Once upon a time in the wild west.

Chapter 3

NATTY BUMPO - LEATHER STOCKING

After the universal success of The Spy, Cooper decides to take up literature seriously and intends to move his family to New York to be closer to his publishers. The yellow fever epidemic that broke out in the city in the summer of 1822 delayed this move, and the Coopers settled into a comfortable rented house only in the fall. Pigs still roamed the streets of New York freely, but this rapidly growing city no longer without reason laid claim to the role of a national and even international center. More recently, when George Washington arrived in the city to take office as the first President of the United States, New York had fewer than 30,000 residents, including approximately 2,000 slaves. According to the 1820 census, the population had already exceeded 123 thousand people. The New York port competed with the Boston one, industry and trade successfully developed in the city, several newspapers and magazines were published here. Of course, conservative Boston still remained the literary and intellectual center of the country, but the very fact that America’s first novelist settled in New York attracted the eyes of readers throughout the country to the city.

Cooper loved New York, he called it a “beautiful, huge and generous” city. He was now not only an insider among New York intellectuals, but also the center of a small circle of writers who regularly gathered in the back room of Charles Wiley's famous bookstore in the city. Cooper willingly took part in city public events, be it an exhibition of paintings, horse racing or a ceremonial meeting for General Lafayette, who had arrived from France. His reports on these city events were published in the pages of local newspapers, The Patriot and New York American. “He radiated such fresh hope, such a powerful impulse and especially such purely American enthusiasm, which testified not only to personal glory, but also to national honor,” is how one of his acquaintances characterized Cooper of this period.

But behind this brilliant outer side of the life of the famous writer another was hiding - filled with anxiety and disorder. By this time, the inheritance received after the death of his father had been spent. Father's lands were first mortgaged and remortgaged, and then sharply fell in price and were sold for next to nothing to pay off debts.

Literary studies have not yet brought in serious income. Debts grew, creditors did not let up. Things got to the point that in the fall of 1823, the New York sheriff described all the Coopers' household property for debts, and only thanks to a happy accident it was not sold under the hammer. For several years, all of Cooper's income went to pay off debts. He wanted to go to Europe, but there was no point in thinking about it until he paid off his debts. Nevertheless, he, his wife and children begin to learn French.

The writer’s financial situation could not be improved by European editions of his books, since publishers in Europe were not bound by legal agreements with their American colleagues. It was necessary to first publish the books in England, and then in America, where his rights as an American citizen were protected by law. But this could only be done on the condition that he himself would also live in Europe.

All these problems, aggravated by a protracted quarrel with his father-in-law, greatly worried Cooper. He became irritable, suffered from headaches, and had bouts of melancholy. And yet he continued to work on a new book. As you know, one swallow does not make spring. Likewise, the appearance of Cooper's first typically American novel, despite its success, did not lead to others American writers They immediately began to write on purely American topics using American materials. The famous American historian Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) noted in 1884 in the article “Colonialism in America” that in the first quarter of the 19th century “... The first step of an American entering the path of literature was to pretend to be an Englishman in order to get the approval - no, not the English - of their own compatriots.”

But Cooper also created his new novel on typically American material, and at its center were typically American heroes. The action of his new novel took place “in the very heart of the state of New York,” in a vast region, “... where high hills alternate with wide ravines, or, as they often say in geographical books, where mountains alternate with valleys.” The novel was called “Pioneers, or At the Sources of the Susquehanna.”

“I have declared this work as a ‘descriptive history,’” Cooper reported to his English publisher John Murray on November 29, 1822, “but I have probably limited myself too much to what I observed in my youth. I understand that modern taste prefers action and strong emotions, and therefore I must admit that in this sense the first two volumes clearly suffer. I still hope that the third volume will somehow improve the situation. If the truth is still worth anything, then the pictures I described correspond exactly to reality, and I will calmly meet the most picky researchers. But let’s leave the final decision to the reading public; I believe that they are extremely rarely mistaken.”

In February 1823, The Pioneers, or At the Sources of the Susquehanna, appeared almost simultaneously on the book markets of America and England. The success of the novel exceeded even the wildest expectations. In the US, the entire first print run - 3,500 copies - was sold out before noon on the first day of publication. “This is truly something new for the United States,” noted the Niles Weekly Register in this regard. American researchers of Cooper's work suggest that such a stir was caused by the publication in newspapers on the eve of the release of an excerpt from the novel containing a scene of the heroine's rescue from a panther. Newspapers continued to publish excerpts from the book after its publication and stopped printing them only at the request of the publisher.

As in the writer’s previous book, Cooper quite accurately determined the character of its characters and the location of action by the very title of the novel. Pioneers in the United States of America have long been called the first settlers in new areas, the discoverers of new lands. The novel takes place at the headwaters of the Susquehanna River, where it flows out of the southern part of Otsego Lake, that is, in places familiar to Cooper. Here was his father’s house, here he spent his childhood, here he learned to read and write, and learned the first joys of life. This is where he spent his first years after his marriage. Many of his friends and acquaintances lived here.

Of course, all this could not help but leave its mark on the novel, especially since the events described in it relate to the writer’s early childhood. English literary critic James Grossman noted in this regard: “In its mood, the novel is a pastoral wise from experience, in which light mockery of what is described is combined with admiration. And the description of the pictures of the common labor of the settlers is marked not only by sentimentality, but also by a good dose of skepticism.”

In a letter to the English publisher of the book, Cooper, as we know, emphasized the truthfulness and authenticity of the events described in it. “This unwavering commitment to the truth,” he wrote in the preface to one of the later editions of the novel, “is a necessary part of books about history and travel, but it destroys the charm of art, for the artistic recreation of reality is much more fully achieved by depicting heroes in accordance with their social status and their actions, rather than the most careful adherence to the original sources."

The novel is subtitled “A Descriptive History,” and many American readers still take this subtitle literally, believing that Cooper described real people in the novel. It is argued that the prototypes of Judge Marmaduke Temple and his daughter Elizabeth were none other than the writer's father, Judge William Cooper, and the writer's sister, Hannah. And many of the characters in the novel also supposedly had their prototypes in real life. According to some American historians, this refers to Oliver Edwards - Effingham, to Sheriff Richard Jones, and to the good-natured servant Benjamin. But, as the writer’s daughter said, the similarity between the characters in the novel and real-life people was purely general: “The novel presented groups of people, not individual individuals.”

Cooper really didn't write his book like historical work in the strict understanding of this genre: he did not depict real persons, did not describe existing cities and villages. As a novelist, he was primarily interested in human relationships; he believed that a writer is one “who delves into the worries and suffering ordinary people, whose genius descends to people of low incomes, who follows the Lord God when he teaches the insensitive and cruel, explaining to them how deep the wounds they inflict and what terrible retribution they can inflict.

In May 1822, just as Cooper was working on The Pioneers, his reviews of Brace were published in the quarterly journal Literary and Scientific Repositories and Critical Review. Bridge Hall by Washington Irving and An Incident in New England by Katherine M. Sedgwick. In these articles, Cooper offers some advice to writers who want to create authentically American fiction. He believed that they should avoid such topics as politics, religion, educational problems, and should concentrate on “our local mores, the social and moral influences exerted indirectly, on general relationships and on those local characteristics that make up our distinctive features among the people of the earth." And he further noted that such topics “are very rarely observed in our literature.”

Interesting prose, he continued, no matter how paradoxical this statement may seem, appeals to our love of truth, but not to that simple love of facts expressed in true names and dates, but to the love of the highest truth, dictated by nature and principles, which constitutes the primordial law of the human mind... Good novel First of all, it is addressed to our moral foundations - to our conscience, as well as to those good feelings and good principles that Providence instilled in us, constantly reminding us that “we all have one human heart.”

And, having conceived a novel about the days of his childhood - the action of "The Pioneers" takes place in 1793-1794, that is, when the future writer was 4-5 years old - Cooper chose places dear to his heart as the setting and depicted in the novel those that were well known to him human types. However, he did not seek to give an accurate description of the actually existing village and its inhabitants. “Although the Coopers Town area is depicted in the scenes of Pioneers, the village itself is not. The same generally applies to acting persons, although, prompted by memories, the author has applied a few strokes here and there, which make many people think that he intended to do more in this direction than was actually the case... The family and personal history of Marmaduke Temple in no way - in literally- does not look like my father... There has never been a single house in Cooperstown like the one described in the Pioneers.

A well-known researcher of Cooper's life and work, Professor James Franklin Beard, notes in one of his studies that the first reviewers of "Pioneers" and the writer's friends, who personally knew Cooper's late father and sister, never associated the heroes of the novel with these well-known people. real people. References to the similarity of the characters in the novel with the writer’s relatives became especially frequent in the 30s. Cooper was forced to publish a special refutation of such statements contained in the book of his friend, English actor Charles A. Murray, “Travels in the World,” published in 1839 in New York. North America in the years 1834, 1835 and 1836."

Following the rules he had established for himself, Cooper depicted in the novel the typical circumstances of life in the newly settled areas of America at the end of the 18th century. In doing so, he used not only personal observations, but also existing historical works. In one of his letters in 1842, Cooper noted that in developing the plot of "The Pioneers" he was greatly assisted by the work of the historian Robert Proud, "History of Pennsylvania in North America, from the time of the official proclamation and settlement of this province under the first owner and governor, William Penn, in 1681 and to the period after 1742", published in Philadelphia in 1797. It was from Proud’s work that the writer drew the very idea of ​​the relationship between the Effingham and Temple families, when the inheritance of one, due to circumstances, ends up in the hands of the other.

As we know from the novel, Marmaduke Temple did not abuse the trust Colonel Effingham placed in him. However, there were many cases in life when such trust was abused and thereby deprived the legal heirs of their share of the inheritance. There were also cases when heirs filed lawsuits demanding restoration of the inheritance without any legal grounds, but only on the basis of rumors and dubious documents.

This last example was all too familiar to Cooper. After the death of his father, he, like the other five children of the judge, inherited 50 thousand dollars in cash and significant plots of land. Let us note that the entire land property of the late judge was estimated at approximately half a million dollars. At one time, the judge, together with his partner Andrew Craig, acquired the rights to 20 thousand acres of land from the inheritance of Colonel George Croghan. Kroghan's Heirs different time raised the question of the legality of the transaction and intended to take the case to court. Cooper knew about this, but his family had the original documents of the transaction at their disposal, and therefore he was not afraid of threats.

It is interesting that Kroghan’s heirs, already in our time, again raised the question of the legality of that long-standing deal. A certain Albert T. Wohlweiler published in 1926 the book “George Kroghan and the Movement to the West, 1741-1782,” in which, based on statements by the colonel’s heirs, he questioned the validity of the agreement between Cooper-Craig and Kroghan. In 1931, the writer’s late great-great-grandson, also James Fenimore Cooper, in an article in the journal of the New York State Historical Association, based on surviving original documents, proved the absurdity of his distant ancestor’s accusations of dishonesty.

