How to Tell a Story and Other EssaysHarper, 1906 - 333 pages |
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ain't American anecdote answer appetite Artemus Ward asked Ausgleich Austria Baal began biographer Boinville Bourget Bracknell Brander Matthews Calaveras County called Christian Christian Socialists Clayton Clemens conductor conjecture Cooper Cornelia Turner Deerslayer tale deputies deserted expressman fact feel floor France French French soul frog give Gregorig hands Harriet Shelley head Hogg honor House humor husband insult interest jump knew laugh Lecher letter Limburger cheese literary look Lueger Major Mark Twain Mary Godwin matter mind months nation Natty Bumppo never night Paul Bourget pause persecution person present President pretty reader remark rule seems Smiley sort speech stand stood stop story stranger Szczepanik talk tell thing thought tion told took turned Vienna voice vote wet-nurse whole wife Wolf words young
Popular passages
Page 117 - I'm only a stranger here, and I ain't got no frog; but if I had a frog, I'd bet you." And then Smiley says, "That's all right — that's all right — if you'll hold my box a minute, I'll go and get you a frog.
Page 116 - The feller took the money and started away; and when he was going out at the door he sorter jerked his thumb over his shoulder — so — at Dan'l, and says again, very deliberate: "Well," he says, "I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog.
Page 60 - ... midnight possess their own repose, For the weary winds are silent, or the moon is in the deep : Some respite to its turbulence unresting ocean , knows; Whatever moves, or toils, or grieves, hath its appointed sleep. Thou in the grave shalt rest...
Page 116 - ... rest, and you couldn't fetch nothing for him to bet on but he'd match you. He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he...
Page 60 - AWAY! the moor is dark beneath the moon, Rapid clouds have drank the last pale beam of even : Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon, And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven. Pause not! The time is past! Every voice cries, Away! Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood : Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay : Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.
Page 84 - The scow episode is really a sublime burst of invention; but it does not thrill, because the inaccuracy of the details throws a sort of air of fictitiousness and general improbability over it. This comes of Cooper's inadequacy as an observer. The reader will find some examples of Cooper's high talent for inaccurate observation in the account of the shooting-match in The Pathfinder. "A common wrought nail was driven lightly into the target, its head having been first touched with paint.
Page 14 - ... back dah in de dark en de storm — (repeat the wind and the voice). When he git to de house he rush up-stairs en jump in de bed en kiver up, head and years, en lay dah shiverin' en shakin' — en den way out dah he hear it agin!
Page 137 - In time, he and his brethren will report to you the life and the people of the whole nation — the life of a group in a New England village; in a New York village; in a Texan village; in an Oregon village; in villages in fifty States and Territories; then the farmlife in fifty States and Territories; a hundred patches of life and groups of people in a dozen widely separated cities. And the Indians will be attended to; and the cowboys; and the gold and silver miners; and the negroes; and the Idiots...
Page 91 - Pure, in that connection, means faultless — faultless in all details — and language is a detail. If Mr. Lounsbury had only compared Cooper's English with the English which he writes himself — but it is plain that he didn't; and so it is likely that he imagines until this day that Cooper's is as clean and compact as his own. Now I feel sure, deep down in my heart, that Cooper wrote about the poorest English that exists in our language, and that the English of Deerslayer is the very worst that...
Page 89 - She's in the forest— hanging from the boughs of the trees, in a soft rain— in the dew on the open grass— the clouds that float about in the blue heavens— the birds that sing in the woods— the sweet springs where I slake my thirst— and in all the other glorious gifts that come from God's Providence!