Originally published in 1967. In this critical survey of the fiction of James Fenimore Cooper, George Dekker devotes a good deal of attention to Cooper’s politics. He also explores the assimilation and development of the historical novel as first perfected by Sir Walter Scott. Cooper’s major formal innovations in the field of historical fiction were, like Scott’s, something more than mere experiments: they were made because American social and political developments differed radically from those of Scott’s Europe and so demanded a different formal expression.
Introduction; Chronology of James Fenimore Cooper; 1. Coopers, Jays. And De Lanceys 2. The American Scott: Imitation as Exploration and Criticism 3. The Pioneers 4. Race in the New World 5. The Prairie 6. An American Gentleman in Europe 7. Buccaneers of the Land and Sea 8. The European Novels 9. Home as Found 10. The Pathfinder: Leatherstocking in Love 11. The Deerslayer 12. The Late Sea Novels 13. The Littlepage Trilogy 14. The Ways of the Hour; Index
Biography
George Dekker