Some historians of American literature claim that Cooper knew that Kroghan's heirs questioned the legality of the sale of their ancestor's lands; this allegedly served as material for describing the entire complicated story relationship between the Temple and Effingham families. It is difficult to dispute such a statement, but from the evidence of American historians it is absolutely clear that situations similar to the one that arose between Judge Temple and the son of his former partner were quite common in those days among more or less wealthy people, and Cooper did not sin at all against the truth , when he depicted a similar situation in the novel.

The characters in the novel are easily divided into two main groups. On the one hand - Judge Marmaduke Temple, a wealthy owner of vast lands, and other new settlers, intoxicated by the freedom and power they had inherited, arrogant and arrogant. On the other hand, there is a trinity of those whom society has deprived of everything. Indian John Mohican or Chingachgook, whose tribe once owned all this land. Hunter Natty Bumppo, who came to these parts before the judge and whose hunting rights are now limited by law. And Oliver Effingham, a young stranger who mistakenly believes that it was the judge who deprived him of his rightful inheritance.

The complex and sometimes contradictory relationships between these two groups of people constitute the actual outline of the novel and reveal to readers a picture of the morals of the American outback during the period described. Before us is one of the first acts of a huge and heavy multi-act drama, which much later received the name “How the West was Conquered.”

From the pages of the novel "Pioneers" the pioneer, tracker and hunter Natty Bumppo, also known as Leather Stocking, Long Carbine, Hawkeye. This cocky, rude, talkative seventy-year-old hunter lives out his life on the shores of Lake Otsego, within the boundaries of the property of local judge Marmaduke Temple. The romantic love story of the judge's daughter Elizabeth and Oliver Edwards, a young associate of Leatherstocking, who turned out to be the son of English army colonel Effingham, an old friend of the judge, is told by Cooper not only with masterful insight into the true life of a remote corner of the country, but also with an accurate sense of the real problems that worried many Americans at the time. American literary critics noted that when working on the novel, the writer “came to the aid of patriotism, skill in depiction and knowledge of human characters...” that in this novel, “realism of vision” is combined with a “romantic narrative.”

If “The Spy” was a historical novel in the full sense of the concept, then “The Pioneers” became a modern novel, even topical, because it raised very real problems for America in those years - the inheritance of land estates, the conquest of new lands, the attitude of the new generation to those who, with an ax and a gun in his hands, paved the first paths and founded the first villages in the recently virgin forests.

As already noted, Cooper knew well the people and places that he described in the new novel. However, American literary scholars argue that Natty Bumppo, who later became the main character of a series of novels about Leather Stocking, did not have a real prototype. Natty Bumppo is a generalized image of a hunter and trapper who does not accept or understand the “advancement of progress” and goes deep into the country under its pressure. Contemporary American critics noted in connection with the publication of the Leatherstocking series of novels in 1986 that Natty Bumppo "demonstrates the clarity of mind and moral certainty that can only be achieved through a genuine closeness to nature."

Natty, observing the life of the new settlers, cannot understand much. Why, for example, do they burn maple trees in their hearths, from the sap of which sugar is produced? What's the point in killing thousands of pigeons? Why are hundreds of pounds of delicate fish being pulled out of Otsego Lake with nets, thereby devastating the lake? These “wasteful habits” are incomprehensible to the old hunter, accustomed to being content with little and at the same time rooting for the preservation of virgin nature, understanding both its beauty and its usefulness for humans. He is outraged by what is happening around him and deep down he despises all these people who, in pursuit of prosperity, blindly destroy nature, which provides them with a comfortable existence. But alone he cannot do anything except note with bitterness; “As far as I understand, might is always right, both here and in the old places.” And so he strives further to the West, to new places, to places where no man has gone before.

Moreover, nothing holds him in Templeton: his faithful friend Chingachgook fell asleep for the last time; Oliver found his happiness and fortune by marrying the judge's daughter Elizabeth. And Natty sets off on a further journey, actually paving the way to the West for those conquerors of new lands from whom he is fleeing.

The image of Natty is far from the main one in the novel. But it attracted the attention of both readers and critics. He was compared to the famous conqueror of new lands, Daniel Boone. There were also real hunters who stated that Natty was copied from them. Two old hunters, brothers Nathaniel and David Shipman, one of whom lived near Cooperstown and whom Cooper knew personally, stated that they were the inspiration for Natty. But the writer categorically denied this, emphasizing that the image of Natty, like all others in the novel, is collective, typical of a certain group of people.

American literary scholars draw attention to the contradiction characteristic of Cooper's early works. On the one hand, he was attracted to the creation of such fictional characters as Harvey Birch and Natty Bumppo, and on the other hand, loyalty to the truth of life and simple literary integrity pushed him to a realistic description of the life of the landowners Wharton or Judge Marmaduke Temple. But, as today's reader understands, there has never been a real contradiction here. For both Harvey Birch and Natty Bumppo, for all their romantic essence, remain realistic images representing certain, really existing people. And they are depicted so realistically that for many years the debate has not stopped about which of the really existing people is the prototype of these typical literary heroes.

On the pages of "Pioneers" the drunken old Indian John Mohican, whose real name is Chingachgook, appears for the first time. Together with his friend Leatherstocking, he grieves for the irretrievably gone days when they led the life of free hunters on free lands. The image of Chingachgook is also a completely literary creation of the writer. Cooper in his childhood and early youth met Indians in Cooperstown, many of them hunted in the surrounding forests and fished in Otsego Lake. But they did not have their own settlements in the vicinity of Cooperstown; they came and went again to the places where the graves of their ancestors were located.

When Cooper was five years old, the last "Indian Panic" occurred in Cooperstown. In the vicinity of the village, a large group of Indians was seen secretly moving in an unknown direction. Cooperstown was put on alert, with windows and doors barricaded, hunting rifles and antique pistols loaded. The evening and a good part of the night passed in tense anticipation. In the middle of the night, the trampling of horses was heard in the village and shots were fired. Concerned residents ran out into the streets with guns in their hands. It turned out that a group of mounted sheriffs had returned to the village, riding out in pursuit of the counterfeiters. They celebrated the joy of returning with pistol shots into the air.

Cooper also remembered a lone Indian who for many years delivered fresh game and fish to the judge’s table. This was where his personal acquaintance with the Indians ended. Therefore, he seriously studied all the works about the Indians and their fate in the United States.

Cooper himself not only treated the Indians kindly, but also tried to help them as best he could. In 1851, the Indian chief Copway, who converted to the Methodist religion and became a missionary, decided to publish a magazine dedicated to the Indians. Cooper was interested in this endeavor. "The red-skinned people have every right to have their interests protected, and I hope you can do much for their benefit," he wrote to Copway on June 17, 1851.

Copway had a high regard for Cooper's work. “Of all the writers of our beloved homeland, you more than any other appreciated the trampled race,” Copway told the writer. - Your books show the noble character traits of the Indians in their true light. In my travels in England, Scotland, France and other European countries, I have often been asked: “Does Mr. Cooper portray truthfully? American Indians? And I always answered with great pleasure in one word: “Yes!”

Chingachgook dies during a forest fire, when Natty is saved from death by Judge Elizabeth's daughter for the second time, this time from the fire.

Already the first serious review of the novel, published in March 1823 in the magazine “Portfolio,” noted that the action in the novel takes place in “a village on the border of European advance, with ordinary characters who preferred a primitive existence to civilized dwellings,” “the plot of the novel is deeply connected with the birth of a new nation." At the same time, the reviewer emphasized that “... The novel can truly be considered historical. For the historian will rarely be able to find a more accurate and vivid description of the first settlements among the virgin forests.

The reviewer came to the conclusion that “the plot of the novel... is described by the pen of an eyewitness, guided by the hand of a true master.”

Although the highly prestigious North American Review and the major English literary quarterlies did not respond to the novel in the year of its publication, no American novel before, not including The Spy, had received such favorable press as The Pioneers. The demand for the novel was so great that newspapers considered it their duty to report when bundles of books would arrive in their city. Philadelphia - February 3, 1823, Baltimore - February 5, Washington and Boston - February 7, and so on.

It is known that the novel was delayed in release partly due to the yellow fever epidemic that swept New York in the spring and summer of 1822, and partly due to unfavorable circumstances in the life of the writer. On June 22, 1822, Cooper's whaling ship returned to New York with 16,532 gallons of whale oil on board. It was necessary to immediately sell the cargo and the ship itself, which Cooper was no longer able to maintain. Debtors filed lawsuits. All this required Cooper's personal participation and took him away from working on the novel.

And the writer was in a hurry to finish “Pioneers”, afraid that readers might forget his name. Old friend Jacob Sutherland, to whom Cooper dedicated The Pioneers, knowing about the writer’s fears, reassured him on March 15, 1822: “You have become so firmly established in the public’s consciousness that you can spend the necessary time writing the next work without fear of the public forgetting you.” .

Meanwhile, the reading public was worried about where Cooper’s long-promised new novel was. Thus, a recent graduate of Harvard University, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote on November 12, 1822 to his fellow student John Boynton Hill: “Since Scott did not repeat his own successes with his two last works, our young novelist has grown even more in importance. I hope you know that The Spy has been translated into French and is popular in Paris. But I haven’t heard anything about his second brainchild, “At the Headwaters of the Susquehanna.” What is the reason?"

Another reader from the city of Charleston (South Carolina), after reading the novel on February 20, 1823, sent the following letter to its publisher Charles Wiley: “My eyes are wet, but I can still ask you to convey to the author of “The Pioneers” my heartfelt gratitude for the pleasure it gave me. This book is the greatest literary honor bestowed upon our country." The author of the letter signed himself in a very peculiar way: “A lover of every nail hammered into the temple of the glory of America.”

Indeed, with his new novel, Cooper contributed to the formation and rise of American literature and the American nation. But while individual readers of the novel were fully aware of this, then, as Professor James F. Viru, an expert on this period, testifies, “American criticism was not prepared to adequately consider such a complex work as The Pioneers.”

At first glance, it may seem that “Pioneers” was not deprived of the attention of American critics. Already in the year of publication, about twenty reviews and responses to the novel appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines across the country. Newspapers in Washington, Baltimore and New York, as well as various magazines such as the Portfolio we mentioned, the National Gazette and Literary Register, and a number of others responded to the publication of the novel. And although, as a reviewer for the United States Gazette noted, the novel was met with only a few “dissonant notes,” it, in the author’s own opinion, “enjoyed only moderate success.” Researchers confirm this somewhat pessimistic note from Cooper, citing data on the progress of the sale of the novel. If “Spy” went through three editions in the USA and two in England from the date of publication until the beginning of 1825, then “Pioneers” was published once in both countries during the same period. Moreover, in England, even in July 1826, the publisher still had several unsold copies of the first edition of The Pioneers.

One S. B. H. Judah, editor and playwright, published in 1823 a malicious and slanderous verse satire on Cooper and his friends in connection with the publication of The Pioneers. Judah was tried, found guilty and sentenced to a fine and imprisonment. But there were other unjustified attacks on the novel. Thus, the poet James Gates Percival, whom Cooper, by the way, assisted, wrote about the novel: “I expect nothing from those who patronize such a vulgar book as The Pioneers.” We got off each other easily. They despise me, and I despise them."

