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James Fenimore Cooper
AFLOAT AND ASHORE Paperback: 380 pages Publisher: Hard Press (November 3, 2006) Language: English ISBN-10: 1406935670 reviewed by Patrick Killough (1) biblio.com 08/27/2010 Would you recommend this book to other readers? * * * * * YES! review: Read three or four chapters of James Fenimore Cooper's 1844 sea adventure, ASHORE OR AFLOAT. That ought to be enough to make you want to read to the end. If that indeed becomes your intention, then lay hands as soon as possible on the novel's "sequel" (more accurately "continuation"), MILES WALLINGFORD. For ASHORE OR AFLOAT leaves its hero, 21 year old Miles Wallingford, close to drowning in the Hudson River in the year 1803. You will want to know what comes next, and only MILES WALLINGFORD will make it happen. This novel is a first person narrative of the early life -- to age 21 -- of Miles Wallingford. Miles and his ethereal sister Grace were orphaned early and left in the care of old family friend and pastor, Anglican Rev. Mr. Hardinge. This saintly widower raises them along with his own two children, Rupert and Lucy. The boys are close in age, so are the girls. When Miles is 17 and Rupert 18, they inform their sisters (also their budding sweethearts respectively) that they are about to run away to sea. And they do. Accompanying them (against his command to return home with the boat that took them down the Hudson from the century old Wallingford family farm, Clawbonny), is Miles's devoted young black slave, Nebuchadnezzar Clawbonny or "Neb" for short. The Wallingfords are comparatively well off, better than yeomen, not quite as high as gentry. The Hardinges are poor, though they live well as stewards in the house of the Wallingfords. Very early we see defects in the character of Rupert Hardinge which do not bode well for the happiness of his sister and two young friends. Rupert is lazy, a liar, albeit charming, a big spender and not shy about taking money that he has not earned. After a year before the mast, the two boys return to the Hudson and to Clawbonny. Rupert accepts his clerical father's wish that he go to Manhattan to study law. Not yet adult Miles is permitted to return to the sea for a two-year merchant marine voyage around the world. Both voyages abound in storms and adventures. It is a time of war with France and there are naval engagements, too. A key new character introduced is aging seaman Moses Marble. Initially a first mate, Moses through tragedy becomes a captain and is eventually at his own request marooned on an island in the Pacific. He is something of a somewhat crude but good-hearted father figure to Miles Wallingford. Two other important characters, eventually rescued by Miles and crew from the French, are British half-pay Major Merton and his beautiful daughter Emily. When Miles finally returns from the sea to Manhattan, he finds the friend of his youth Rupert Hardinge now admitted to the New York bar and living well beyond his means in Town. Rupert also seems to have given over his earlier love for Miles's sister Grace in favor of the more polished Miss Emily Merton. Grace feels betrayed. Her always frail constitution gives way and she appears near death. Meanwhile Miles finally realizes that he loves Lucy Hardinge as much more than the virtual sister he was raised with. Yet he finds Lucy living well in Manhattan and hotly pursued by well off Andrew Drewett. At novel's end, Miles and Andrew are being saved from drowning far up the Hudson on a cruise to Albany. AFLOAT AND ASHORE is told by Miles Wallingford looking back in old age on a long life. He compares New York of 1797 and 1803 with the same State in 1844. In 1803 Miles, his dying sister and Lucy sail up the Hudson to Albany on doctor's orders. Only four years later the first steamboat will sail the same waters. In old age Miles compares the passing age of sail with the rising age of steam. Slavery is not yet ended in New York and Miles speaks with affection of the numerous blacks on his farm. We also see the interaction of Dutch, Yankees from New England and socially climbing English in and around New York. By novel's end, a reader will have sailed vicariously through the stormy Straits of Magellan and developed quite a feel for early 19th century navigation, tides, currents, winds and the unpredictable vicissitudes that thousands of sailors of all nations would have had to face. -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/hardcover-book/afloat-and-ashore -james-fenimore-cooper~488ec~274198914 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (2) lunch.com 08/28/2010 name of review: "Vice is twice as active as virtue" rating: * * * * review: AFLOAT AND ASHORE focuses on a bit more than four years in the young life of Miles Wallingford. In 1797, at 17, orphaned Miles runs away from home up the Hudson River in New York for a one year voyage on an American merchant vessel trading to Canton, China and then returning home. His ship is beset with stirring adventures. The reader will pick up much obsolete information about sailing vessels, longitude and latitude, ropes, sails, spars, tides, currents and winds. You also sense how dangerous international sea trade was in those days. Malay pirates were even more abundant then than now. But let me invite you to look into some of the characters of this sea tale, especially of four young