Got this at the library yesterday and read the introduction and preface last night. M, any comments on the two times it tells young ladies to put the book down?!
Actually, my volume does not have a preface or introduction- it starts with Chapter 1 and gets right into the plot. Well, as "into" as long, convoluted sentences can get. :-) But do tell, when should young ladies put the book down?
How interesting. Joy's copy has an introduction but it is only about the middle third of mine.
My preface begins: "The reader, who takes up these volumes, in expectation of finding an imaginary and romantic picture of things which never had an existence, will probably lay them aside, disappointed. The work is exactly what it processes to be in its title page -- a narrative. As it relates, however, to matters which may not be universally understood, especially by the more imaginative sex, some of whom, under the impression that it is a fiction, may be induced to read the book, it becomes the interest of the author to explain a few of the obscurities of the historical allusions."
and ends: "With this brief introduction to his subject, then, the author commits his book to the reader. As, however, candour, if not justice requires such a declaration at his hands, he will advise all young ladies, whose ideas are usually limited by the four walls of a drawing room; all single gentlemen, of a certain age, who are under the influence of the winds; and all clergymen, if they have the volumes in hand, with intent to read them, to abandon that design. He gives this advice to sough young ladies, because, after they have read the book, they will surely pronounce it shocking; to the bachelors, as it might disturb their sleep; and to the reverend clergy, because they might be better employed."
Cooper does LOVE his commas. Reminds me of Melville...
Well, as our ideas are not limited to the four walls of the drawing room, I think we'll be okay. :-) I get the impression that Cooper does not think too highly of the "more imaginative sex". Maybe that is why they left those sections out of Joy's introduction?
So far I am enjoying the book, although I question some of the dialogue. For example, in Chapter 5 one of them makes the comment, "..for we are losing moments that are as precious as the heart's blood to a stricken deer!" Really? You spend two sentences to say you're in a hurry? But I can almost believe it since they are hunters and that may be a very apt way of describing it.
However, in Chapter VI, Hawkeye, who is an uneducated guide/hunter, says, "There's fresh sassafras boughs for the ladies to sit on, which may not be as proud as their my-hog-guinesa chairs, but which sends up a sweeter flavor than the skin of any hog can do, be it of Guinea, or be it of any other land." I have a hard time believing that a scout in the wilderness during that time would know anything about Guinea.
I did like the response of Hawkeye (anyone else keep picturing Alan Alda?) about the buck in Chapter III: "Does he think when a hunter sees a part of the creatur', he can't tell where the rest of him should be!"
I read through to the beginning of chapter 11 last night. I can see why the jacket flap mentioned that this book was beloved by Melville or something like that. Holy jeepers, there are a lot of commas. I will say, the action does keep me interested though the style of writing isn't the best. I have found myself rereading sentences a couple of times, actively looking for the subject and the verb.
Also it gives me a kind of "Shirley" feeling because I expected the plot to focus more on Uncas, but it seems to mostly be about Cora and Duncan. I don't get David's purpose either. He's some sort of choir instructor? Why is he going to war? Hopefully a lot of things will come together in the next couple of chapters.
Well I read to Chapter 6 and was so lost that I started over again tonight so I could keep BETTER track of who was who and what was actually going on, so I am CATCHING UP now. I've spent too many nights reading at 10 at night and falling asleep and "thinking" that I'd read it when, we know, I have not done that at all.
I'm progressing rather slowly myself. I think I'm only to Chapter 12 or 13. I have an older book with wide pages full of small print. Between that and sentences that go on forever, it's taking me a while to read it because I have to focus.
It is slow going for sure. I'm on chapter 20 and still have about 200 pages ahead of me. Is ayone else kind of sick of war? I did not expect this book to be so bloody (didn't see the movie, so was a little unprepared) and especially on the heels of Rebel it just feels overwhelming. I can't stop dreaming about axe murders.
Here are some quotes that I've marked along the way: Chapter 2, Cora to David: " 'Partial relatives have almost persuaded me, that I am not entirely worthless in a duette myself..' " Cora could teach a class on how to grovel and boast at the same time.
Chapter 7: "David, in immitation of the woodsmen, bestowed his person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that his ungainly limbs were no longer offensive to the eye." That last bit made me chuckle a little, along with the description of how he looked riding a horse.
Chapter 12, David to Hawk-Eye: " 'I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion; (like other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his use of terms). Name chapter and verse..' " Accuracy of terms, indeed, is a problem I deal with daily!
