第10章　詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏

10.1　复习笔记

James Fenimore Cooper (1789－1851) (詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏)

1．Life (生平)

James Fenimore Cooper was born in New Jersey in 1789. Cooper is the first important American novelist who began his literary career on a dare. Once he was reading a boring English novel, he said to his wife that he could write a better one himself. His wife challenged him to make good his boast; so at the age of thirty, Cooper began a career that would bring him wealth and world-wide fame.

1789年库柏出生在新泽西州。他是美国第一位凭着胆识走上文坛的著名小说家。一次，库珀在读一本枯燥的英国小说时，突然对妻子说他能够写出比这更好的小说。他的妻子却挑衅地说他是在说大话。就这样，30岁的库柏便开始了之后为他带来财富和世界声誉的文学事业。

2．Literary Achievements (文学成就)

(1) Cooper launched two kinds of immensely popular stories: the sea adventure tale and the frontier saga. The best of his sea romances was The Pilot (1824).

(2) Cooper’s enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise The Leatherstocking Tales (1832—1841).

(3) With some main characters and a vast group of supporting characters, virtuous or villainous, Cooper made the American conscious of his past, and made the European conscious of America.

(1) 库柏开创了两种极受欢迎的小说体裁：海上冒险故事和边疆传奇。在众多海上传奇小说中，1824年出版的《领航者》最为成功。

(2) 库柏在文坛经久不衰很大程度上得益于他的边疆小说，尤其是由五部小说组成的《皮袜子故事集》(1823—1841)。

(3) 库柏塑造的一些主角和大量配角，既有善良的也有邪恶的，不但使美国人认识了他们的过去，也使欧洲人认识了美国。

3．Major Works (主要作品)

The Spy (1821) 《间谍》

The Pilot (1824) 《领航者》

The Leatherstocking Tales (1832－1841)：《皮袜子故事集》

The Deerslayer《杀鹿者》

The Last of the Mohicans《最后的莫希干人》

The Pathfinder《探路人》

The Pioneers《拓荒者》

The Prairie《大草原》

4．Selected Work (选读作品)

The Last of the Mohicans《最后的莫希干人》

The Last of the Mohicans is the best among The Leatherstocking Tales, from the perspective of conception, characterization and plot. It is a famous novel telling stories about race, friendship, love for nature, virtues and so on. In the story, Cooper highly praises those noble characteristics of “the last of the Mohicans”.

《皮袜子故事集》中最出色的一部应推《最后的莫希干人》，无论是从作品的构思到人物性格塑造再到具体情节。《最后的莫希干人》是一部关于种族、友谊、热爱大自然、美德等的名著。故事中，库柏高度赞扬了“最后的莫希干人”的高贵品质。