The Pathfinder: Or the Inland Sea (Paperback)

James Fenimore Cooper

ISBN 10: 0140390715 / ISBN 13: 9780140390711

Published by Penguin Books, London, 1989

About this Item

Paperback. This, the fourth of Cooper's celebrated Leatherstocking Tales, continues the adventures of Natty Bumppo, noble woodsman, champion of the Indians, and hero of the American frontier. In The Pathfinder Cooper undertook the hazardous experiment of resurrecting one of his most popular characters, for he had killed off Bumppo in his previous incarnation, the Trapper, in The Prairie (1827). But in 1839, at his English publisher's instigation, Cooper began work on a romance, setting the story of his hero's unsuccessful courtship on the mist-shrouded shores of Lake Ontario during the French and Indian Wars. Acclaimed throughout the world when first published - Balzac praised Cooper's 'magic prose', and the great Russian critic V. G. Belinski proclaimed the book 'entirely without equal' - The Pathfinder remains a classic account of the American wilderness. Cooper undertakes a "hazardous experiment" of resurrecting one of his most popular characters, for he had killed off Bumppo in his previous incarnation. This book is noted as a classic account of the American wilderness. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780140390711

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Pathfinder: Or the Inland Sea (Paperback)
• Publisher: Penguin Books, London
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140390715
• ISBN 13: 9780140390711
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Cooper undertook a "hazardous experiment" in resurrecting one of his most popular characters, for he had killed off Bumppo in his previous incarnation. This book is noted as a classic account of the American wilderness.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Author

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) grew up at Otsego Hall, his father’s manorial estate near Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Educated at Yale, he spent five years at sea, as a foremast hand and then as a midshipman in the navy. At thirty he was suddenly plunged into a literary career when his wife challenged his claim that he could write a better book that the English novel he was reading to her. The result was Precaution (1820), a novel of manners. His second book, The Spy (1821), was an immediate success, and with The Pioneers (1823) he began his series of Leatherstocking Tales. By 1826 when The Last of the Mohicans appeared, his standing as a major novelist was clearly established. From 1826 to 1833 Cooper and his family lived and traveled in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Two of his most successful works, The Prairie and The Red Rover, were published in 1827. He returned to Otsego Hall in 1834, and after a series of relatively unsuccessful books of essays, travel sketches, and history, he returned to fiction – and to Leatherstocking – with The Pathfinder (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841). In his last decade he faced declining popularity brought on in part by his waspish attacks on critics and political opponents. Just before his death in 1851 an edition of his works led to a reappraisal of his fiction and somewhat restored his reputation as the first of American writers.