Chapter 15, Montcalm to Heyword: " '..as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can easily credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its limits, and humanity must not be forgotten.' " How does this compare with what we saw portrayed in Pudd'nhead Wilson?
Chapter 26, Monro to Alice: " 'Ha! sir, you are young, and you're nimble! Away with you, ye baggage; as if there were not troubles enough for a soldier, without having his camp filled with such prattling hussies as yourself!' " Hussies, indeed!
Chapter 28, Hawk-Eye to Uncas: " 'Uncas, come this way, lad, and let the raven settle upon the Mingo. I know, from often seeing it, that they have a craving for the flesh of an Oneida; and it is well to let the bird follow the gift of its natural appetite.' " I have to say, this is something I have never even considered before. Do people taste diferent?? Kobi beef is supposed to be so much better than other beef - maybe Oneida tastes better than French?
I just had some AHA, duh? moments. I was looking up where Fort William Henry is on the map so I could see where it was in relation to Lake George and then clicked on some other links and found out:
1) James Fenimore Cooper's father was the original found of COOPERstown.
2) This part of NY is called Leatherstocking because early settlers wore "chaps" made out of deerskin on their legs to protect their legs as they walked/rode thru the woods.
Hawkeye first appears in "The Deerslayer", the prequel to Last of the Mohicans.
I just realized that the chapter numbers on my last two quotations above are incorrect. They should be chapters 16 and 18 respectively.
More quotations: Chapter 22, describing Hawk-Eye: "Perhaps there was something in the proposal that suited his own hardy nature, and that secret love of desperate adventure, which had increased with his experience, until hazard and danger had become, in some measure, necessary to the enjoyment of his existence." This reminded me of the spy from Eye of the Needle.
Test your comprehension/retention: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mohicans/quiz.html
Also from Chapter 22, David to Duncan, re the children: " 'Ah! the wholesome restraint of discipline is but little known among this self-abandoned people! In a country of birches, a rod is never seen..' " I love that last part. Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. =)
I finished yesterday, and have to say, I just HATE when authors kill off my favorite characters in the last 2 or 3 chapters. Grrrr! What was the message of Cora and Alice? Be strong for yourself, take your future by the reigns and you'll end up with a knife through your heart and spending the afterlife with a warrior? Faint/cry every time you're faced with something awful and a man will rescue you? Grrrr.
I ended up really liking David, who I suppose was intended to be the comic relief, but am still wondering why he was on his way to the fort in the first place.
I also find it a little hard to believe that Duncan so implicitly trusts le renard subtil at the beginning of the story. Surely, his infamy would have preceded him to the encampment? And if all he wanted was Cora, why didn't he just kill Duncan halfway through the first day and make off with her?
Aside from the points mentioned above, the plot was good and I'm glad to have finally read another book that's been on my list for so long. Overall though, I didn't care for the writing style or the constant death and destruction. Though, Cooper did come right out at the beginning and tell me not to expect "an imaginary and romantic picture of things which never had an existence." And he was right.
I am half way thru and so will write my fave quotes so far.
Chapter 3 "No symptoms of decay appeared to have yet weakened his manhood". Ah, a verile YOUNG MAN!
Chapter 5: Hawkeye to David Gamut "You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem short". Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.
Chapter 12: Hawkeye to David Gamut "Your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better bird then a mocking-thresher. The one will remove foul sights from before the face of man, while the other is only good to brew disturbances in the woods" translated to "Stop singing!"
And lots of new vocabulary for me: animadversion: criticizing votary: devout worshipper patois: uncultivated speech palliate: lessen pain durance: imprisonment withes: flexible twigs
So all together: I dislike your animadversion of my patois. I am a votary of _____ (fill in blank). Please loosen these withes to palliate my durance. ?????
And yes, I do think David Gamut is here for comic relief and somebody at to get hurt at the cavern to slow them down.
Well, I am on the home stretch- only 50 pages to go! Whew. What a long book, and yet not so long.
My biggest pet peeve is the "man without a cross" phrase that Hawkeye seems partial to. Argh. Thanks A for at least explaining what it meant.
Some quotes or scenes of note:
I also noted the carrion/mockingbird quote from Chapter XII.
I loved that in Chapter XVII David followed Magua and the two sisters for the slaughter SINGING. If all else fails...
But Alice, seriously, must you faint and cry at everything? At some point she has to just get over it, right?
