| | 141 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Pathfinder, Or, the Inland Sea  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | As the day advanced, that portion of the inmates of the
vessel which had the liberty of doing so, appeared on deck.
As yet, the sea was not very high, from which it was inferred,
that the cutter was still under the lee of the islands; but
it was apparent to all who understood the lake, that they
were about to experience one of the heavy autumnal gales
of that region. Land was nowhere visible; and the horizon,
on every side, exhibited that gloomy void, which lends to all
views, on vast bodies of water, the sublimity of mystery.
The swells, or, as landsmen term them, the waves, were
short and curling, breaking of necessity sooner than the
longer seas of the ocean; while the element itself, instead of
presenting that beautiful hue, which rivals the deep tint of
the southern sky, looked green and angry, though wanting
in the lustre that is derived from the rays of the sun. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 142 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Two Admirals | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Well, Sir Jarvy,” said Galleygo, following on the
heels of the two admirals, as the latter entered the dressing-room
of the officer addressed; “it has turned out just as I
thought; and the County of Fair-villian has come out of his
hole, like a porpoise coming up to breathe, the moment our
backs is turned! As soon as we gives the order to squareaway
for England, and I sees the old Planter's cabin windows
turned upon France, I foreseed them consequences.
Well, gentlemen, here's been a heap of prize-money made
in this house, without much fighting. We shall have to give
the young lieutenant a leave, for a few months, in order that
he may take his swing ashore, here, among his brother
squires!” “My dear Oakes:—Since we parted, my mind has undergone
some violent misgivings as to the course duty requires
of me, in this great crisis. One hand—one heart—
one voice even, may decide the fate of England! In such
circumstances, all should listen to the voice of conscience,
and endeavour to foresee the consequences of their own acts.
Confidential agents are in the west of England, and one of
them I have seen. By his communications I find more depends
on myself than I could have imagined, and more on
the movements of M. de Vervillin. Do not be too sanguine
—take time for your own decisions, and grant me time; for
I feel like a wretch whose fate must soon be sealed. On no
account engage, because you think this division near enough
to sustain you, but at least keep off until you hear from me
more positively, or we can meet. I find it equally hard to
strike a blow against my rightful prince, or to desert my
friend. For God's sake act prudently, and depend on seeing
me in the course of the next twenty-four hours. I shall
keep well to the eastward, in the hope of falling in with you,
as I feel satisfied de Vervillin has nothing to do very far
west. I may send some verbal message by the bearer, for
my thoughts come sluggishly, and with great reluctance. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 143 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Satanstoe, or, The Littlepage manuscripts | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It is easy to foresee that this country is destined to undergo
great and rapid changes. Those that more properly
belong to history, history will doubtless attempt to record,
and probably with the questionable veracity and prejudice
that are apt to influence the labours of that particular muse;
but there is little hope that any traces of American society,
in its more familiar aspects, will be preserved among us,
through any of the agencies usually employed for such purposes.
Without a stage, in a national point of view at least,
with scarcely such a thing as a book of memoirs that relates
to a life passed within our own limits, and totally without
light literature, to give us simulated pictures of our manners
and the opinions of the day, I see scarcely a mode by which the
next generation can preserve any memorials of the distinctive
usages and thoughts of this. It is true, they will have traditions
of certain leading features of the colonial society,
but scarcely any records; and, should the next twenty years
do as much as the last, towards substituting an entirely new
race for the descendants of our own immediate fathers, it is
scarcely too much to predict that even these traditions will
be lost in the whirl and excitement of a throng of strangers.
