“This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American Novels
“In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?” This oft-quoted sentence actually comes from a review written by Sidney Smith in January 1820 for the Edinburgh Review of Adam Seybert’s book, Statistical Annals of the United States of America. Yet this text also follows, in the same...
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Société de Langues et de Littératures Médiévales d'Oc et d'Oil
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Perspectives Médiévales |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/peme/9487 |
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| author | Pauline Pilote |
| author_facet | Pauline Pilote |
| author_sort | Pauline Pilote |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | “In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?” This oft-quoted sentence actually comes from a review written by Sidney Smith in January 1820 for the Edinburgh Review of Adam Seybert’s book, Statistical Annals of the United States of America. Yet this text also follows, in the same issue, an article reviewing the whole of Scott’s texts that had been so far published and which quotes lengthy excerpts from the latest romance, Ivanhoe. This book in particular, which takes medieval England as its background, was probably one of the most widely read of the Waverley Novels in America. The enthusiasm of the American readership in the early decades of the 19th century seems to reveal a general attraction for the European Middle Ages. Indeed, Scott’s American contemporaries resort to the medieval apparatus that was brought back into fashion by Ivanhoe – stereotypes of knight-errantry, damsels in distress, code of honour, etc. – to describe the Native Americans that people their narratives. Both Cooper – the “American Scott” – and Washington Irving thus transplant medieval features onto the wilderness, thereby presenting the New World as a land calling for chivalric feats, paradoxically endowing that supposed pristine landscape with a general atmosphere of romance. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0cc0f284566047889003456b37c647bd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2262-5534 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | Société de Langues et de Littératures Médiévales d'Oc et d'Oil |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Perspectives Médiévales |
| spelling | doaj-art-0cc0f284566047889003456b37c647bd2025-01-13T15:29:31ZengSociété de Langues et de Littératures Médiévales d'Oc et d'OilPerspectives Médiévales2262-55342016-01-013710.4000/peme.9487“This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American NovelsPauline Pilote“In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?” This oft-quoted sentence actually comes from a review written by Sidney Smith in January 1820 for the Edinburgh Review of Adam Seybert’s book, Statistical Annals of the United States of America. Yet this text also follows, in the same issue, an article reviewing the whole of Scott’s texts that had been so far published and which quotes lengthy excerpts from the latest romance, Ivanhoe. This book in particular, which takes medieval England as its background, was probably one of the most widely read of the Waverley Novels in America. The enthusiasm of the American readership in the early decades of the 19th century seems to reveal a general attraction for the European Middle Ages. Indeed, Scott’s American contemporaries resort to the medieval apparatus that was brought back into fashion by Ivanhoe – stereotypes of knight-errantry, damsels in distress, code of honour, etc. – to describe the Native Americans that people their narratives. Both Cooper – the “American Scott” – and Washington Irving thus transplant medieval features onto the wilderness, thereby presenting the New World as a land calling for chivalric feats, paradoxically endowing that supposed pristine landscape with a general atmosphere of romance.https://journals.openedition.org/peme/9487receptionUnited States of AmericaNative Americanwilderness |
| spellingShingle | Pauline Pilote “This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American Novels Perspectives Médiévales reception United States of America Native American wilderness |
| title | “This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American Novels |
| title_full | “This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American Novels |
| title_fullStr | “This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American Novels |
| title_full_unstemmed | “This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American Novels |
| title_short | “This Rude Chivalry of the Wilderness”: Chivalry and Native Americans in Cooper’s and Irving’s American Novels |
| title_sort | this rude chivalry of the wilderness chivalry and native americans in cooper s and irving s american novels |
| topic | reception United States of America Native American wilderness |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/peme/9487 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT paulinepilote thisrudechivalryofthewildernesschivalryandnativeamericansincoopersandirvingsamericannovels |