people, and into their growing up to be good or bad. Miles Wallingford, an old man in the 1840s, looks back on his long life and narrates this story. He and his younger sister Grace were early orphaned and left to be raised by their Anglican parish priest, Rev. Mr. Hardinge. Kind, saintly Rev.Hardinge was also authorized by will to manage the sizable, century old Wallingford family farm, Clabonny, until Miles comes of age in 1803. Hardinge has two youngsters of his own: Rupert, a few months older than Miles, and Lucy, a couple of years senior to Grace. We sense early on that the odds are good that Rupert will marry very religious, delicate Grace and Miles will marry more down to earth Lucy. The fly in this ointment, however, is the relentless, selfish degeneration of the character of Rupert Hardinge. First, Rupert persuades Miles to run away to sea with him. They tell the girls but not Rev. Hardinge. They take the Wallingford family sloop and Miles's young black slave Neb down their creek and down the Hudson river to Manhattan where they three board an Indianman bound for Canton. Miles's father had been a respected sea captain, and well known to their current ship's master. Miles takes to seamanship like a natural. Rupert dodges all the hard work he can and makes slave Neb fill in. The captain sets Rupert to work on clerical duties aboard ship. Important for the rest of the life of Miles Wallingford is this vessel's first mate, 50-ish Moses Marble. After a year's adventures, Miles, Neb and Rupert return to Clawbonny and to the forgiveness of Rev. Hardinge. Rupert determines to study law; and Miles and Neb receive permission to return to sea for a sail around the world. Miles, on the recommendation of re-met by chance Moses Marble, is made an officer - Third Mate -a good promotion for an 18 year old. On this second, adventure-packed voyage we meet two more characters important to Miles and his family and friends: retired British Major Merton and his beautiful daughter Emily. Among the voyage's adventures, Miles, Neb and Moses Marble rescue the Mertons from French captivity on a deserted island in the Pacific. As ships exchange masters or take prizes during naval engagements, young Miles rises and becomes himself a very young master or Captain. The final few chapters of AFLOAT AND ASHORE show Miles and his slave Neb returned to Manhattan after a three-years absence at sea. Here Miles finds Rupert newly admitted to the New York bar and moving in high society. The Major and daughter Emily are soon also the toast of New York. Rupert is in the process of jilting -- for Emily Merton -- Miles's other-worldly sister Grace, whose health collapses as a result. Meanwhile Miles finally grasps that he is head over heels in love with Rupert's sister Lucy, his childhood playmate. But Lucy, now also living betimes in Manhattan, is courted by wealthy, honorable young Andrew Drewett. Our hero thinks therefore that he has no chance with Lucy. The novel ends abruptly in the summer of 1803 far up the Hudson River near Albany after Andrew Drewett, who cannot swim, has fallen into the river showing off to Lucy. Miles dives in to save him and is almost drowned for his pains. To find out what happens next you must lay hands on the continuation novel, MILES WALLINGFORD. The bad character of Rupert Harding propels AFLOAT AND ASHORE. Those nearest to Rupert, his doting father, his loving sister and Miles Wallingford, his best friend from boyhood, are all slow to interpret how seriously immoral he is becoming and how his bad behavior is tearing apart old, sacred ties. For Rupert is lazy, in love with money almost as much as with himself, a liar, a social climber, happier to take money from others than to earn it and constantly living beyond his means. "It is an old saying that vice is twice as active as virtue" (Ch 12. p. 160). I liked this novel very much. As other readers have noticed, this is essentially a novel about vessels propelled by sails. The first steam boat will appear on the Hudson in 1807. There is much nautical detail which I, a non-sailor, find difficult. You may well do the same. But you take away a great sense of the world of 1797 - 1803. America was newly independent, briefly at war with France. WIth no navy, America was nonetheless a great ship-building and mercantile people. And those who went down to the sea in sailing ships faced far greater challenges than would their successors in steam-propelled paddle-wheelers. -OOO- http://www.lunch.com/Reviews/d/james_fenimore_cooper _afloat_and_ashore-1594884.html?cid=74#rid:140377 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) bn.com 08/28/2010 title of review: "Surprisers musn't be surprised." rating: * * * * review: The hero of AFLOAT AND ASHORE is young Miles Wallingford, born around 1780 in New York. His father had been a sailor. Like generations of Wallingfords, Miles was born on Clawbonny, a 500-acre farm up a creek from the Hudson River. The early deaths of both parents found Miles and younger sister Grace heirs to a prosperous, if modest estate. The youngsters had been left in charge of the local Anglican parish priest, Rev. Hardinge, a poor widower with two children of his own, Rupert and Lucy. The four children grew up as four closely knit loving siblings. AFLOAT AND ASHORE is the well-balanced first part of a two-novel tale (MILES WALLINGFORD is the follow-on). I pass over in this review five important elements of the novel as follows: -- the bad character of young Rupert