Under all the circumstances, therefore, I have come to a determination
to make an effort, however feeble it may prove,
to preserve some vestiges of household life in New York,
at least; while I have endeavoured to stimulate certain
friends in New Jersey, and farther south, to undertake similar
tasks in those sections of the country. What success
will attend these last applications, is more than I can say;
but, in order that the little I may do myself shall not be lost
for want of support, I have made a solemn request in my
will, that those who come after me will consent to continue
this narrative, committing to paper their own experience, as
I have here committed mine, down as low at least as my
grandson, if I ever have one. Perhaps, by the end of the
latter's career, they will begin to publish books in America,
and the fruits of our joint family labours may be thought
sufficiently matured to be laid before the world. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 144 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The redskins, or, Indian and Injin | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In a minute or two the tumult ceased, and a singular
scene presented itself. The church had four separate groups
or parties left in it, besides the Injins, who crowded the
main isle. The chairman, secretary, two ministers and lecturer,
remained perfectly tranquil in their seats, probably
understanding quite well they had nothing to fear from the
intruders. Mr. Warren and Mary were in another corner,
under the gallery, he having disdained flight, and prudently
kept his daughter at his side. My uncle and myself were
the pendants of the two last named, occupying the opposite
corner, also under the gallery. Mr. Hall, and two or three
friends who stuck by him, were in a pew near the wall, but
about half way down the church, the former erect on a seat,
where he had placed himself to speak. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 145 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The crater, or, Vulcan's Peak | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | There is nothing in which American Liberty, not always
as much restrained as it might be, has manifested a more
decided tendency to run riot, than in the use of names.
As for Christian names, the Heathen Mythology, the Bible,
Ancient History, and all the classics, have long since been
exhausted, and the organ of invention has been at work
with an exuberance of imagination that is really wonderful
for such a matter-of-fact people. Whence all the strange
sounds have been derived which have thus been pressed
into the service of this human nomenclature, it would
puzzle the most ingenious philologist to say. The days
of the Kates, and Dollys, and Pattys, and Bettys, have
passed away, and in their stead we hear of Lowinys,
and Orchistrys, Philenys, Alminys, Cythérys, Sarahlettys,
Amindys, Marindys, &c. &c. &c. All these last appellations
terminate properly with an a, but this unfortunate vowel,
when a final letter, being popularly pronounced like y, we
have adapted our spelling to the sound, which produces a
complete bathos to all these flights in taste. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 146 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The crater, or, Vulcan's Peak | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The building of the houses, and of the schooner, was
occupation for everybody, for a long time. The first were
completed in season to escape the rains; but the last was
on the stocks fully six months after her keel had been laid.
The fine weather had returned, even, and she was not yet
launched. So long a period had intervened since Waally's
visit to Rancocus Island without bringing any results, that
the council began to hope the Indians had given up their
enterprises, from the consciousness of not having the
means to carry them out; and almost every one ceased to
apprehend danger from that quarter. In a word, so
smoothly did the current of life flow, on the Reef and at
Vulcan's Peak, that there was probably more danger of
their inhabitants falling into the common and fatal error
of men in prosperity, than of anything else; or, of their
beginning to fancy that they deserved all the blessings that
were conferred on them, and forgetting the hand that bestowed
them. As is to recall them to a better sense of
things, events now occurred which it is our business to
relate, and which aroused the whole colony from the sort
of pleasing trance into which they had fallen, by the united
influence of security, abundance, and a most seductive
climate. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 151 | Author: | Poe
Edgar Allan
1809-1849 | Add | | | Title: | Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Antiochus Epiphanes is very generally looked
upon as the Gog of the prophet Ezekiel. This honor
is, however, more properly attributable to Cambyses,
the son of Cyrus. And, indeed, the character of the
Syrian monarch does by no means stand in need of
any adventitious embollishment. His accession to
the throne, or rather his usurpation of the sovereignty,
a hundred and seventy-one years before the coming
of Christ—his attempt to plunder the temple of
Diana at Ephesus—his implacable hostility to the
Jews—his pollution of the Holy of Holies, and his
miserable death at Taba, after a tumultuous reign of
eleven years, are circumstances of a prominent kind,
and therefore more generally noticed by the historians
of his time than the impious, dastardly, cruel,
silly, and whimsical achievements which make up
the sum total of his private life and reputation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 152 | Author: | Sedgwick
Catharine Maria
1789-1867 | Add | | | Title: | A New-england Tale, Or, Sketches of New-england Character and Manners | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Mr. Elton was formerly a flourishing trader,
or, in country phrase, a merchant, in the village
of—. In the early part of his life he had
been successful in business; and having a due portion
of that mean pride which is gratified by pecuniary