And although both of these reviews were written by disillusioned and envious writers who had not found their place in the literary community, but were claiming undeserved attention, they nevertheless reflected the dissatisfaction of many. A large mass of readers, among whom were many literary people, did not understand the novelty and depth of Cooper's new novel. The pursuit of wealth that gripped the country, the desire to get rich by any means, left its mark on public opinion. Such readers were alien to the noble ideas of the novel, the pure aspirations of the eccentric Natty Bumppo, and even the actions of the “aristocratic farmer” Marmaduke Temple did not find any response or approval from them. They condemned the fuss surrounding the novel. For example, Minerva magazine published a sharply negative review of the novel, in which it advised the writer, if he takes up the pen again, to blow fewer soap bubbles before the book is published - let it float or sink on its own. One should not achieve reputation through inspired statements from newspapers.”

And yet, if in Europe the scenes described in the novel could still seem like a play of the imagination, and the characters in them - the product of uncontrollable invention, then thinking Americans did not have the slightest doubt about the veracity of the people and events depicted. They visited the village described in the novel more than once, swam in the waters along which John Mohican sailed in his light canoe, and observed a forest fire similar to the one that happened in the novel. “The pioneers,” noted the Portfolio reviewer in this regard, “present us with these pictures, depicted with such richness and brightness that the reader finds himself, as it were, in the center of what is happening and personally familiar with each character.”

The deep understanding of human characters, the ability to truthfully portray them, skill in describing nature, purely American patriotism, manifested in "Spy", found their further development in Cooper's new novel. But most major achievement The writer was the creation of the image of the old hunter Natty Bumppo - Leather Stocking, an image that would make the writer's name immortal. But in “Pioneers” Natty is not given a central role, and the heroic essence of his nature becomes clear only towards the end of the novel.

A number of critics have noted the true meaning of this quintessentially American image. Thus, a reviewer for the London magazine Retrospective Review and Historical and Antique Variant Magazine wrote: “Nattie penetrates our imagination like an obsessive anomaly, and leaves us like a dream, disappearing behind the setting sun, leaving the reader as her friend forever.”

And yet, the tragedy of this image remained a mystery to many. The moral code of Nat-ti Bumppo was so inconsistent with the ingrained customs and morals of average Americans that they perceived it as pure invention of the author. Of course, leading people of their time, such as the famous philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson or the writer Richard G. Dana Jr., understood both the significance of the novel as a whole for the formation of national character, and the role of the image of Natty Bumppo in this. Unfortunately, neither of them expressed their thoughts publicly at the time of the Pioneers' appearance. But here is what the poet Richard G. Dana Sr. wrote on April 2, 1823, in a private letter to the author of the novel regarding the image of Natty:

“Majestic and sublime, as he is depicted, is in no way a deviation from the truth. We read about him in a book filled with inspiration, look at this picture and imagine ourselves. But, alas, too few feel this inspiration - and even what is contained in another book sent to us by God himself. Natty's uneducated mind, presented to us in expressions peculiar to the lower classes, combined with innate eloquence, plus his solitary life, his venerable age, his simplicity combined with delicacy - all this creates a noble and very specific feeling of admiration, regret and anxiety . His image was created on such a high note that I was afraid whether this note would be able to be sustained to the end. But he grows in our eyes until the very final scene, which is probably the best, and certainly the most touching, in the entire book. One of my friends said about Natty leaving: “I wish I could leave with him.”

The reader can only guess how and where Natty spent his youth and mature years. He appears before us in his declining years, but still retaining childish gullibility, openness, reluctance and inability to understand the full depth of the changes taking place in life. Natti's soul and thoughts belong to the fading past, but with her real life, with his actions he unwittingly paves the way for a bourgeois civilization that he himself cannot perceive. He is “one of the first among those pioneers who open new lands in the country for their people.” And the more majestic and significant this simple person becomes. A. M. Gorky pointed out this feature of Natti’s image: “All his life he unconsciously served the great cause of the geographical spread of material culture in the country of wild people and turned out to be unable to live in the conditions of this culture, the paths for which he first opened. This is often the fate of many pioneer scouts, people who, while studying life, go deeper and further than their contemporaries. And from this point of view, the illiterate Bumpo is almost an allegorical figure, joining the ranks of those true friends of humanity whose sufferings and exploits so richly adorn our lives.”

Faced with the realities of civilization, this time in the form of “the fat pocket of Judge Marmaduke Temple” and the “crooked paths of the law”, having lost his last friend Chingachgook, Natty chooses the only acceptable path for himself - moving further to the West. He is not attracted by the conveniences of civilization - they are organically alien to him, nor by the offer of the young couple Oliver and Elizabeth to spend the rest of their lives comfortably with them. But Natty, in his words, was born to “live in the wilderness.”

Oliver and Elizabeth sincerely sympathize with the impoverished and disadvantaged Mohican and Leatherstocking, but they cannot, are not able to understand the higher humanity that drives all of Natty’s actions. And he goes to the West, towards difficulties and adversity, which, in his words, are “the greatest joy that I still have in my life.”

In one of his articles, Cooper noted that a working writer, in order to “maintain his reputation,” must either “cultivate a new field or reap a richer harvest from the old.” He himself constantly moved to a new field and cultivated it in such a way that the harvest he received was much richer than what others collected from already developed fields. This applied to “The Spy” and fully applies to “Pioneers” and to the writer’s other novels, which we will talk about further.

Subsequently, when four other novels in the Leatherstocking pentalogy were created, critics have repeatedly wondered why Cooper began his series from the end. One explanation was that during this period, the inhabitants of the eastern American states, freed from the threat of Indian tribes and an end to the squatter settlers, felt nostalgia for the passing of times and needed works that would capture this past that was passing away forever. Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook were the visible embodiment of this longing for those not-so-distant days when simple human virtues were valued - courage, dedication, kindness, the desire to come to the aid of one's neighbor.

Cooper was able to see the possibilities hidden in these two simple representatives of the not-so-distant American past, and made them the heroes of four more of his novels. Moreover, with each new novel, with the exception of “The Prairie,” the heroes became younger and went further into the depths of the years and forests. This order of writing novels gave rise to the well-known writer D.H. Lawrence, an Englishman, long years lived in America - to declare that the Leatherstocking series of novels, in the order of their creation, is “a decrescendo of reality and a crescendo of beauty.” Let's leave this beautiful musical statement to the conscience of a venerable, but far from indisputable critic. Let us only note that in subsequent novels in the series about Natty Bumppo - Leather Stocking - reality does not diminish at all. Each of them is created on the basis real facts, reflects the real features of the period described, and all together they recreate a real picture of an entire era of American history.

Charles Wiley, the New York publisher of Cooper's books, was experiencing financial difficulties in 1823. To help him, Cooper wrote two short stories, which were published under the title “Stories for Fifteen-Year-Olds” under the pseudonym Jane Morgan. These stories - “Imagination” and “Heart” - are typical highly moral sentimental stories in the spirit of heartbreaking stories of fashionable English writers. Both stories are in the tradition of sentimental prose and do not do credit to the pen of such an extraordinary writer as Cooper had already become by this time.

Cooper's interests during this period were not limited only to literary work. He co-founded the Literary and Scientific Repositories with publisher Charles Whitely and Charles Gardner in an attempt to turn it into an influential quarterly. He also devoted a lot of time to the daily newspaper "Patriot", the owner and editor of which was Charles Gardner. He often meets at Wiley's bookstore with editors of New York newspapers, financiers, and lawyers. He travels several times to Boston to visit his friend, naval officer William Branford Shubrick, with whom he became friends while serving on the ship Wasp 18. Over the years, their friendship grew stronger. Cooper always listened with interest to Shubrick's stories about the latest events in the fleet. He appreciated his friend's intelligence, sense of humor and generosity.

Biography

In America, he was adopted by the Delaware tribe, who shared their lands with the former Effingham estate, and now belonged to the Temples. Bumpo lived long life in the Great Lakes region, he was famous as a good hunter and brave warrior. The wonderful “Deerkiller” gun and two dogs served him faithfully. The hunter set out on the first warpath together with his friend, the Mohican Chingachgook, with whom he did not part for almost his entire life. He fought with the Iroquois, Hurons, and French. His adventures took place on the shores of the Great Lakes, and after each he had a couple of loyal friends. He was attentive and honest, this helped him get out of all conflicts unharmed.

Contrary to his own expectations, he lived a very long life. After he found his master, Major Effingham, who soon died, and the death of the Great Serpent, he went south, away from the "clatter of axes." Although there his life was not calm, despite the fact that from a hunter he turned into a trapper. The faithful "Deerkiller" still served him. Deciding to help the guy who wanted to save his bride from captivity, Natty got involved in a serious fight with the Sioux tribe and white settlers. The Pawnee Wolves tribe came to Natty's aid.

Nathaniel died in the fall of 1805, shortly after the death of his faithful dog Hector, in the Pawnee tribe, where he was revered for his greatest wisdom.

Nicknames

Creating an image

A good-natured, devoted and honest hunter. He will find it with everyone mutual language. He wears homemade clothes from animal skins and lives in a homemade “wigwam”. Ignorant and uneducated, but he inner world rich and huge. He is the best boundary shooter.

Novels

However, the above dating contradicts the texts of the novels.

In the novel “The Prairie” it is repeatedly stated that Natty Bumppo is over 80 years old: “But the snows of eighty-seven winters have clouded my eyes with their brilliance...”. If this quote is to be believed, then Natty Bumppo died at the age of 88 (one year after the events mentioned).

In the novel “Deerslayer” it is written that fifteen years later, Bumpo and Chingachgook and their son again found themselves on the lake where the novel takes place: “Fifteen years passed before Deerslayer was able to visit the Shimmering Mirror again... he and his faithful friend Chingachgook were heading towards the forts on Mohawk to join their allies... They visited all the memorable places, and Chingachgook showed his son where the original Huron camp was located...". Consequently, the action of the novel “The Last of the Mohicans,” where Uncas dies, must be separated from the action of the novel “St. John’s Wort” by at least fifteen years.

In the novel Pathfinder, Sergeant Dunham says, “The Pathfinder is nearly forty.”

In the novel The Pioneers, Leatherstocking says: “I have known the waters of Otsego for forty-five years.” Since in the novel he is sixty-nine years old, and the action of the novel “St. John’s Wort” takes place on the same Lake Otsego (and St. John’s Wort appears there for the first time), then at the time of the action of “St. John’s Wort” Natty should be 23-24 years old. However, The Pioneers is the first novel in the series, so Cooper was clearly forced to change the chronology further.