Hardinge and its destructive impact on the other three children;
-- the romantic love that grew between Faith Wallingford and Rupert and between Lucy Hardinge and Miles Wallingford; -- the role of organized Anglican religion among the Hardinges, Wallingfords and the surprisingly numerous black slaves inherited by Miles and Grace; -- life among and attitudes of the slaves of Clawbonny Farm; -- Insights into other important characters such as Miles's young slave Nebuchadnezzar "Neb" Clawbonny (all the Wallingford slaves bore that surname), retired British Major Merton and his beautiful daughter Emily and wealthy young Andrew Drewett (who strenuously woos Lucy Hardinge, to our hero Miles Wallingford's evident dismay). AFLOAT AND ASHORE is a straightforward tale of Miles's years at sea on two trading voyages(1797 - 1798) and 1799 - 1803) and his time back in New York between the first voyage to Canton, China and during decisive weeks just after the second voyage -- one around the world. For the first jaunt, Rupert persuades Miles to run off with him to sea, without informing Rev. Hardinge. Miles proves himself a born sailor and distinguishes himself on the voyage while Rupert shows his lazy side and resolves at voyage's end to become a land-bound New York lawyer. On the second voyage, Miles, third mate of the good ship Crisis, is surprised and captured, the ship's captain being tomahawked, on the Oregon coast by fiendishly clever American Indians ostensibly peaceably trading furs. When surprised, Miles was on deck watch, lost in memories of his home and young Lucy Hardinge. Everyone else is trapped below deck. Miles redeems himself, however, by tricking the Indian leader, and the ship is recovered. Later, deep in the Pacific, the Crisis discovers an apparently uninhabited coral island. Once again, with guard down, the ship is captured -- this time by undetected French sailors who had been wrecked there. How could this have happened to normally alert American seamen? Fortunately, Miles and nearly 40 others shortly sail after the French and recapture by surprise their own vessel -- in a newly built boat left behind for them by the gallant French captain. Much earlier Miles had been part of the surprise capture of a French vessel, the USA and France being briefly at war. Miles's new Captain and earlier First Mate, Moses Marble, philosophize about surprise captures as a recurring element of life at sea. Miles's conclusion is that "Surprisers musn't be surprised." Generalizing from this maxim, we see that the tragedy of this novel is how Miles and others are constantly "surprised" by the evil behavior of Rupert. -OOO- recommended reading: -- Sir Walter Scott - THE PIRATE -- James Fenimore Cooper - MILES WALLINGFORD, THE PILOT. http://my.barnesandnoble.com/communityportal/ review.aspx?reviewid=1441454 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (4) amazon.com 08/28/2010 title of review: "Few men die for love." rating: **** review: In 1844 James Fenimore Cooper published one long tale in the form of two novels to be read consecutively: -- AFLOAT AND ASHORE and -- MILES WALLINGFORD. AFLOAT AND ASHORE is many things: -- (1) a tale of young Miles Wallingford'
s first two mercantile voyages between 1797 and 1803. The first was to
Canton, China by way of England and the second was around the world. On
the first voyage Miles's ship captures by surprise a French vessel
prize during the "Quasi-War" between revolutionary France and the young
USA. On the second voyage, Miles's new ship is captured twice, first by
Indians on the Oregon coast and later by marooned Frenchmen on a
previously unknown island in the middle of the Pacific. Miles bears
some personal blame for the capture of both his vessels, but he redeems
himself by quick thinking reactions, including recapturing his vessel
both times.
-- (2) the story of four young New Yorkers moving from immature teens to young adults: Miles Wallingford, orphaned heir to Clawbonny, a century old 500-acre farm on the east side of the Hudson River; his younger sister Grace; their equally young friends Rupert and Lucy, daughters of local Anglican pastor, Reverend Mister Hardinge. Hardinge is also the appointed guardian of Miles and Grace as well as administrator of their prosperous estate. -- (3) a study of the numerous black slaves, all bearing the family name Clawbonny, inherited by Grace and Miles Wallingford. Prominence among slaves goes to Miles's age mate and devoted personal servant Nebuchadnezzar "Neb" Clawbonny who goes to sea with his master on both voyages and who turns out a highly competent, creative and courageous seaman. -- (4) the decaying character of self-absorbed young Rupert Hardinge and the improving views and behavior of his sister Lucy and their two friends Miles and Grace Wallingford. Rupert's growing cruelty drives a wedge among the four friends from childhood. In addition to the elements above there is at least one other that deserves to be stressed: -- (5) the slowly deepening romantic love
between our hero Miles Wallingford and Lucy Hardinge, raised together
as virtual brother and sister. Their shy, undeclared love contrasts
with the ever enduring, not to be missed love of Miles's sister Grace
for Lucy's brother Rupert and with the latter's jilting Grace in favor
of a more polished English beauty.