Chapter XVIII: "The sun had hid its wrmth behind an impenetrable mass of vapor, and hundreds of human forms, which had blackened beneath the fierce heats of August, were stiffening in their deformity, before the blasts of a premature November." What a poetic way to talk about corpses rotting. Ugh.
And, finally, another pet peeve. Several times Cooper introduces an animal or person as one thing and then we find out they are another. For example, a bear is introduced and then we find out it is actually Hawkeye. Can anyone really imitate a bear so well that people think he/she is a bear? Really? I find it difficult to transition from bear to person so easily. Or when Uncas is brought into the enemy Indian tribe and is described for several pages WITHOUT EVER SAYING IT WAS UNCAS. And then suddenly Cooper starts referring to him as Uncas. Hugh?
M, I totally agree with you about the man without a cross. I got very sick of seeing that. For as friendly as Hawkeye was with Uncas and his father, he was VERY quick to point out that he was European through and through. Methinks he wasn't really as open minded as he portrayed himself to be. Especially at Cora's funeral, when he was thinking he was glad that noone else could hear the horrible things that were being said about Cora and Uncas being linked in the afterlife.
The other night Joy and I were talking about hugh, and how it was pronounced. We couldn't decide if it was meant to be like the man's name, or something more throaty like ugg. I personally ready it like the man's name.
I'm throughly surpised that Alice did not come down with a "brain fever" at some point during the book. She annoyed me greatly.
I pictured David as Pecker from Rebel. They seemed so physically similar in my mind's eye.
I'm done, I'm done! This wasn't the worst book we've read, but it still took me forever to slog through it.
No favorite quotes from the last 50 pages. There was just a lot of grandstanding and killing, not so much wit.
I assumed that the hugh was pronounced more like "huh". Silent 'g'. Isn't funny how one word can be read so differently?
A, I agree with many of your points. Alice annoys me, Cora seems to show that being a strong woman leads to death- although we seem to be expected to think it is a noble death. I also hate when characters die at the end, though the title did suggest that it may be Uncas' fate. And, David was also my favorite character.
Hawkeye seemed like rather an idiot to me. Yeah, he is good with a rifle and in the woods, but he did seem rather prejudiced against the Indians for all he claimed to be their brother. Plus, who prefers a crow over a mockingbird, really?
And to follow along with your 'people tasting', do different parts of people taste differently? For example, white and dark meat taste different on birds...
I appreciate the bits of trivia you found, J. I always wondered where the term "leatherstocking" came from.
Do you think Magua actually loved Cora or that it was all revenge? Sometimes it seemed like he really did love her but other times he certainly made it seem like revenge was the driving motive.
I also received a 92% on the quiz. Where Munro met Cora's mother and the camp Magua sent Alice to (I was thinking Cora) tripped me up. But seriously, which weapon did not show up? Too easy.
I typed up a wonderful little essay last week only to have the internet go down - FRICKY FRICK!
So here's my recovery from what I remember....
I am glad I've read the book just to say I have and MIGHT read the Deerslayer, we'll see. I would like to go visit Lake George now and get the feel of the land and forts.
It seemed there were a lot of pronouns and it took a while to figure out who was being referred to, and as said, lots of commas.
Some quotes: From Ch 21, Hawkeye tells Heyward to "fire the whole platoon, major" if he should get into trouble.
Ch 22, "Are you tired of seeing the sun rise and set?"
Alice and Cora, bleh.
David was my favorite too but like you Angie, I was wondering why he was out in the woods but maybe someone "sent" him out there to be rid of him.....
I liked that "fire the whole platoon, major" line too! Reminded me of something that Dad would say.
Of all the books we've read, it's funny that the lines we most repeat are "fricky frick" (which I use all the time in oral conversation, btw) and "fookin." I'm wondering if "hugh" will be another addition to my common vocabulary. Probably not.
There are few things worse, when it comes to reading/writing/speaking, than learning a great new word but not knowing how it is pronounced! The question: do you incorporate it into conversation with your best guess on how it is pronounced or do you wait until you've heard someone else say it before you try to use it?
I think this applies equally well to Moby Dick and Shirley. I especially liked: "The require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say."
26 comments:
Got this at the library yesterday and read the introduction and preface last night. M, any comments on the two times it tells young ladies to put the book down?!
Actually, my volume does not have a preface or introduction- it starts with Chapter 1 and gets right into the plot. Well, as "into" as long, convoluted sentences can get. :-) But do tell, when should young ladies put the book down?
