The sea lions, or, the lost sealers / James Fenimore Cooper ; edited with historical introduction by Lance Schachterle and James P. Elliott ; explanatory notes by R. D. Madison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851, author.

Contributor:

Schachterle, Lance, writer of introduction, editor.

Elliott, James Paul, writer of introduction, editor.

Madison, R. D., writer of notes.

Series:

Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851. 1980. Works.

The writings of James Fenimore Cooper

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sealers (Persons)--Fiction.

Sealers (Persons).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxxvi, 449 pages) : illustrations, plates, maps

Other Title:

Lost sealers

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2023]

Summary:

The Sea Lions (1849) is the twelfth and last of Cooper's sea novels, a genre he largely invented. Drawing upon memories from nearly three decades earlier of his own ventures in whaling and his reviews of accounts of exploring and hunting in cold seas, Cooper fashioned an exciting tale of two small vessels capturing seals near the Antarctic Circle. When the sealers are trapped by the ice and forced to winter over in extreme conditions, Cooper's hero undergoes a spiritual transformation amidst the sublime threat of hostile Nature. The editors argue that this transformation parallels Cooper's gradual shift from a religion of Nature to his embracing Trinitarian Christianity. In expanding the scope of his sea fiction to embrace spiritual questions, Cooper anticipates Melville, who reviewed the novel favorably. This scholarly edition, the thirtieth in The Writings of James Fenimore Cooper series, presents an accurate text that draws upon both the American first edition and the British first edition, for which the editors have determined Cooper provided some revisions not found in his American text. The edition provides extensive historical, cultural, and geographic explanatory notes. The editors also provide a full scholarly apparatus discussing their editorial choices, and the edition has been approved by scholarly peers in the Committee for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781438489070

1438489072

OCLC:

1373931447