The template card ((Name)) is not filled out for this article. You can help the project by adding it. Nathaniel is a male name from Hebrew. Nathanel ... Wikipedia

Nathaniel (Natty) Bumppo is a literary character, the main character of the historical adventure pentalogy by Fenimore Cooper. First appears in the novel “Pioneers” (1823). Hunter, expert in Indian customs. Known by the nicknames Leather Stocking, St. John's Wort, ... ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see St. John's wort (meanings). Deerslayer, or The First Warpath

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Cooper. James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see The Last of the Mohicans (meanings). The Last of the Mohicans, or Narrative of 1757 The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Pathfinder. Pathfinder, or On the Shores of Ontario The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea ... Wikipedia

Chingachgook DVD cover of the film "Chingachgook the Great Serpent", 1967 Appearance of the novel "St. John's Wort, or the First Warpath ... Wikipedia

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" redirects here. A separate article is needed on this topic... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Mingo. The Mingo Iroquoian people migrated west to Ohio in the mid-18th century. Received the name "Mingo" from Anglo-American settlers; the word "mingo" is a corruption of... ... Wikipedia

Quiet, even quieter Ua ta Ua and Chingachgook Appearance Novel “St. John’s Wort, or the First Warpath” Disappearance Novel “Pioneers, or U ist ... Wikipedia

Books

• independence Day
• Independence Day, Richard Ford. This novel, which received Pulitzer Prize and the Faulkner Prize, one of the most important in modern American and world literature. An existential chronicle, almost minute by minute, about several...

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Biography

Soon after Fenimore's birth, his father, a fairly wealthy landowner, moved to New York state and founded the village of Cooperstown there, which turned into a town. Having received his initial education at a local school, Cooper went to Yale University, but without completing the course, he entered the naval service (1806-1811); was appointed to participate in the construction of a warship on Lake Ontario.

We owe this circumstance to the magnificent descriptions of Ontario found in his famous novel “The Pathfinder.” In 1811, he married a Frenchwoman, Delana, who came from a family that sympathized with England during the War of Independence; its influence explains those relatively mild reviews of the English and the English government that are found in Cooper's early novels. Chance made him a writer. Once reading a novel aloud to his wife, Cooper noticed that it was not difficult to write better. His wife took him at his word: in order not to seem like a braggart, he wrote his first novel, “Precaution” (1820), in a few weeks.

Novels

Assuming that, in view of the already begun competition between English and American authors, English criticism would react unfavorably to his work, Cooper did not sign his name and transferred the action of his novel to England. The latter circumstance could only harm the book, which revealed the author’s poor acquaintance with English life and which caused very unfavorable reviews from English critics. Cooper’s second novel, already from American life, was the famous “The Spy, or the Tale of the Neutral Ground” (1821), which had enormous success not only in America, but also in Europe.

Then Cooper wrote a whole series of novels from American life ("Pioneers", 1823; "The Last of the Mohicans", 1826; "The Barrens", otherwise "Prairie", 1827; "The Discoverer of Trace", otherwise "Pathfinder", 1840; "The Hunter for deer”, otherwise “St. John’s Wort, or the First Warpath”, 1841), in which he depicted the struggle of European aliens with the American Indians. The hero of these novels is the hunter Natty (Nathanael) Bumppo, who appears under various names (St. John's Wort, Pathfinder, Hawkeye, Leather Stocking, Long Carbine), energetic and handsome, and soon became a favorite of the European public. Cooper idealizes not only this representative of European civilization, but also some of the Indians (Chingachgook, Uncas).

The success of this series of novels was so great that even English critics had to recognize Cooper's talent and called him the American Walter Scott. In 1826 Cooper went to Europe, where he spent seven years. The fruit of this journey was several novels (Bravo, The Headsman, Mercedes of Castile), set in Europe.

The mastery of the story and its ever-increasing interest, the vividness of the descriptions of nature, which emanate the primeval freshness of the virgin forests of America, the relief in the depiction of characters who stand before the reader as if alive - these are Cooper’s advantages as a novelist. He also wrote maritime novels “The Pilot” (1823) and “The Red Corsair” (1828).

After Europe

Upon returning from Europe, Cooper wrote the political allegory “Monikins” (1835), five volumes of travel notes (1836-1838), several novels from American life (“Satanstowe”; 1845 and others), the pamphlet “The American Democrat” (The American Democrat, 1838). In addition, he also wrote “History of the United States Navy”, 1839. The desire for complete impartiality revealed in this work did not satisfy either his compatriots or the British; the controversy it caused poisoned last years Cooper's life Fenimore Cooper died on September 14, 1851 from cirrhosis of the liver.

Cooper in Russia

In the early 1840s, Cooper's novels were very popular in Russia. In particular, “The Pathfinder, or On the Shores of Ontario”, “The Pathfinder”, Russian translation 1841, published in “Domestic Notes”, was read in great demand, about which V. G. Belinsky said that this was a Shakespearean drama in the form novel (Works. vol. XII, p. 306).

Bibliography - 1820 composes the traditional novel of morals “Precaution” for his daughters. - 1821 historical novel The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground, based on local legends. The novel poeticizes the era of the American Revolution and its ordinary heroes. "Spy" receives international recognition. Cooper moved with his family to New York, where he soon became a prominent literary figure and leader of writers who advocated for the national identity of American literature. - 1823: the first novel is published, later the fourth part of the Leatherstocking pentalogy - “The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna”. short stories (Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart); the novel “The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea,” the first of Cooper’s many works about adventures at sea. - 1825: novel “Lionel Lincoln, or The Siege of Boston” (Lionel Lincoln, or The leaguer of Boston). - 1826 - the second part of the pentalogy about Natty Bumppo, Cooper’s most popular novel, the name of which has become a household name - “The Last of the Mohicans”. - 1827 - the fifth part of the pentalogy novel “The Steppes”, otherwise “The Prairie”. - 1828: sea novel “The Red Corsair” (The Red Rover). Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Traveling Bachelor - 1829 - novel “The Valley of Wish-ton-Wish”, dedicated to the Indian theme - the battles of the American colonists of the 17th century. with the Indians. - 1830: the fantastic story of the brigantine of the same name “The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas”. Letter to General Lafayette politics - 1831 - the first part of a trilogy from the history of European feudalism "Bravo, Or In Venice" (The bravo) - a novel from the distant past of Venice. - 1832: the second part of the trilogy “The Heidenmauer, or the Benedictines” (The Heidenmauer: or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine) - a historical novel from the time of the early Reformation in Germany. short stories (No Steamboats) - 1833 - the third part of the trilogy “The headsman, or The Abbaye des vignerons” - a legend of the 18th century. about the hereditary executioners of the Swiss canton of Bern. - 1834 (A Letter to His Countrymen) - 1835 - criticism of American reality in the political allegory “The Monikins”, written in the tradition of educational allegorism and satire of J. Swift. - 1836: memoirs (The Eclipse) Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland (Sketches of Switzerland) Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine A Residence in France: With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland - 1837: Gleanings in Europe: France travel Gleanings in Europe: England travel - 1838: pamphlet “The American Democrat” (The American Democrat: or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America). Gleanings in Europe: Italy travel The Chronicles of Cooperstown Hommeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound - 1839: “The History of the Navy of the United States of America” ), testifying to excellent mastery of the material and love for navigation. Old Ironsides - 1840: “The Pathfinder, or The inland sea” - the third part of the pentalogy about Natty Bumppo, a novel about the discovery of America by Columbus, “Mercedes of Castile: or , The Voyage to Cathay). - 1841 - “The Deerslayer: or The First Warpath” - the first part of the pentalogy. - 1842: the novel “The Two Admirals”, telling an episode from the history of the British fleet waging war with France in 1745; a novel about French privateering “Will-the-wisp” (Wing-and-Wing, or Le feu-follet) . - 1843 - novel “Wyandotte, or The House on the Hill” (Wyandotte: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale) about the American Revolution in the remote corners of America. Richard Dale biography (Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast) (Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief or Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance or The French Governess: or The Embroidered Handkerchief or Die franzosischer Erzieheren: oder das gestickte Taschentuch) - 1844: novel “On Land and Sea” (Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale) and its sequel “Miles Wallingford” (Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore), where the image of the main character has autobiographical features. Proceedings of the Naval Court-Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, &c. - 1845 - two parts of the “trilogy in defense of land rent”: “Satanstoe: or The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony” and “The Land Surveyor” (The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts). - 1846 - the third part of the trilogy - the novel “The Redskins” (or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts). In this trilogy, Cooper portrays three generations of landowners (from the mid-18th century to the struggle against land rent in the 1840s). Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers biography - 1847 - the pessimism of the late Cooper is expressed in the utopia “The Crater” (or, Vulcan’s Peak: A Tale of the Pacific), which is an allegorical history of the United States. - 1848: the novel “The Oak Grove” or “The Clearings in the Oak Groves, or the Bee-Hunter” (The Oak Openings: or the Bee-Hunter) - from the history of the Anglo-American War of 1812. Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs - 1849 - Cooper's last sea novel, The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers) about a shipwreck that befell seal hunters in the ice of Antarctica. - 1850: Cooper's last book, The Ways of the Hour, is a social novel about American legal proceedings. play (Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats), satirization of socialism - 1851: short story (The Lake Gun) (New York: or The Towns of Manhattan) - an unfinished work on the history of New York.

Biography

The future writer was born into the family of a large landowner, whose character was reminiscent of Marmaduke Temple from the novel “The Pioneers.” His childhood was spent in the village of Cooperstown, named after his father and located on the shore of a lake in New York state. His origin left its mark on the formation of Cooper’s socio-political views: all his life he remained a supporter of large land ownership, the way of life of “country gentlemen”, and in democratic land reforms he often saw only rampant bourgeois acquisitiveness and demagoguery. (This was reflected, for example, in the novels of the “Ground Rent Trilogy.”) At the same time, the writer’s work and his assessment of the socio-political development of the United States is based on a consistently democratic position. This was facilitated by Cooper’s youth, which passed in the atmosphere of post-revolutionary upsurge in the USA, and later by his stay in France during the revolutionary events of 1830.

M. Brady. Cooper (c. 1850)

After several years of study - first at Cooperstown School, then at Albany and at Yale College - years of wandering begin for seventeen-year-old Cooper. He becomes a sailor, first in the merchant and then in the military fleet, makes long journeys, crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and becomes closely acquainted with the Great Lakes region, where the action of his novels unfolds. During these years, Cooper accumulates a variety of life experiences, material for literary creativity.

After his father's death in 1810, Cooper married and settled with his family in the small town of Scarsdale. There, in 1820, he wrote his first novel, “Precaution.” Cooper later recalled that the book was written “as a bet”; he half-jokingly, half-seriously undertook to write a novel no worse than those works by English authors that his wife was fond of. His next novel, The Spy (1821), was based on material from the Revolutionary War.

“Spy” brought the writer unexpectedly quick and loud fame. With his novel, Cooper filled the vacuum in national literature and determined the guidelines for its future development. Encouraged by success, Cooper decides to devote himself entirely to literary work. Over the next five years, he wrote five more novels, including three books in the future Leatherstocking pentalogy (The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie), as well as Cooper's first sea novel, The Pilot.