How interesting. Joy's copy has an introduction but it is only about the middle third of mine.
My preface begins:
"The reader, who takes up these volumes, in expectation of finding an imaginary and romantic picture of things which never had an existence, will probably lay them aside, disappointed. The work is exactly what it processes to be in its title page -- a narrative. As it relates, however, to matters which may not be universally understood, especially by the more imaginative sex, some of whom, under the impression that it is a fiction, may be induced to read the book, it becomes the interest of the author to explain a few of the obscurities of the historical allusions."
and ends:
"With this brief introduction to his subject, then, the author commits his book to the reader. As, however, candour, if not justice requires such a declaration at his hands, he will advise all young ladies, whose ideas are usually limited by the four walls of a drawing room; all single gentlemen, of a certain age, who are under the influence of the winds; and all clergymen, if they have the volumes in hand, with intent to read them, to abandon that design. He gives this advice to sough young ladies, because, after they have read the book, they will surely pronounce it shocking; to the bachelors, as it might disturb their sleep; and to the reverend clergy, because they might be better employed."
Cooper does LOVE his commas. Reminds me of Melville...
Well, as our ideas are not limited to the four walls of the drawing room, I think we'll be okay. :-) I get the impression that Cooper does not think too highly of the "more imaginative sex". Maybe that is why they left those sections out of Joy's introduction?
So far I am enjoying the book, although I question some of the dialogue. For example, in Chapter 5 one of them makes the comment, "..for we are losing moments that are as precious as the heart's blood to a stricken deer!" Really? You spend two sentences to say you're in a hurry? But I can almost believe it since they are hunters and that may be a very apt way of describing it.
However, in Chapter VI, Hawkeye, who is an uneducated guide/hunter, says, "There's fresh sassafras boughs for the ladies to sit on, which may not be as proud as their my-hog-guinesa chairs, but which sends up a sweeter flavor than the skin of any hog can do, be it of Guinea, or be it of any other land." I have a hard time believing that a scout in the wilderness during that time would know anything about Guinea.
I did like the response of Hawkeye (anyone else keep picturing Alan Alda?) about the buck in Chapter III: "Does he think when a hunter sees a part of the creatur', he can't tell where the rest of him should be!"
I read through to the beginning of chapter 11 last night. I can see why the jacket flap mentioned that this book was beloved by Melville or something like that. Holy jeepers, there are a lot of commas. I will say, the action does keep me interested though the style of writing isn't the best. I have found myself rereading sentences a couple of times, actively looking for the subject and the verb.
Also it gives me a kind of "Shirley" feeling because I expected the plot to focus more on Uncas, but it seems to mostly be about Cora and Duncan. I don't get David's purpose either. He's some sort of choir instructor? Why is he going to war? Hopefully a lot of things will come together in the next couple of chapters.
Hale-frickin-lujiah, they finally made it to the fort!!!
Well I read to Chapter 6 and was so lost that I started over again tonight so I could keep BETTER track of who was who and what was actually going on, so I am CATCHING UP now. I've spent too many nights reading at 10 at night and falling asleep and "thinking" that I'd read it when, we know, I have not done that at all.
I'm progressing rather slowly myself. I think I'm only to Chapter 12 or 13. I have an older book with wide pages full of small print. Between that and sentences that go on forever, it's taking me a while to read it because I have to focus.
It is slow going for sure. I'm on chapter 20 and still have about 200 pages ahead of me. Is ayone else kind of sick of war? I did not expect this book to be so bloody (didn't see the movie, so was a little unprepared) and especially on the heels of Rebel it just feels overwhelming. I can't stop dreaming about axe murders.
Here are some quotes that I've marked along the way:
Chapter 2, Cora to David:
" 'Partial relatives have almost persuaded me, that I am not entirely worthless in a duette myself..' "
Cora could teach a class on how to grovel and boast at the same time.
Chapter 7:
"David, in immitation of the woodsmen, bestowed his person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that his ungainly limbs were no longer offensive to the eye."
That last bit made me chuckle a little, along with the description of how he looked riding a horse.
Chapter 12, David to Hawk-Eye:
" 'I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion; (like other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his use of terms). Name chapter and verse..' "
Accuracy of terms, indeed, is a problem I deal with daily!
Chapter 15, Montcalm to Heyword:
" '..as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can easily credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its limits, and humanity must not be forgotten.' "
How does this compare with what we saw portrayed in Pudd'nhead Wilson?
