk it on the seventh, + and can't help himself. In the Deerslayer story he lets Deerslayer talk + the showiest kind of book-talk sometimes, and at other times the basest of + base dialects. For instance, when some one asks him if he has a + sweetheart, and if so, where she abides, this is his majestic answer: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'She's in the forest-hanging from the boughs of the trees, in + a soft rain—in the dew on the open grass—the clouds that + float about in the blue heavens—the birds that sing in the + woods—the sweet springs where I slake my thirst—and in all + the other glorious gifts that come from God's Providence!'” + </pre> + <p> + And he preceded that, a little before, with this: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'It consarns me as all things that touches a fri'nd consarns a + fri'nd.'” + </pre> + <p> + And this is another of his remarks: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'If I was Injin born, now, I might tell of this, or carry in + the scalp and boast of the expl'ite afore the whole tribe; or + if my inimy had only been a bear'”—and so on. +</pre> + <p> + We cannot imagine such a thing as a veteran Scotch Commander-in-Chief + comporting himself in the field like a windy melodramatic actor, but + Cooper could. On one occasion Alice and Cora were being chased by the + French through a fog in the neighborhood of their father's fort: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “'Point de quartier aux coquins!' cried an eager pursuer, who + seemed to direct the operations of the enemy. + + “'Stand firm and be ready, my gallant 60ths!' suddenly + exclaimed a voice above them; wait to see the enemy; fire low, + and sweep the glacis.' + + “'Father? father!' exclaimed a piercing cry from out the mist; + 'it is I! Alice! thy own Elsie! spare, O! save your daughters!' + + “'Hold!' shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of + parental agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and + rolling back in solemn echo. ''Tis she! God has restored me my + children! Throw open the sally-port; to the field, 60ths, to + the field! pull not a trigger, lest ye kill my lambs! Drive + off these dogs of France with your steel!'” + </pre> + <p> + Cooper's word-sense was singularly dull. When a person has a poor ear for + music he will flat and sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near + the tune, but it is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, + the result is a literary flatting and sharping; you perceive what he is + intending to say, but you also perceive that he doesn't say it. This is + Cooper. He was not a word-musician. His ear was satisfied with the + approximate word. I will furnish some circumstantial evidence in support + of this charge. My instances are gathered from half a dozen pages of the + tale called Deerslayer. He uses “verbal,” for “oral”; “precision,” for + “facility”; “phenomena,” for “marvels”; “necessary,” for “predetermined”; + “unsophisticated,” for “primitive”; “preparation,” for “expectancy”; + “rebuked,” for “subdued”; “dependent on,” for “resulting from”; “fact,” + for “condition”; “fact,” for “conjecture”; “precaution,” for “caution”; + “explain,” for “determine”; “mortified,” for “disappointed”; + “meretricious,” for “factitious”; “materially,” for “considerably”; + “decreasing,” for “deepening”; “increasing,” for “disappearing”; + “embedded,” for “enclosed”; “treacherous;” for “hostile”; “stood,” for + “stooped”; “softened,” for “replaced”; “rejoined,” for “remarked”; + “situation,” for “condition”; “different,” for “differing”; “insensible,” + for “unsentient”; “brevity,” for “celerity”; “distrusted,” for + “suspicious”; “mental imbecility,” for “imbecility”; “eyes,” for “sight”; + “counteracting,” for “opposing”; “funeral obsequies,” for “obsequies.” + </p> + <p> + There have been daring people in the world who claimed that Cooper could + write English, but they are all dead now—all dead but Lounsbury. I + don't remember that Lounsbury makes the claim in so many words, still he + makes it, for he says that Deerslayer is a “pure work of art.” Pure, in + that connection, means faultless—faultless in all details—and + language is a detail. If Mr. Lounsbury had only compared Cooper's English + with the English which he writes himself—but it is plain that he + didn't; and so it is likely that he imagines until this day that Cooper's + is as clean and compact as his own. Now I feel sure, deep down in my + heart, that Cooper wrote about the poorest English that exists in our + language, and that the English of Deerslayer is the very worst that even + Cooper ever wrote. + </p> + <p> + I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that Deerslayer is not a work of + art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail + that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that + Deerslayer is just simply a literary delirium tremens. + </p> + <p> + A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or + result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; + its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they + prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they + are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are—oh! + indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the + language. + </p> + <p> + Counting these out, what is left is Art. I think we must all admit that. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FENIMORE COOPER OFFENCES *** + +***** This file should be named 3172-h.htm or 3172-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/3172/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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