In 1826 Cooper went to Europe. He lives for a long time in France, Italy, and travels to other countries. New impressions again and again force him to turn to the history of both the New and Old Worlds. In Europe, Cooper wrote sea novels “The Red Corsair”, “The Sea Sorceress”, as well as a trilogy about the European Middle Ages (“Bravo”, “Heidenmauer”, “Executioner”).

In 1833 Cooper returned to his homeland. During the seven years that he was away, much had changed in America. The heroic time of the American Revolution was receding further into the past, and the principles of the Declaration of Independence were being forgotten. The United States entered a period of industrial revolution, which destroyed the remnants of patriarchy in life and in human relations. Cooper calls the “great moral eclipse” the disease that has struck American society. According to him, the country began to be ruled by the “Great Immoral Postulate, known as Money Interest.” Back in Europe, in a moment of bitter insight, Cooper once said: “I have parted ways with my country.” Returning “home”, he discovered that the gap between them was even wider than he thought.

Cooper makes an attempt to “reason” and “correct” his fellow citizens. He still believes in the advantages of the American socio-political organization, considering negative phenomena as something external, superficial, a perversion of initially reasonable and healthy foundations. To rise up to fight these “distortions” is the call that sounds from the pages of his “Letters to Compatriots.”

But this call did not achieve its goal. On the contrary, a torrent of open hatred and secret slander fell upon Cooper. Because the writer dared to criticize social vices, bourgeois America accused the first national novelist of lack of patriotism, quarrelsomeness, arrogance, and at the same time of a lack of literary gift. Cooper retires to Cooperstown and there, until the last day of his life, he continues, working either on novels or on journalistic works, preaching his views.

During this last period of his creative work, Cooper wrote the novels “Pathfinder” and “St. John’s Wort”, which were included in the pentalogy, and the satirical-allegorical novel “The Monikins” (1835), which exposed the vices of the socio-political system of England and the USA, depicted in the book under the titles High Jumping and Low Jumping , social novels “Home” (1837) and “At Home” (1838), a trilogy about land rent (“Devil’s Finger”, 1845; “Land Surveyor”, 1845; “Redskins”, 1846), social-utopian novel “Crater” ( 1847), etc. In general, Cooper’s works of this time are unequal in ideological and artistic terms; along with insightful criticism of the bourgeois system, they contain elements of a conservative utopia associated with false ideas about the “landed aristocracy.” But despite all this, Cooper invariably remains in consistently critical anti-bourgeois positions.

Cooper's literary heritage is very extensive. It includes 33 novels, several volumes of journalism and travel notes, pamphlets, and historical research. Cooper laid the foundations for the development of the American novel, creating various examples of it: historical, maritime, social and everyday novels, satirical-fantasy novels, and a utopian novel. The writer was the first in American literature to strive for an epic reflection of the world, which was reflected, in particular, in the combination of a number of his books into cycles: pentalogy, trilogy, dilogy.

In his work, Cooper remained faithful to three main themes: the War of Independence, the sea and life on the frontier. Already in this very choice, the romantic basis of the writer’s creative method is revealed: Cooper contrasts the heroism of the soldiers of the American Revolution, the freedom of the sea, virgin forests and endless prairies of the West with an American society overwhelmed by a feverish thirst for profit. This gap between the romantic ideal and reality underlies the ideological and artistic concept of each of Cooper's books.

James Fenimore Cooper. USSR stamp, 1989

Cooper widely uses a variety of artistic means from the arsenal of romantic aesthetics: lyrically colored pictures of nature, creating an atmosphere of mystery, hyperbolization, a sharp division of characters into “good” and “bad,” etc. At the same time, Cooper’s work has features of continuity with the educational novel XVIII century The writer retains trust in reason and logic, a commitment to epic storytelling and precise details of landscape, everyday life, appearance, etc., and adheres to many of the structural and compositional principles of the educational novel. Cooper's works continue to affirm the principles of realism, going from the 18th century to end of the 19th century c., even if future generations did not always realize this connection.

Cooper was often called “the American Walter Scott,” and was sometimes accused of imitating the great Scot. These reproaches are unfair. Cooper's work is imbued with a deeply national spirit; his creations are based on national issues. In the prefaces to his novels, Cooper more than once emphasized the need for the development and promotion of national American literature.

It is impossible not to note Cooper’s skill in constructing the plot of the work, creating vivid dramatic scenes, images that have become the personification of the national character and at the same time “eternal companions of humanity.” Such are Harvey Birch from The Spy, Natty Bumppo, Chingachgook, Uncas from the books about Leatherstocking.

Perhaps the best pages of the writer are those that depict the untouched, grandiose and amazing nature of the New World. Cooper is an outstanding master of literary landscape. He is especially attracted by colorful landscapes, either captivating the eye with their soft beauty (the Shimmering Lake in “St. John’s Wort”), or majestic and harsh, inspiring anxiety and awe. "

In his “sea” novels, Cooper equally vividly depicts the changeable, menacing and enchanting elements of the ocean.

Carefully written battle scenes occupy an important place in almost every Cooper novel. They often culminate in a duel between powerful opponents: Chingachgook and Magua, Hard Heart and Matori.

The writer's artistic language is distinguished by emotionality, the range of shades of which is different - from solemn pathos to touching sentimentality.

In Russia, they became acquainted with Cooper’s work in 1825, when the novel “The Spy” was published in Moscow. Cooper's books quickly gained the love and popularity of Russian readers. They were highly valued by M. Yu. Lermontov, V. G. Belinsky, V. K. Kuchelbecker and other prominent progressive cultural figures. Filled with the poetry of heroism and struggle, Cooper’s books continue to teach honor, courage, and loyalty.

Cooper Monument in Cooperstown

The novel “Spy” opened up the world for American writers of the 19th century. rich possibilities for using national history material. It remains not only Cooper's best book in the genre of historical novel, but also the highest achievement of US literature in this field.

At the center of the novel is a dramatic episode from the history of the struggle of American colonists against English rule. In the preface to the 1849 edition, Cooper directly names the theme of the book - patriotism. The action of "Spy" takes place in 1780. The main character is the peddler Harvey Birch - a secret intelligence officer for the American army, carrying out especially important and dangerous command assignments. It operates in "no man's land" between two warring armies. The situation is puzzlingly complicated by the fact that in order to disguise his true identity, Birch deliberately poses as a spy for the English king. Death threatens him from both sides, and there is nowhere to wait for help. Birch isn't even looking for her. Moreover, in a moment from threatening? Before his execution at the hands of American patriots, who take him for a spy of their enemies, he swallows a note from General Washington, certifying his faithful service to his homeland. If he had shown it, the danger would have passed, but with it the opportunity to complete the task.

The very choice of the traveling merchant Birch as the hero of the novel speaks of Cooper's democracy and his deep understanding of the driving forces of the American Revolution. Not wise generals or brilliant officers, but people from the people are ready to make any sacrifice for the triumph of the cause of independence and freedom. They are the true heroes of these harsh and bright pages of American history. Harvey Birch sacrificed everything for the good of his homeland: his honest name, his family hearth, his home, without demanding any reward for it. The key scene in the novel is the scene of the last meeting between General Washington and his secret agent Birch. In payment for his “services,” the general offers Birch one hundred doubloons, but he refuses to take them. He asks: does the general really think that he risked his life and disgraced his name for the sake of money? Here the intelligence officer is morally superior to the commander. Washington reminds that Birch will have to be known as an enemy of his homeland until his grave: he will not be allowed to take off the mask that hides his true face for many years, and most likely never. But Burch has been ready for it from the day he took on his job. Instead of a bag of gold, he, like the greatest treasure, takes away a paper written in Washington's hand, replacing the one that was lost. The further fate of the “spy” is loneliness, wandering, and need.

And Washington's note would be found thirty-three years later on the body of an old man killed in battle during the war of 1812-1815. between England and the USA. Seventy-year-old Harvey Birch was killed by a bullet in his last battle for American independence. Cooper ends the novel with a heartfelt epitaph: “He died as he lived, a devoted son of his homeland and a martyr for its freedom.”

Although Cooper does not develop this motif in any detail, Birch's fate objectively reflects the tragic discrepancy between the high ideals of the American Revolution and the actual practice caused by its bourgeois character. Birch's lot looks especially unfair against the backdrop of the easy career of frivolous officers, the calculating cowardice of the townspeople and the greed of the robbers - "skinners" who posed as fighters for independence, but in fact robbed on "neutral territory". Later, Cooper's theme of the bitter fate of the true heroes of the War of Independence would be picked up and deeply revealed by the “second generation” romantic G. Melville in the book “Israel Potter.”

Cooper's highest achievement is the pentalogy about Leatherstocking. It includes five novels, written in the following order: “The Pioneers” (1823), “The Last of the Mohicans” (1826), “The Prairie” (1827), “The Pathfinder” (1840), “Deerslayer” (1841). They are united by the image of the hunter Nathaniel Bumppo, who also has numerous nicknames: Deerslayer, Tracker, Hawkeye, Leatherstocking and Long Carbine. In the pentalogy, Bumpo's entire life passes before the readers - from his youth ("St. John's wort") to the day of his death ("Prairie"). But the order in which the books were written does not coincide with the stages of the main character’s life. Cooper began the story of Bumpo when the hunter had already entered old age, continued the epic with the novel from Natty's mature age, then portrayed him in old age, a year before his death. And only after a noticeable break the writer again turned to the adventures of Leatherstocking and returned to the days of his youth.

If we consider the parts of the pentalogy not in the order in which they were written, but according to the chronology of the events described (and this is how they are usually read), then the sequence of time and place of action is as follows: “St. John’s wort” - 1740, north eastern USA, upper Susquehanna River; "The Last of the Mohicans" - 1757, Hudson River area; “Pathfinder” - the very end of the 50s, one of the Great Lakes - Ontario; "Pioneers" - 1793, development and settlement of western forests; "The Prairie" - 1805, the prairie region west of the Mississippi. Thus, the path of the protagonist of the pentalogy is from a narrow strip of land on the Atlantic coast, where the first colonists landed, to the Great Lakes and further to the endless western prairies. This path took both in life and in Cooper’s pentalogy about sixty years.

Stamps of the USSR, 1989. Drawings based on the works of F. Cooper

Stamps of the USSR, 1989. Drawings based on the works of F. Cooper

Taken together, the nine novels are a fictional history of the American frontier, the history of the movement of the American nation from east to west. The fate of Natty Bumppo embodied the history of the conquest of the continent and at the same time the history of the strengthening of bourgeois civilization in the country, the history of the moral losses that the nation suffered while expanding its territory.

All five novels have approximately the same plot structure. The hunter Natty Bumppo, an inhabitant of the extreme frontier, on the first pages of each book meets one of the settlers, a wave of which is moving to the west (officers, adventurers, traders, etc.). He performs miracles of courage and heroism, speaking on the side of the “positive” heroes, fighting injustice, helping the weak and offended. At the end of each of the novels, Bumpo leaves his usual places and goes further to the west, and in the next book, history repeats itself again.

