Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences Flashcards
by Mark Twain — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences
What is the opening rhetorical move of Twain's essay?
He quotes glowing praise of Cooper from three distinguished critics, then suggests they never actually read Cooper's work.
How many rules of literary art does Twain say Cooper violated?
Eighteen out of nineteen — and in one passage of two-thirds of a page, Cooper scored 114 offenses out of a possible 115.
What is the "ark and sapling" scene that Twain dismantles?
Six Indians hide in a sapling bent over a narrow stream to drop onto a 140-foot ark. The chief jumps and misses the 90-foot dwelling, and each remaining Indian also falls into the water.
What inconsistency does Twain find in the stream's dimensions?
It starts at fifty feet wide, narrows to twenty, and fourteen pages later shrinks further — all without explanation — to accommodate Cooper's plot needs.
What happens in the shooting match scene from "The Pathfinder"?
Three marksmen fire into the same nail-head at 100 yards, each bullet passing through the same hole. Pathfinder's bullet enters without even fraying the edges — yet nobody digs the bullets out to verify.
How does Twain conclude the essay?
He lists everything "Deerslayer" lacks — invention, order, lifelikeness, decent English — then adds: "Counting these out, what is left is Art. I think we must all admit that."
What nickname does Twain suggest for the Leatherstocking Series?
The "Broken Twig Series" — because every time silence is critical, a Cooper character inevitably steps on a dry twig and alerts everyone within two hundred yards.
What does Twain say about Cooper's Indians?
That Cooper thinks they are marvelous observers, but "there was seldom a sane one among them" — his Indians never notice obvious things like stepping aboard a boat instead of jumping from a tree.
How does Twain characterize Natty Bumppo's dialogue?
As wildly inconsistent — Bumppo speaks "the showiest kind of book-talk" in one breath and "the basest of base dialects" in the next, sometimes within the same scene.
Which three critics does Twain quote at the opening?
Professor Lounsbury (Yale), Professor Brander Matthews (Columbia), and novelist Wilkie Collins — all of whom praised Cooper as an artistic master.
How does Twain mock Chingachgook's tracking skills?
He notes Chingachgook diverts an entire stream to find moccasin tracks in the mud — tracks that any real current would have washed away — and adds "(pronounced Chicago, I think)."
What is the central argument of "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences"?
That Cooper's novels are celebrated far beyond their merit — they violate basic rules of plotting, characterization, observation, and language, yet respected critics treat them as masterpieces.
What does the essay argue about the relationship between observation and fiction?
That accurate observation is essential to good fiction — Cooper's inaccurate eye produced implausible situations, impossible physics, and incoherent geography.
How does the essay reflect Twain's views on realism versus romanticism?
Twain champions realism by showing how Cooper's romantic fiction depends on impossible feats, wooden characters, and physics that defy nature — arguing that good storytelling requires plausibility.
What is the rhetorical effect of Twain listing 18 rules then showing each one violated?
It gives the attack a pseudo-scientific structure that parodies academic criticism while methodically demolishing Cooper's reputation rule by rule.
How does Twain use mathematical precision for comic effect?
He calculates the ark's dimensions, the stream's width, the Indians' fall trajectory, and the impossibility of seeing a nail-head at 100 yards — weaponizing arithmetic against romantic exaggeration.
What is Twain's metaphor for Cooper's word choice?
A person with a poor ear for music who "will flat and sharp right along without knowing it" — Cooper's ear was satisfied with "the approximate words" rather than the right ones.
How does Twain use understatement and deadpan delivery?
He describes impossible events — like following a cannonball's track through dense fog — then adds innocently "Isn't it a daisy?" as if merely admiring Cooper's ingenuity.
What does "eschew surplusage" mean (Rule 14)?
Avoid unnecessary words and excess verbiage. Twain considers it one of the fundamental rules Cooper violates by padding two-minute remarks into ten-minute speeches.
What does "meretricious" mean in Twain's list of Cooper's word substitutions?
Superficially attractive but having no real value. Cooper used it when he meant "factitious" (artificial), demonstrating his imprecise vocabulary.
What does "delirium tremens" mean in Twain's final verdict on "Deerslayer"?
A severe condition involving confusion, trembling, and hallucinations. Twain calls the novel "a literary delirium tremens" — a feverish hallucination passing for art.
What does Twain mean by Rule 13: "Use the right word, not its second cousin"?
That writers must choose the precise word, not a word that is merely related. He proves Cooper violated this with a devastating list of wrong-word substitutions from a single novel.
What is the significance of Twain's closing line: "Counting these out, what is left is Art"?
It is devastatingly ironic — after stripping away every element of good writing, Twain pretends to concede that the remainder qualifies as art, implying nothing of value is left.
What does Twain mean by "Cooper hadn't any more invention than a horse — and I don't mean a high-class horse; I mean a clothes-horse"?
That Cooper's creative powers were nonexistent — a clothes-horse is a wooden frame for drying laundry, not a living creature at all.