It is a long-standing joke between Ryan and I that long long ago- before we ever met each other- we each picked up a copy of The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper with the solid intention of reading a well-known classic. I'm sure anyone that has actually read Cooper will have to relate when I say that neither of us made it far before hitting a brick wall. In the decade+ that we have each owned a copy, Ryan made it to the second chapter while I only got about twenty pages further.
If you loved the movie you absolutely cannot base your opinion on that- the book is an entirely different bag of tricks. Oi with the pages upon pages of meaningless detail and backwoodsman lore! (And this is coming from two people who LOVE the outdoors, history, and one of which would love nothing more than to go back in time and become a real mountain man. I'll let you decide which of us that is. :)
Anyway, we sat reading Twain together the other night (yes, we're extremely intellectual like that) and happened upon an essay he'd written on this very subject. I'm sure our downstairs neighbors, hearing shrieks and guffaws at 11pm, wondered what in the world was going on but by the end of it we were positively weeping with laughter. If you've ever read Mohicans- even if you just made it a few pages in, or if you love good literature and wonder why some classics ever made the cut, you absolutely HAVE to read this article. It is one of the funniest reviews I've ever read!
Check it out @ www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_fenimore.html
(somehow the link's not working, so just go ahead and copy and paste this bad boy!)
If you loved the movie you absolutely cannot base your opinion on that- the book is an entirely different bag of tricks. Oi with the pages upon pages of meaningless detail and backwoodsman lore! (And this is coming from two people who LOVE the outdoors, history, and one of which would love nothing more than to go back in time and become a real mountain man. I'll let you decide which of us that is. :)
Anyway, we sat reading Twain together the other night (yes, we're extremely intellectual like that) and happened upon an essay he'd written on this very subject. I'm sure our downstairs neighbors, hearing shrieks and guffaws at 11pm, wondered what in the world was going on but by the end of it we were positively weeping with laughter. If you've ever read Mohicans- even if you just made it a few pages in, or if you love good literature and wonder why some classics ever made the cut, you absolutely HAVE to read this article. It is one of the funniest reviews I've ever read!
Check it out @ www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_fenimore.html
(somehow the link's not working, so just go ahead and copy and paste this bad boy!)
2 comments:
That is one of my all-time favorite essays by Twain--and that is saying something. I've always tried to share it with others, but too few people have read enough Cooper to understand its hilarity.
Great stuff.
Glad to read your opinion of the Last of the Mohicans, I'm a voracious reader of all kinds and NEVER could get though any of James Fenimore Cooper. I blamed myself and glad to know I'm not alone.
Natalie-Hawaii
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