The plot of “St. John's Wort” is based on the fate of the hero, who is in his early twenties and who for the first time sets out on the “warpath” with the Huron Indians. In this deadly struggle, Natty’s friendship with the young Mohican Indian Chingachgook arises and strengthens, a friendship that they both will carry throughout their lives. The situation in the novel is complicated by the fact that St. John's wort's white allies - "Floating" Tom Hutter and Harry March - are cruel and unfair towards the Indians and themselves provoke violence and bloodshed. Dramatic adventures - ambushes, battles, captivity, escape - unfold against the backdrop of picturesque nature - the mirror surface of the Shimmering Lake and its wooded shores.

"The Last of the Mohicans" is the most famous novel Cooper. The plot is based on the history of the capture of Colonel Munro's daughters Cora and Alice by the cruel and treacherous leader of Magua - the Sly Fox - and the attempts of a small detachment led by Natty Bumppo - Hawkeye to free the captives. Together with Natty and Chingachgook, a young Indian warrior, Chingachgook's son Uncas, takes part in breathtaking pursuits and battles. He - although Cooper does not develop this line in detail - is in love with one of the captives, Cora, and dies in the last battle, trying in vain to save her. The novel ends with a deeply touching scene of the funeral of Uncas, the last of the Mohicans, and Cora. Hawkeye and Chingachgook set off on further journeys.

The Pathfinder depicts scenes from the Anglo-French War of 1750-1760. In this war, both the British and the French brought Indian tribes to their side by bribery or deception. Bumpo, with his well-aimed carbine, and Chingachgook take part in the battles on Lake Ontario and once again help their comrades win. However, Natty, and along with him the author, sharply condemn the war unleashed by the colonialists, leading to the senseless death of both whites and Indians. A significant place in the novel is occupied by the love story of Bumpo and Mabel Dunham. Appreciating the scout’s courage and nobility, the girl, however, gives preference to Jasper, who is closer to her in age and character. Bumpo generously refuses the marriage (although Mabel was ready to keep her promise to her dead father and marry the Pathfinder) and goes further to the West.

"Pioneers" is the most problematic novel in the pentalogy. Leather Stocking is already nearly seventy here, but his eye has not lost its vigilance, and his hand has not lost its firmness. However, his lonely old age is sad. Chingachgook's old friend, the Great Snake, is still nearby, but the wise leader and mighty warrior has turned into a decrepit, drunken old man - Indian John. Natty and Chingachgook are strangers in the colonists’ village, where the laws and orders of a “civilized” society are gradually being established. At the center of the novel is the conflict between the natural laws of nature and the human heart and far-fetched and unjust social orders. At the end of the book, Chingachgook dies, and Bumpo, having again arranged the happiness of the young couple - Oliver Effingham and Elizabeth Temple, refuses the benefits of a prosperous old age and again hides in the forest thicket.

Natty Bumppo is eighty-five at Prairie. He is not a hunter, but a trapper, a trapper. At the very beginning of the book, Cooper explains that Leatherstocking was driven from his beloved forests by the sound of an ax and he is forced to seek refuge on a barren plain that stretches to the Rocky Mountains. Natty now helps his new young friends not with a well-aimed shot, but with his vast life experience, the ability to escape from a natural disaster and carry on a conversation with a formidable Indian leader. Danger threatens Bumpo and his friends both from the Sioux Indians and from the Bush family of white settlers. All the many twists and turns of the adventurous plot end happily - with a double wedding. Having parted with his friends, Natty spends the last year of his life among the Indians of the Pawnee tribe, whose young leader, Hard Heart, partially replaces the deceased Mohican Uncas. The ending of the novel is a solemn and heartfelt scene of the last hours of Leatherstocking and his death.

The image of Natty Bumppo is Cooper’s highest achievement. It is a deeply national character, generated by the specific conditions of American history, and at the same time, one of the “eternal companions of humanity,” captivating with its example one generation after another of readers in different countries. V. G. Belinsky gave a vivid description of this literary hero: “A man with a deep nature and a powerful spirit, who voluntarily abandoned the comforts and lures of civilized life for the wide expanse of majestic nature, for a sublime conversation with God in the solemn silence of his great creation... man , matured in the open air, in an eternal struggle with dangers... a man with iron muscles and steel muscles in a lean body, with a dove’s heart in a lion’s chest.”

In accordance with Rousseauian ideas, Cooper explains the high moral qualities of his beloved character by life in communion with nature and the absence of the corrupting influence of civilization. In “The Deerslayer,” he calls Bumpo “a wonderful example of what natural kindness and the absence of bad examples and temptations can make a young man.” In “The Pathfinder,” the writer compares his hero with “Adam before the Fall,” calls him “a man of excellent spiritual qualities,” “a sage from a distant outskirts,” notes his “incorruptible, unerring sense of justice,” emphasizes that “his loyalty was unbreakable, like a rock." Natty is absolutely selfless and incapable of committing a dishonest act.

Leather Stocking cannot imagine life outside of nature, without a sense of his unity with the surrounding forests, sky, and water. “The true temple is the forest,” he says. The forest equalizes people, destroying, even if only temporarily, the artificial barriers erected between them by civilization. The great school of nature, Natti believes, is much more useful and more important than the far-fetched book learning of the townspeople. Awkward and confused on the streets of the white colonists' settlements, Bumpo is transformed when he finds himself in his element.

Life on the extreme edge of the frontier also attracts Natti with its freedom and independence. He understands freedom simply: this is the right to roam freely through his native forests. The regulation of human life by law seems to Bumpo to be unfair and sinful. In The Pioneers, Nutty declares to Judge Temple, who is trying to prove the need for a set of laws and rules of civilization: “I roamed these mountains when you were a baby in your mother’s arms. And I know that I have the right to walk this earth for the rest of my life.”

The complexity and drama of Natty Bumppo’s fate lies in the fact that he had a historically conditioned dual role. Fleeing from the sound of the ax, heralding the onset of a new way of life, retreating further and further to the west, Leather Stocking unwittingly paves the way for that very cold and hostile civilization that is destroying his world. There is a bitter and tragic irony in the fact that the courageous and selfless pioneer becomes the guide of the shopkeeper, lumberjack, sheriff, etc.

The key scene of the entire pentalogy in this regard is the scene of the trial of Leatherstocking in the novel “Pioneers”. Once upon a time, Natty Bumppo, an old resident of these places, met Marmaduke Temple here, fed him, gave him shelter, and gave him his bear skin to make his bed. Years have passed, and now the aged hunter and his friend Indian John are two sad remnants of the past in the “civilized” village of Templeton. Bumpo's enemies, Hiram Doolittle and Sheriff Richard Jones, imagined that the old man was secretly mining silver on land belonging to the "owner" of the village, Marmaduke Temple. Using the newly introduced "law" regarding the timing of the hunt, they try to break into Bumpo's hut. Protecting someone else's secret entrusted to him, Leather Stocking repels the brazen invasion. Bumpo is put on trial for “resisting authorities.” Judge Temple, a humane man by nature and sincerely grateful for saving his daughter Elizabeth from death in the claws of a panther, is nevertheless forced, following the laws of a “civilized society,” to sentence Bumpo to imprisonment, a large fine and sitting in the stocks in the pillory. The laws of civilization and the norms of humanity turn out to be incompatible.

The episode that opens the novel “Prairie” is also very indicative. Natty meets a caravan of Bush settlers who cannot find water, food for livestock, or shelter for the night. Bumpo leads them to a place where a stream gurgles in the shadow of tall poplars. Axes are immediately used, trees fall to the ground, “as if a hurricane had swept through here.” The next morning, the detachment moves on, and Natty looks with bitterness at the devastation caused, at the unnecessary, abandoned logs, which just yesterday were proud, handsome poplars.

Thus, the pentalogy artistically captures the tragedy of American pioneering, which was the result of the discord between the noble goals of the pioneers and territorial expansion under capitalism.

In the pentalogy, the life of the Indians is the embodiment of a free life and closeness to nature. When drawing her, Cooper did not strive for a realistic image. His goal was to paint, as he said, a “beautiful ideal” opposed to the acquisitiveness and cruelty of the bourgeois world. The life and customs of the Indians are painted in bright colors, they emphasize unusual, exotic features, the speech of the Indians is replete with flowery metaphors and comparisons.

One of the most important cross-cutting themes of the entire pentalogy is tragic fate American Indians dying under the ruthless pressure of the civilization of white invaders. The “march” of the American nation to the West was accompanied by the inhumane extermination of the “redskins”, who were, in fact, declared outlaws. In Deerslayer, Cooper portrays two frontiersmen, Harry March and Tom Hutter. The first of them proudly declares that “killing a savage is a feat,” and claims that the redskins differ from animals only in cunning. The second, having learned that only women and children remained in the Indian camp, persuades March to attack the defenseless camp in order to get scalps there, for which the colonial administration pays bonuses. Neither Hutter nor his partner are embarrassed by the inhumanity of the plan: they consider killing Indians to be no less a worthy way to make money than hunting.

With great respect and sympathy, the writer paints the images of Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hard Heart. They are distinguished by courage, military valor, honesty and loyalty to their word, contempt for torture and even death itself. True, the writer divides Indian tribes into “good” (Delaware, Pawnee) and “bad” (Hurons, Sioux, etc.). This is due to the participation of these tribes either on the side of the British or on the side of the French in the long-term Anglo-French military clashes in the 18th century. It is significant that even the leaders of hostile Indian tribes, the main enemies of Leatherstocking and his friends - Splintered Oak ("Deerslayer"), Magua ("Last of the Mohicans"), Striking Arrow ("Pathfinder"), Matori ("Prairie") - are depicted Cooper with more than just black paint. Along with ferocity and cunning, these heroes are endowed with extraordinary intelligence, courage, and energy. For example, even in Magua, not only the “evil and ferocious features”, “the fantastic look of the basilisk” are emphasized, but also his strength, courage, and oratorical talent. The defeat and death of these characters has its own dark, tragic grandeur.

Many scenes in the novels “The Last of the Mohicans” and “The Pioneers” directly condemn the expansion of white conquerors. In the first of them, Leather Stocking says: “You see before you a great leader, a wise Mohican. Once upon a time, his ancestors could chase a deer over a great distance. And what will his descendants get?” The author gives the final answer to this question in “Pioneers,” where the impoverished and dispossessed Chingachgook and Leather Stocking find themselves powerless and homeless. But the burden of years is not to blame. It was the whites who brought old age with them, says Chingachgook. Rum is their tomahawk.

By destroying the Indian world, capitalist expansion also destroys the natural world. In the 18th century It seemed to the settlers that before them was an endless expanse of forests, an inexhaustible supply of natural resources from which they could draw without looking back. The frontiersmen treat nature with thoughtless barbarity, cutting down and burning forests, extortionately depleting the soil, destroying animals and birds. One of the central episodes of “Pioneers” is the scene of the extermination of flocks of pigeons. This disgusting orgy of murder is opposed only by Leather Stocking with his principle “use, but do not destroy.” But his reproach “it is a great sin to kill in vain more than you can eat” cannot stop what even Judge Temple is forced in the end to call “wanton destruction” and “carnage.”