superiority, he was careful to appear quite
as rich as he was. When he was at the top of
fortune's wheel, some of his prying neighbours
shrewdly suspected, that the show of his wealth
was quite out of proportion to the reality; and
their side glances and prophetic whispers betrayed
their contempt of the offensive airs of the
purse-proud man. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 154 | Author: | Simms
William Gilmore
1806-1870 | Add | | | Title: | Beauchampe, Or, the Kentucky Tragedy | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The stormy and rugged winds of March were overblown—the
first fresh smiling days of April had come at
last—the days of sunshine and shower, of fitful breezes,
the breath of blossoms, and the newly awakened song of
birds. Spring was there in all the green and glory of her
youth, and the bosom of Kentucky heaved with the prolific
burden of the season. She had come, and her messengers
were every where, and every where busy. The birds bore
her gladsome tidings to
“Alley green,
Dingle or bushy dell of each wild wood,
And every bosky bourn from side to side—”
nor were the lately trodden and seared grasses of the forests
left unnoted; and the humbled flower of the wayside
sprang up at her summons. Like some loyal and devoted
people, gathered to hail the approach of a long exiled and
well-beloved sovereign, they crowded upon the path over
which she came, and yielded themselves with gladness at
her feet. The mingled songs and sounds of their rejoicing
might be heard, and far off murmurs of gratulation, rising
from the distant hollows, or coming faintly over the hill
tops, in accents not the less pleasing because they were the
less distinct. That lovely presence which makes every
land blossom and every living thing rejoice, met, in the
happy region in which we meet her now, a double tribute
of honour and rejoicing. The “dark and bloody ground,”
by which mournful epithets Kentucky was originally
known to the Anglo-American, was dark and bloody no
longer. The savage had disappeared from its green forests
for ever, and no longer profaned with slaughter, and his
unholy whoop of death, its broad and beautiful abodes. A
newer race had succeeded; and the wilderness, fulfilling
the better destinies of earth, had begun to blossom like the
rose. Conquest had fenced in its sterile borders, with a
wall of fearless men, and peace slept every where in security
among its green recesses. Stirring industry—the
perpetual conqueror—made the woods resound with the
echoes of his biting axe and ringing hammer. Smiling villages
rose in cheerful white, in place of the crumbling and
smoky cabins of the hunter. High and becoming purposes
of social life and thoughtful enterprise superseded that
eating and painful decay, which has terminated in the
annihilation of the native man; and which, among every
people, must always result from their refusal to exercise,
according to the decree of experience, no less than Providence,
their limbs and sinews in tasks of well directed
and continual labour. A great nation urging on a sleepless
war against sloth and feebleness, is one of the noblest of
human spectacles. This warfare was rapidly and hourly
changing the monotony and dreary aspects of rock and
forest. Under the creative hands of art, temples of magnificence
rose where the pines had fallen. Long and lovely
vistas were opened through the dark and hitherto impervious
thickets. The city sprang up beside the river, while
hamlets, filled with active hope and cheerful industry,
crowded upon the verdant hill-side, and clustered among
innumerable valleys. Grace began to seek out the homes
of toil, and taste supplied their decorations. A purer form
of religion hallowed the forest homes of the red man,
while expelling for ever the rude divinities of his worship;
and throughout the land, an advent of moral loveliness
seemed approaching, not less grateful to the affections and
the mind, than was the beauty of the infant April, to the
eye and the heart of the wanderer. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 155 | Author: | Simms
William Gilmore
1806-1870 | Add | | | Title: | Beauchampe, Or, the Kentucky Tragedy | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Having seen his enemy fairly mounted and under way,
as he thought, for Charlemont, Ned Hinkley returned to
Ellisland for his own horse. Here he did not suffer himself
to linger, though before he could succeed in taking
his departure, he was subjected to a very keen and searching
examination by the village publican and politician.
Having undergone this scrutiny with tolerable patience, if
not to the entire satisfaction of the examiner, he set forward
at a free canter, determined that his adversary should
not be compelled to wait. It was only while he rode that
he began to fancy the possibility of the other having taken
a different course; but as, upon reflection, he saw no
other plan, which he might have adopted—for lynching
for suspected offences was not yet a popular practice in and
about Charlemont,—he contented himself with the reflection
that he had done all that could have been done, and if
Alfred Stevens failed to keep his appointment, he, at least,
was one of the losers. He would necessarily lose the
chance of revenging an indignity, not to speak of the
equally serious loss of that enjoyment which a manly
fight usually gave to Ned Hinkley himself, and which, he
accordingly assumed, must be an equal gratification to all
other persons. When he arrived at Charlemont, he did
not make his arrival known, but repairing directly to the
lake among the hills, he hitched his horse, and prepared,
with what patience he could command, to await the coming
of the enemy. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 156 | Author: | Herbert
Henry William
1807-1858 | Add | | | Title: | Dermot O'brien; Or, the Taking of Tredagh | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The bright, warm sunshine of a July morning was pouring
its full stream of vivifying lustre over a wide expanse of wild,
open country, in one of the south-eastern counties of Ireland.
