In this humorous essay, Mark Twain sharply and wittily criticizes James Fenimore Cooper's novels, especially The Deerslayer and The Pathfinder. Twain mocks Cooper's style, plausibility, and disregard for literary rules, making the piece entertaining as satire and as a sample of pointed critical writing.
For teachers and schools: paste the code into your site or blog.
Cover illustration generated by AI.
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
FENIMORE COOPER'S LITERARY OFFENCES by Mark Twain The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer stand at the head of Cooper's novels as artistic creations. There are others of his works which contain parts as perfect as are to be found in these, and scenes even more thrilling. Not one can be compared with either of them as a finished whole. The defects in both of these tales are comparatively slight. They were pure works of art.—Prof. Lounsbury. The five tales reveal an extraordinary fulness of invention. ... One of the very greatest characters in fiction, Natty Bumppo.... The craft of the woodsman, the tricks of the trapper, all the delicate art of the forest, were familiar to Cooper from his youth up.—Prof. Brander Matthews. Cooper is the greatest artist in the domain of romantic fiction yet produced by America.—Wilkie Collins.
Readnara