The writer plays a great role as a pioneer of the most important themes in US literature. The motif of “leaving” bourgeois civilization, embodied in the fate of Natty Bumppo, will become key in American romanticism, repeated in the story of G. Thoreau’s life on Walden Lake, in the desire of G. Melville’s heroes to go into the vastness of the ocean, in the flight of fantasy of E. Poe. It will be picked up by writers of subsequent literary movements and eras. Huckleberry Finn will dream about escaping to “Indian territory” in M. Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”; D. London's courageous heroes will go to Alaska - not for gold, but for real life; a hut on the edge of a forest somewhere far to the west will be seen by the “catcher in the rye” - Holden Caulfield, the hero of the novel by D. D. Salinger. The Indian theme will be developed in “The Song of Hiawatha” by G. W. Longfellow. The friendship of Natty and Chingachgook will become a prototype of unions of people of different skin colors based on equality and mutual respect in Melville (Ishmael and Queequeg in Moby Dick), in Twain (Huck Finn and Negro Jim), in many progressive writers of the 20th century, environmental issues, issues of protection nature from unreasonable human intervention, first outlined by Cooper, were also widely picked up by US literature of the 20th century. © V.N. Bogoslovsky (Chapters 23, 24, 30), V.G. Prozorov (Chapters 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29), A.F. Golovenchenko (Chapter 27), (1991) Source: History of foreign literature of the 19th century / Ed. N.A. Solovyova. M.: Higher School, 1991. 637 p. P.: 326-428 (Section 5); OCR & Spellcheck: SK, Aerius (ae-lib.org.ua), 2004

Etgar Alan Poe

In the letter which now lies before me, Charles Dickens, speaking of

in a study I once carried out on the Barnaby Raja mechanism, he notes:

"By the way, have you noticed that Godwin wrote "Caleb Williams" in

in reverse order? At first he entangled his hero in a network of difficulties that

made up the contents of the second volume, and in the first I tried somehow

way to explain what happened."

I don't think Godwin acted _exactly_ in this way, and

what he himself says about it does not quite coincide with the assumption

so as not to understand the benefits derived from a process at least partly similar to

this. It is absolutely clear that any plot worthy of being called that should

carefully work out the _denouement_ before taking up the pen. Only

without losing sight of the denouement for a moment, we will be able to give the plot the necessary

sequence or causation and force events and especially intonation

at any point in the narrative to contribute to the development of the idea.

In my opinion, in the generally accepted way of constructing a narrative there is

fundamental error. The theme is given either by history or some topical event,

in order to form a simple basis for your narrative and, in general, desiring

facts or actions that may be constantly noticeable.

I prefer to start by looking at what I call the effect. Not at all

moment without forgetting about originality - for he who decides betrays himself

refuse such an obvious and easily achievable means of arousing

interest, - I first of all say to myself: “Of the countless effects or

impressions capable of influencing the heart, intellect or (more

generally) soul, what exactly will I choose in this case?" Having chosen, firstly, a new one,

and secondly, a striking effect, I consider whether it can be achieved better by means

plot or intonation - whether an ordinary plot and extraordinary intonation,

whether it’s the other way around, or the extraordinary nature of both the plot and intonation; and then I search

around oneself, or rather within oneself, such a combination of events and intonations,

which would best contribute to creating the desired effect.

I have often thought what an interesting article any writer could write,

if he wanted, that is, if he could in detail, step by step

trace the processes by which any of his works reached

final completion. Why was an article like this never published?

light, I absolutely cannot say, but perhaps this gap is more

Most writers, especially poets, prefer that people talk about them

thought that they were composing in some kind of fit of high madness, under

under the influence of ecstatic intuition, and will actually shudder at one

thoughts of allowing the public to look behind the scenes and see how difficult and raw

the thought that wanders by touch works; see how the author himself comprehends his

the goal is only last moment; like fully ripe fruits of fantasy with

are rejected by despair due to the impossibility of realizing them; how painstaking

selected and discarded; how painfully they make erasures and insertions - one

in a word, to see wheels and gears, mechanisms for changing scenery,

stepladders and hatches, rooster feathers, rouge and flies, which in ninety-nine

cases out of a hundred they constitute the props of a literary _actor_.

to trace your path to achieving your intended goal is by no means a phenomenon

frequent. As a rule, ideas arise chaotically, and in the same way they

do it and forget it.

As for me, I do not sympathize with such secrecy and am ready for any

minute, without the slightest difficulty, to recall in memory the process of writing any of

my writings; and since the value of analysis or reconstruction, I

desired, is completely independent of any real or imaginary

interest contained in the thing being analyzed itself, then on my part there is no

it would be a violation of decency to demonstrate a modus operandi

(lat.).), with which any of my own was built

works. I choose "The Raven" as the thing that is most famous. My goal is

it is indisputable to prove that not a single moment in its creation can be

attributed to chance or intuition that the work, step by step,

went to completion with the precision and rigid consistency with which they decide

math problems.

Let us discard it as not related to the poem per se (As such

(lat.)) reason or, let's say, necessity, which gave birth in the beginning

the intention to write a certain poem that can satisfy the tastes of both

the general public and critics.

So we start with this intention.

First of all, a thought arises regarding volume. If any

Because of its length, a literary work cannot be read in one

sit down, we will have to come to terms with the need to abandon extreme

the important effect generated by the unity of impression; because if you have to read

in two steps, then everyday affairs interfere, and all unity immediately dies.

But since, ceteris paribus (All other things being equal (Latin).), no

the poet cannot afford to give up anything that contributes to his

design, it remains to consider whether there is _any_ benefit,

balancing the loss of unity associated with it. Here I say right away:

No. What we call a great poem is actually

just an alternation of small poems or, in other words, short

poetic effects. There is no need to show that the poem is

a poem insofar as it greatly excites the soul, elevating it; A

all strong disturbances, by necessity of a physical nature, are short-lived.

For this reason, at least half of Paradise Lost is basically prose,

alternation of poetic unrest with inevitable recessions, resulting in the whole

devoid in its extreme length of a very important artistic element -

integrity, or unity of effect.

In this case, it becomes obvious that there is a known limit

volume of all literary works - the ability to read them in one

sit down - and what if for a certain category of prose works, such

like "Robinson Crusoe" (not demanding unity), this limit can be advantageously

neglect it, then it is impossible to neglect it in poetry. In this limit of

the volume of the poem can be derived from a mathematical correlation with its

advantages;

in other words, with excitement or elevation of the soul, they

called; in other words - with a degree of truly poetic effect,

which it is capable of providing; for it is clear that brevity directly

the intensity of the intended effect is determined;

of course, with that

with the indispensable proviso that a certain degree of duration is absolutely

necessary in order to achieve any effect at all.

With these considerations in mind, as well as the degree of excitement,

which I considered no higher than the tastes of the public and no lower than the tastes of criticism, I immediately

decided which _volume_ would be most suitable for the plan

poems: about one hundred lines. Its final length is one hundred and eight lines.

The next thought was about choosing the impression or effect that

D_o_must achieve_; and here I can at the same time notice that in the process of writing I

I constantly had in mind the goal of making these verses accessible to _everyone_. I'm too much

I would evade my immediate subject if I started to prove

a thought on which I insist all the time and which, in relation to poetry, is neither

does not need the slightest degree of proof - the idea that beauty is

the only legitimate field of poetry. However, I will say a few words in order

explain the true meaning of this provision, for some of my friends

which is gained by contemplating beauty. And when they talk about beauty,

then they do not mean quality, as is usually assumed, but effect; short

speaking, they mean that complete and pure exaltation not of the heart or intellect,

but the _soul_ which I mentioned and which they experience as a result of contemplation

"beautiful". I define beauty as the realm of poetry simply

by the obvious law of art, the law that the effects must

stem from immediate causes, that goals must be achieved by means

best suited to achieve it, and no one has ever been so weak

reason, in order to deny that the above-mentioned special exaltation of the soul is easier

everything is achieved with the help of poetry. If the goal is truth or satisfaction

intellect, if the goal is passion or excitement of the heart, then although these goals are

to a certain extent and achievable in poetry, but with much greater ease

they are achievable in prose. After all, truth requires accuracy, and passion requires certainty.

Unsightliness_ (truly passionate natures will understand me), which is absolutely

hostile to that beauty which, as I insist, consists in excitement or

sublime pleasure of the soul. From everything said here it does not at all follow that

as if passion or even truth could not be brought into a poem, and

brought with benefit, for they are capable of clarifying the general effect or helping

to him, like dissonances in music, by contrast; but a true artist is always

will be able, firstly, to muffle them and make them subordinate to the overriding goal,

and secondly, to clothe them, as much as possible, in that beautiful thing that forms

the atmosphere and essence of the poems.

So, considering _beautiful_ my sphere, the next question I

set his mind, applied himself to the _intonation_ that best expresses it, and the whole

my experience has shown me that this intonation is _sad_. Perfect for anyone

kind in its highest expression invariably touches the sensitive soul to tears.

Therefore, melancholic intonation is the most legitimate of all

poetic intonations.

Having thus determined volume, sphere and intonation, I decided by

induction to find something artistically acute, capable

serve me as a key note in the construction of the poem, some kind of axis,

capable of rotating the entire formation. Having carefully gone through all the usual

artistic effects or, theatrically speaking, _techniques_, I could not help

notice right away that no technique has been used so universally,

like a _refrain_ technique. The versatility of its use has served me well

sufficient proof of its undeniable value and saved me from

the need to analyze it. However, I looked at it, wanting to know

Is it possible to improve it, and soon became convinced that it was in

primitive state. In ordinary usage, the refrain or chorus is not only

are used, limiting themselves only to lyrical poems, but also force him

influence only by monotony of both sound and meaning. Pleasure,

what it delivers is determined solely by the feeling of identity, repetition. I

decided to be varied and thereby increase the effect, adhering in general

monotony in sound and at the same time constantly changing the meaning: in other words,

I decided to constantly produce a new effect by varying the _application of the refrain_,

but leaving the refrain itself in most cases unchanged.

Since its application must constantly vary, it became clear that

the refrain must be brief, otherwise insurmountable difficulties would arise in

frequent semantic variations of any long phrase. Ease of variation

of course, would be inversely proportional to the length of the phrase. This immediately led

I thought that the best refrain would be one word.

Then the question arose, what kind of word is this? The decision to use the refrain

had the consequence of breaking the poem into stanzas, each of which

would end with a refrain. That such an ending for the force of influence

must be sonorous and capable of underlining and stretching, should not be

doubt; all these considerations inevitably led me to the long "oh" as

the most sonorous vowel in combination with "r" as the most compatible

consonant.

When the sound of the refrain was thus determined, it became

necessary to choose a word containing these sounds, and at the same time as possible

more fully consistent with the sadness I have chosen as defining

intonation of the poem. In such a search it would be absolutely impossible

skip the word "nevermore" (English). Yes that was the first

"nevermore". Reflecting on the difficulties that I immediately encountered, inventing

a sufficiently plausible reason for its continuous repetition, I could not help

notice that I experience difficulties only from the initial idea of

that this word will be constantly or monotonously pronounced by a _person_:

in short, I could not help but notice that the difficulties lie in

coordinating this monotony with the fact that the utterer of a given word is endowed

reason.

capable of articulate speech; and it is very natural that first of all I

the parrot introduced itself, but was immediately driven out by the raven, a creature of equal

least capable of articulate speech, but infinitely more appropriate

intended _intonation_.