Chapter 26, Monro to Alice:
" 'Ha! sir, you are young, and you're nimble! Away with you, ye baggage; as if there were not troubles enough for a soldier, without having his camp filled with such prattling hussies as yourself!' "
Hussies, indeed!
Chapter 28, Hawk-Eye to Uncas:
" 'Uncas, come this way, lad, and let the raven settle upon the Mingo. I know, from often seeing it, that they have a craving for the flesh of an Oneida; and it is well to let the bird follow the gift of its natural appetite.' "
I have to say, this is something I have never even considered before. Do people taste diferent?? Kobi beef is supposed to be so much better than other beef - maybe Oneida tastes better than French?
I just had some AHA, duh? moments. I was looking up where Fort William Henry is on the map so I could see where it was in relation to Lake George and then clicked on some other links and found out:
1) James Fenimore Cooper's father was the original found of COOPERstown.
2) This part of NY is called Leatherstocking because early settlers wore "chaps" made out of deerskin on their legs to protect their legs as they walked/rode thru the woods.
Hawkeye first appears in "The Deerslayer", the prequel to Last of the Mohicans.
AHA, duh?h
I just realized that the chapter numbers on my last two quotations above are incorrect. They should be chapters 16 and 18 respectively.
More quotations:
Chapter 22, describing Hawk-Eye:
"Perhaps there was something in the proposal that suited his own hardy nature, and that secret love of desperate adventure, which had increased with his experience, until hazard and danger had become, in some measure, necessary to the enjoyment of his existence."
This reminded me of the spy from Eye of the Needle.
Test your comprehension/retention:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mohicans/quiz.html
Also from Chapter 22, David to Duncan, re the children:
" 'Ah! the wholesome restraint of discipline is but little known among this self-abandoned people! In a country of birches, a rod is never seen..' "
I love that last part. Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. =)
I finished yesterday, and have to say, I just HATE when authors kill off my favorite characters in the last 2 or 3 chapters. Grrrr! What was the message of Cora and Alice? Be strong for yourself, take your future by the reigns and you'll end up with a knife through your heart and spending the afterlife with a warrior? Faint/cry every time you're faced with something awful and a man will rescue you? Grrrr.
I ended up really liking David, who I suppose was intended to be the comic relief, but am still wondering why he was on his way to the fort in the first place.
I also find it a little hard to believe that Duncan so implicitly trusts le renard subtil at the beginning of the story. Surely, his infamy would have preceded him to the encampment? And if all he wanted was Cora, why didn't he just kill Duncan halfway through the first day and make off with her?
Aside from the points mentioned above, the plot was good and I'm glad to have finally read another book that's been on my list for so long. Overall though, I didn't care for the writing style or the constant death and destruction. Though, Cooper did come right out at the beginning and tell me not to expect "an imaginary and romantic picture of things which never had an existence." And he was right.
PS, I got a 92% on the quiz.
I am half way thru and so will write my fave quotes so far.
Chapter 3 "No symptoms of decay appeared to have yet weakened his manhood". Ah, a verile YOUNG MAN!
Chapter 5: Hawkeye to David Gamut "You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem short". Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.
Chapter 12: Hawkeye to David Gamut "Your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better bird then a mocking-thresher. The one will remove foul sights from before the face of man, while the other is only good to brew disturbances in the woods" translated to "Stop singing!"
And lots of new vocabulary for me:
animadversion: criticizing
votary: devout worshipper
patois: uncultivated speech
palliate: lessen pain
durance: imprisonment
withes: flexible twigs
So all together:
I dislike your animadversion of my patois. I am a votary of _____ (fill in blank). Please loosen these withes to palliate my durance. ?????
And yes, I do think David Gamut is here for comic relief and somebody at to get hurt at the cavern to slow them down.
Well, I am on the home stretch- only 50 pages to go! Whew. What a long book, and yet not so long.
My biggest pet peeve is the "man without a cross" phrase that Hawkeye seems partial to. Argh. Thanks A for at least explaining what it meant.
Some quotes or scenes of note:
I also noted the carrion/mockingbird quote from Chapter XII.
I loved that in Chapter XVII David followed Magua and the two sisters for the slaughter SINGING. If all else fails...
But Alice, seriously, must you faint and cry at everything? At some point she has to just get over it, right?