For miles and miles over which the eye extended, not a sign
of a human habitation, or of man's handiwork, was visible;
unless these were to be found in the existence of a long range
of young oak woodland, which lay to the north-east, stretching
for several miles continuously along the low horizon in that
quarter, with something that might have been either a mist-wreath,
or a column of blue smoke floating lazily in the pure
atmosphere above it. The foreground of this desolate, but
lovely landscape, was formed by a wide, brawling stream,
which almost merited the name of a river, and which here
issuing from an abrupt, rocky cleft or chasm, in the round-headed
moorland hills, spread itself out over a broader bed,
flowing rapidly in bright whirls and eddies upon a bottom of
glittering pebbles, with here and there a great boulder heaving
its dark, mossy head above the surface, and hundreds of silver-sided,
yellow-finned trouts, flashing up like meteors from
the depths, and breaking the smooth ripples in pursuit of
their insect prey. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 158 | Author: | Smith
Seba
1792-1868 | Add | | | Title: | John Smith's Letters, with 'picters' to Match | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Dear Father—I take my pen in hand to let you
know that I'm as hearty as a bear, and hope these few lines will find you, and
mother, and grandfather, and cousin Debby, and
all the children, enjoying
the same blessing. We stood our march remarkable
well, and are all alive, and safe, and
sound as a whistle. And Sargent Johnson makes
a most capital officer. He's jest sich a man as is wanted down
here—there's no skeering him, I can tell you. He'd fight against
bears, and wild-cats, and the British, and thunder and lightnin', and any
thing else, that should set out to meddle with our disputed territory. And he's
taken a master-liking
to me, too, and says if he has any hard fighting
to do, although I'm the youngest in the company,
he shall always choose me first for his right-hand
man. He says I had more pluck at the drafting than any one in the whole
company, and he should rather have me by his side in battle, than any
three of the rest of'em. But maybe you'd like to hear something about our march
down here, and so on. Dear Father—Tell mother I ain't shot yet,
though we've had one pretty considerable of a brush, and expect every day to
have some more. Colonel Jarvis has took quite a liking to our little
Smithville detachment. He says we are the
smartest troops he's got, and as long as we stick by him, it isn't Sir John
Harvey, nor all New-Brumzick, nor even Queen
Victory herself can ever drive him off of Fitzherbert's farm. Perhaps you
mayn't remember much about this Fitzherbert's
farm, where we are. It is the very place where the British nabbed our Land
Agent, Mr. McIntire, when he was abed, and asleep, and couldn't help
himself, and carried him off to Frederiction
jail. Let 'em come and try to nab us, if they dare; if they wouldn't wish
their cake was dough again, I'm mistaken. We've got up pretty considerable
of a little kind of a fort here, and we keep it manned day and
night—we don't more than half of us sleep to once, and are determined
the British shall never ketch us with both eyes shet. Dear Father—We stick by here yet, takin' care
of our disputed territory and the logs; and while we stay here the British will
have to walk as
straight as a hair, you may depend. We ain't had
much fighting to do since my last letter; and some how or other, things
seem to be getting cooler down here a little, so that I'm afraid we ain't agoing
to have the real scratch, after all, that I wanted to have. A day or two
arter we took the logging camp and brought the men and oxen off here prisoners
of war, we was setting in the fort after dinner
and talking matters over, and Sargent Johnson
was a wondering what a plague was the reason
the British didn't come up to the scratch as they talked on. He said he
guessed they wasn't sich mighty fairce fellers for war as they pretended
to be, arter all. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 159 | Author: | Hawthorne
Nathaniel
1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Scarlet Letter | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments
and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women,
some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was
assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of
which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with
iron spikes. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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