By that time I had come to the idea of ​​the Raven, the bird that foretells

evil, monotonously repeating the single word "nevermore" at the end of each

stanzas of a poem written in sad intonation, volume

approximately one hundred lines. And here, not for a moment losing sight of the goal -

impeccability or perfection in all respects, I asked myself: “Iso

of all sad objects which, in terms of _all_ humanity, is _the most_

sad?" "Death," was the obvious answer. "And when," I asked, "this

Is the saddest of all objects the most poetic?" From what I have already

explained in some detail, the following answer is obvious: “When he is most

closely associated with _beautiful_; hence the death of a beautiful woman, beyond

is without doubt the most poetic subject in the world; equal

There is no doubt that mouths are best suited for this subject.

her heartbroken lover."

Now I had to combine two ideas: a lover mourning his

the deceased beloved, and the Raven, constantly repeating the word "nevermore".

I should have combined them without forgetting what I had in mind each time

change the _meaning_ of a spoken word; but the only comprehensible way

to achieve such a combination - imagine that Raven says this word in

answer to questions asked by lovers. And then I immediately saw an opportunity,

allowing me to achieve the effect that I was counting on, that is, the effect of meaning

variations_. I saw that I could make the first question asked of a lover

The first question Raven will answer "nevermore" is what can I do

this first question is commonplace, the second - to a lesser extent, the third - even less

from his initial indifference to the sad meaning of the word itself, his

frequent repetitions, as well as the consciousness of the sinister reputation of the bird, which

utters this word, superstitions finally awaken, and he obsessively

asks questions of a completely different kind - questions to which he accepts the answers

very close to the heart, - asks them half out of superstition, half out of

that kind of despair that finds pleasure in self-torture; does not ask them

because he completely believes in the prophetic or demonic nature of the bird

(which, as his reason tells him, simply repeats

mechanically rote lesson), but because he experiences frenzied

pleasure, constructing questions in such a way as to experience, hearing _expected_

"nevermore", grief is the sweetest, because it is the most unbearable. Seeing

the opportunity provided or, rather, imposed on me during the construction,

I first mentally determined the climax or final question - that

a question to which "nevermore" would be the final answer; that question in

the answer to which the word "nevermore" would cause the greatest grief and despair,

which you can imagine.

And we can say that the poem began here - from the end, where it should

all works of art begin; for it is at this stage of my

preliminary thoughts, I first touched pen to paper while writing

the following stanza:

“A hellish spirit or an earthly creature,” I repeated, freezing, “

You are a prophet. In the name of heaven, say: above the mountains,

Where our legendary paradise is, there I will find, grateful,

The soul of a radiant virgin, taken by God into God's choir, -

The soul of the one whom God’s choir calls Lenora?”

The raven cawed: "Nevermore."

Then I composed this stanza, firstly, in order to determine

climax, could better vary the questions in an increasing sequence

the lover in terms of their seriousness and importance;

and secondly, to

accurately establish the meter, rhythm, length and general arrangement of lines in the stanza, and

also arrange the previous stanzas according to the degree of tension in this way,

so that none could surpass the climax in rhythmic effect.

If I were able to compose more energetic stanzas in the future, I would

hesitations would deliberately weaken them in order to avoid interference with the climax

Here, by the way, it would be useful to say a few words about poetic technique. my

the first goal, as usual, was originality.

The extent to which it

neglected in versification is one of the most inexplicable things in the world.

Recognizing that the _meter_ itself does not allow many variations, one cannot help but

explain that possible variations of rhythmic and strophic nature

absolutely endless; and yet _for centuries not a single poet has

I just didn’t do it, but apparently didn’t even think about doing anything original_.

The fact is that originality, if we do not talk about minds endowed with very

extraordinary power is by no means, as some suggest,

high, to achieve it requires not so much ingenuity as

the ability to carefully and persistently reject the unwanted.

Of course, I do not claim any originality in relation to

meters, nor in relation to the size of the "Crow".

The first is a trochee; second -

octameter trochee with feminine and masculine endings (the latter in

second, fourth and fifth lines), sixth line - tetrameter trochee with

male ending. To put it less pedantically, foot, used everywhere

(trochee) - two-syllable, with emphasis on the first syllable; first line of the stanza

consists of eight similar feet; the second - from eight with truncation

last unstressed syllable; third - out of eight; fourth - out of eight s

truncation of the last unstressed syllable; fifth - too; sixth - out of four

stop with truncation of the last unstressed syllable. So, each of these

lines, taken separately, have been used before, and that originality,

which "The Raven" possesses lies in their _combination, forming a stanza_;

there had never been anything even remotely resembling this combination before. Effect

the originality of this combination is contributed by other unusual and some

completely new effects arising from the expanded application of principles

rhyming and alliteration.

The next item to be considered was the terms of the meeting.

lover and Raven, and above all - _the scene_. In this sense

It’s most natural to imagine a forest or a field, but it always seemed to me

that the _closedness of space_ is absolutely necessary for the effect

isolated episode; it's like a picture frame. Similar boundaries

undeniably and powerfully concentrate attention and, of course, should not be

mingled with the simple unity of place.

Then I decided to place the lover in his room - in peace, sanctified

for him the memory of the one who was often there.

I painted the room richly

furnished - solely pursuing ideas of beauty as exceptional and

the direct theme of poetry, which I explained above.

Having thus determined the _place of action_, I had to let into it

and the bird, and the thought that it would fly through the window was inevitable. First I

forced the lover to mistake the flapping of bird wings on the shutters for a knock on

door - this idea was born from the desire to increase it by tightening

reader's curiosity, as well as from the desire to introduce a side effect that arises

because the lover opens the doors, sees that everything is dark, and as a result

I made the night stormy, firstly, to justify what the Raven is looking for

shelter, and secondly, to contrast with the apparent serenity inside

I placed the bird on the bust of Pallas, also for the contrast between the marble and

plumage - it is clear that the idea of ​​a bust was brought to life exclusively by a bird;

I chose the bust of Pallas, firstly, as the most appropriate

the erudition of the lover, and secondly, for the sake of the sonority of the word “Pallas” itself.

About halfway through the poem I also used the power

contrast in order to deepen the final impression. For example,

something fantastic and almost, as far as is permissible, absurd is introduced into

Raven's first appearance:

Without bowing, boldly, proudly, he walked easily and firmly,

Soared with the posture of a lord_ to the top of my entrance.

In the two subsequent stanzas this effect is carried out with greater force.

obvious:

Looking at him inquisitively, through my sadness sadly

I smiled - both his appearance and his gaze were so important.

"You look like a knight without a knight's badge, however,

Son of the country where, in the kingdom of Darkness, Night pitched its tent!

What is your name in the kingdom where Her tent stands?”

Raven croaked: "Nevermore."

At first I was amazed: the word sounded clearly,

Like a blow - but what kind of name is "Never"? And still

Was there a mortal in the world at large, where the dwelling was empty

Above the doors, on a white bust, like a ghost of ancient times,

The important, gloomy, gloomy, black Raven of ancient times would sit down

And called it "Nevermore"?

Having thus secured the denouement, I immediately leave behind all the whimsical

and I switch to an intonation filled with the deepest seriousness, starting with

stanza immediately following those just quoted:

But, having croaked this word, he again remained sternly silent... Etc.

From that time on, the lover no longer jokes, no longer sees

There’s not even anything fantastic about Raven’s appearance.

He calls him: "gloomy,

the gloomy, black Raven of ancient times," feels his "burning, ashes

soul's gaze." This change of thoughts or fantasies of the lover has the same goal

shift and for the reader - in order to bring him to the right state for the denouement,

which follows as soon as possible.

After the actual denouement - when the Raven croaked "nevermore" in response

to the last question of a lover - is he destined to meet his beloved?

in another world, - the poem in its self-evident aspect, as a complete

the story can be considered complete. For now everything is within limits

the word "nevermore" flies away from its owner and in a stormy midnight tries

penetrate into the window where the light is still on - into the window of the room where someone is

half immersed in reading, half in dreams of a dead loved one

woman. When this man opens the window at the flapping of his wings, the bird

flies inside and lands on the most comfortable place, located outside the straight line

reach for that person; he is amused by such a case and

the bizarre appearance of the bird, and he asks, without expecting an answer, what its name is.

Raven, as usual, says "nevermore", and this word is found

an immediate echo in the sorrowful heart of a lover, which, expressing out loud

some thoughts generated by this event, again amazed that the bird

repeats "nevermore". Now he guesses what the matter is, but, driven by how

I explained earlier that the inherent thirst for self-torture in people, and partly

superstition, asks the bird questions that will give him plenty to drink

grief with the expected response "nevermore".

When he indulges in this

self-torture to the limit, the story is that I called him the first and

self-evident aspect, reaches a natural conclusion without transgressing

boundaries of the real.

But objects interpreted in this way, with any skill

or a heap of events always acquire a certain rigidity or dryness,

which disgusts the artist's eye. Two things are always required: first,

a certain complexity, or rather a certain subtlety; and secondly, the well-known

a dose of hint, some undercurrent of meaning, albeit unclear. Latest in

What gives a work of art that richness (if

use an expressive term from colloquial speech), which we

too often confused with the ideal. It is the excessive clarification of hints that

bringing the topic to the surface rather than leaving it as

undercurrent, and turns it into prose (and into the flattest prose) like this

called the poetry of the transcendentalists.

the final lines, hidden in which the hint began to permeate everything

previous narrative. The undercurrent of meaning becomes clear in

Raven croaked: "Nevermore."

Don’t torment me, don’t tear my heart out, run away into the open air!

You can notice that the words: “don’t torment, don’t tear my heart” form

the first metaphor in the poem. They are along with the answer "Nevermore"

prompts us to search for the morality of everything that has hitherto been narrated. Reader

begins to consider the Raven as a symbol, but only in the very last line

sorrowful memories become clear:

And he sits and sits ever since, the motionless black Raven,

Above the doors, on the white bust - he still sits there,

Shining with evil eyes, it’s true that she looks like that, dreaming,

Daemon; his thick shadow fell heavily on the carpet -

And the soul from this shadow that lies on the carpet,

Don't rise - nevermore!

Notes

Philosophy of creativity

1842 indicated that his widely known novel "Caleb Williams" (1794)

English writer and philosopher William Godwin (1756-1836) wrote not quite

in the usual way: first the third volume was completed, then the second and only

the final stage of work - the first. Godwin himself spoke about this in

preface to the 1832 edition of the book.

The mechanism of "Barnaby Rudge"... - Dickens's novel "Barnaby Rudge"

published in the spring of 1841 in parts. Having read the first 11 chapters, Po

predicted in his review the further development of the plot.