Chapter XVIII: "The sun had hid its wrmth behind an impenetrable mass of vapor, and hundreds of human forms, which had blackened beneath the fierce heats of August, were stiffening in their deformity, before the blasts of a premature November." What a poetic way to talk about corpses rotting. Ugh.
And, finally, another pet peeve. Several times Cooper introduces an animal or person as one thing and then we find out they are another. For example, a bear is introduced and then we find out it is actually Hawkeye. Can anyone really imitate a bear so well that people think he/she is a bear? Really? I find it difficult to transition from bear to person so easily. Or when Uncas is brought into the enemy Indian tribe and is described for several pages WITHOUT EVER SAYING IT WAS UNCAS. And then suddenly Cooper starts referring to him as Uncas. Hugh?
M, I totally agree with you about the man without a cross. I got very sick of seeing that. For as friendly as Hawkeye was with Uncas and his father, he was VERY quick to point out that he was European through and through. Methinks he wasn't really as open minded as he portrayed himself to be. Especially at Cora's funeral, when he was thinking he was glad that noone else could hear the horrible things that were being said about Cora and Uncas being linked in the afterlife.
The other night Joy and I were talking about hugh, and how it was pronounced. We couldn't decide if it was meant to be like the man's name, or something more throaty like ugg. I personally ready it like the man's name.
I'm throughly surpised that Alice did not come down with a "brain fever" at some point during the book. She annoyed me greatly.
I pictured David as Pecker from Rebel. They seemed so physically similar in my mind's eye.
I'm done, I'm done! This wasn't the worst book we've read, but it still took me forever to slog through it.
No favorite quotes from the last 50 pages. There was just a lot of grandstanding and killing, not so much wit.
I assumed that the hugh was pronounced more like "huh". Silent 'g'. Isn't funny how one word can be read so differently?
A, I agree with many of your points. Alice annoys me, Cora seems to show that being a strong woman leads to death- although we seem to be expected to think it is a noble death. I also hate when characters die at the end, though the title did suggest that it may be Uncas' fate. And, David was also my favorite character.
Hawkeye seemed like rather an idiot to me. Yeah, he is good with a rifle and in the woods, but he did seem rather prejudiced against the Indians for all he claimed to be their brother. Plus, who prefers a crow over a mockingbird, really?
And to follow along with your 'people tasting', do different parts of people taste differently? For example, white and dark meat taste different on birds...
I appreciate the bits of trivia you found, J. I always wondered where the term "leatherstocking" came from.
Do you think Magua actually loved Cora or that it was all revenge? Sometimes it seemed like he really did love her but other times he certainly made it seem like revenge was the driving motive.
I also received a 92% on the quiz. Where Munro met Cora's mother and the camp Magua sent Alice to (I was thinking Cora) tripped me up. But seriously, which weapon did not show up? Too easy.
I typed up a wonderful little essay last week only to have the internet go down - FRICKY FRICK!
So here's my recovery from what I remember....
I am glad I've read the book just to say I have and MIGHT read the Deerslayer, we'll see. I would like to go visit Lake George now and get the feel of the land and forts.
It seemed there were a lot of pronouns and it took a while to figure out who was being referred to, and as said, lots of commas.
Some quotes:
From Ch 21, Hawkeye tells Heyward to "fire the whole platoon, major" if he should get into trouble.
Ch 22, "Are you tired of seeing the sun rise and set?"
Alice and Cora, bleh.
David was my favorite too but like you Angie, I was wondering why he was out in the woods but maybe someone "sent" him out there to be rid of him.....
HUGH!
I liked that "fire the whole platoon, major" line too! Reminded me of something that Dad would say.
Of all the books we've read, it's funny that the lines we most repeat are "fricky frick" (which I use all the time in oral conversation, btw) and "fookin." I'm wondering if "hugh" will be another addition to my common vocabulary. Probably not.
I think we can add HUGH to our daily vocab, if we only knew how to pronounce it correctly!
There are few things worse, when it comes to reading/writing/speaking, than learning a great new word but not knowing how it is pronounced! The question: do you incorporate it into conversation with your best guess on how it is pronounced or do you wait until you've heard someone else say it before you try to use it?
I just love Mark Twain so in perusing some of his works, I came across this. Since we had also read Last of the Mohicans, check it out:
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses by Mark Twain
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html
Let's try this link again.
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html
Google it!
I think this applies equally well to Moby Dick and Shirley. I especially liked: "The require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say."
i LOVED the part about the dry twigs. I was really giggling.
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