"Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" is an essay by

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

, written as a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

of literary criticism and as a critique of the writings of the novelist

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

, that appeared in the July 1895 issue of ''

North American Review The ''North American Review'' (''NAR'') was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale (journalist), Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which i ...

''. It draws on examples from '' The Deerslayer'' and '' The Pathfinder'' from Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales. The essay is characteristic of Twain's biting, derisive, and highly satirical style of literary criticism, a form he also used to deride such authors as

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and hack writer. A prolific author of various literature, he is regarded among the most versatile writers of the Georgian e ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

, and

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

Summary

Twain begins by quoting a few critics who praise the works of Cooper:

Brander Matthews James Brander Matthews (February 21, 1852 – March 31, 1929) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. He was the first full-time professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University in New York and played a significant role in est ...

, Thomas Lounsbury, and

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for ''The Moonsto ...

. He then claims that they have never read the novels themselves, and that Cooper's work is seriously flawed: He goes on to list 18 separate literary rules he feels that Cooper does not follow, such as "The tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" accomplishes nothing and arrives in the air" and "The author shall use the right word, not its second cousin." Twain continues on with few positive things to say about Cooper's writing, citing several examples from Cooper's writing to illustrate the unbelievable excess of the style and Cooper's careless approach to literary craft. Twain's analysis was foreshadowed seven decades earlier by

John Neal John Neal (August 25, 1793 – June 20, 1876) was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1 ...

's critique of Cooper in ''

American Writers The Lists of American writers include: United States By ethnicity *List of African-American writers *List of Asian American writers, List of Asian-American writers *List of Cuban American writers, List of Cuban-American writers *List of Egypti ...

'' (1824–25).

Reception

Everett Emerson (in ''Mark Twain: A Literary Life'') wrote that the essay is "possibly the author's funniest". Joseph Andriano, in ''The Mark Twain Encyclopedia'', argued that Twain "Imposed the standards of Realism on Romance" and that this incongruity is a major source of the humor in the essay. Online excerpt. Perhaps inevitably, Twain's essay has been criticized by proponents of Cooper as unfair and distorted. Cooper scholars Lance Schachterle and Kent Ljungquist write, "Twain's deliberate misreading of Cooper has been devastating....Twain valued economy of style (a possible but not necessary criterion), but such concision simply was not characteristic of many early nineteenth-century novelists' work." Similarly, John McWilliams comments: Literary scholar Sydney J. Krause, while agreeing that the "sulfurous grumblings over Cooper rehardly the work of a judicious person," sees Twain's satire as an attack on

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

in general and a formal announcement that Romantic literature "was a literary dead letter in post-Civil War America."

Continuation

A second essay, continuing and completing the original 1895 essay, was published after Twain's death under the title "Fenimore Cooper's Further Literary Offenses" in ''The New England Quarterly'' (vol XIX, pp. 291–30, September 1946) as edited by Bernard DeVoto. It was reprinted under the title "Cooper's Prose Style" in the collection ''Letters from the Earth'' (on pp 139–150 of the 2004 Harper edition). This essay includes the passage which explains the "114 out of a possible 115" mentioned in the original essay. It is discussed in the "Editor's Notes" in the ''Letters from the Earth'' collection.On p. 301 of the 2004 Harper edition Everett H. Emerson says that the sequel is "less funny but still amusing."

References

External links

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Cooper's Prose Style
at Llumina Press {{Authority control 1895 essays Essays by Mark Twain James Fenimore Cooper Essays in literary criticism Satirical essays