Grace Wallingford is a deeply religious Anglican Christian. She also possesses a dangerously sensitive, easily weakened physical constitution. Her rejection by her lover steadily increases her eagerness to be with her God, but unravels her will to stay alive, though her guardian and males are slow to sense the terrible thing that is happening to Grace. For males tend not to notice the difference in how men and women love. Toward novel's end, Miles and his sister Grace have a long conversation. Miles hopes that Grace will help him measure the chances of his undeclared love for her best friend, Lucy Hardinge. Miles is back from his second voyage. He has found Rupert already a lawyer and moving, improbably, in high Manhattan society. Rupert's sister Lucy has been pursued by a number of eligible young bachelors and Miles fears that one of them has captured Lucy's heart. His sister tells Miles that Lucy has rejected at least four suitors. Miles asserts that women happily make fun of men who are thus humiliated. No, says Grace. Any woman will feel for any man "seriously
attached to her. Still, attachments of this nature affect your sex less
than ours, and I believe few men die of love" (Ch. 24).
Read AFLOAT AND ASHORE for all the five elements above and more. But know that you will be led deep into the mysteries of young love and of young betrayal of love. -OOO- tags: james fenimore cooper, slavery in new york, sea adventure, 1798 - 1800 quasi-war with france http://www.amazon.com/Afloat-Ashore-James-Fenimore-Cooper/ product-reviews/1406935670/ref=pr_all_summary_cm_cr_acr_txt? ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (5) epinions.com Review Title: "I belong to you, you belong to me, and we belong to one anodder" by aohcapablanca, Aug 28 '10 Product Rating: * * * * PROS: New York and Manhattan society around 1800. Two long voyages. A slave loves his master. CONS: Enormous detail about the craft of sailing vessels: ropes, masts, sails. Some remarkable coincidences. BOTTOM LINE: AFLOAT AND ASHORE is not complete without its follow-on novel, MILES WALLINGFORD. Its elements include high adventures at sea, young love betrayed, upbeat treatment of affection between master and slaves. aohcapablanca's
Full Review:
One mark of a good book is that it improves on a second reading. Each of James Fenimore Cooper's interlocked novels of 1844: ASHORE AND AFLOAT and MILES WALLINGFORD is, by that criterion, a profoundly good book. Both books are narrated by 60-ish Miles Wallingford as he looks back on his long life. ASHORE AND AFLOAT takes the hero from his birth around 1780 to a scene of near drowning on the Hudson River near Albany in the year 1803. MILES WALLINGFORD begins on the deck of Miles's own sloop just after a seafaring comrade has saved him and a rival in love from the river. Like his father before him, Miles has the sea in his blood. At 17 he runs away in 1797 and works his way to Canton, China and back. A year later Miles returns home along with his co-runaway and lifelong chum, Rupert Hardinge. They are both received back kindly by Rupert's father, the Anglican parish priest who serves a rural neighborhood up the east bank of the Hudson. Rupert and his younger sister Grace were orphaned young and are wards of Rev. Hardinge, who also administers, until Miles turns 21, the Wallingfords' century old, 500 acre farm called Clawbonny. Grace welcomes home her brother, as her best friend, the somewhat older Lucy Hardinge, affectionately welcomes back her brother Rupert. With his guardian's approval, Miles soon departs for a three-year round the world trading voyage. Rupert goes to Manhattan to study law. The girls remain at Clawbonny. On both voyages, Miles Wallingford is accompanied by his age-mate, friend and personal slave, Neb Clawbonny, who proves an outstandingly good, brave, inventive sailor. There are three points of AFLOAT AND ASHORE that particularly lodge in my memory and judgment: -- (1) Fenimore Cooper's treatment of Negro slavery in New York -- abolished in 1827. Cooper honored men and women of all nations and religions. Thus, he issued his Indian-sympathetic THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS and the other four LEATHERSTOCKING TALES during the height of the anti-Indian "Trail of Tears" years. Not surprisingly, Cooper was also a close student of the American Negro, slave and free, and saw black strengths that other writers and most contemporary Americans sometimes missed. More than once Miles Wallingford announces his intention to free his favorite slave and friend Neb, and otherwise to prepare his surprisingly numerous slaves for the abolition of slavery which he saw coming for New York. Each time, Miles is turned down in loyal horror. Neb's great grandfather had been brought from Guinea and purchased for Clawbonny Farm by Miles's great grandfather in 1700. Now Neb is horrified at the prospect of freedom: "S'pose
I free, who do sich matter for you, Masser Mile? … No, no, sir, -- I
belong to you, you belong to me, and we belong to one anodder"
(Ch 24).
-- (2) New York State around 1800 was still strongly characterized by "undemocratic" views of social stratification, views that Miles Wallingford acknowledged to himself that he accepted. His 500 acres made him more than a yeoman, but less than gentry or a gentleman (Ch 22). When he was rich and his increasingly well beloved Lucy Hardinge was poor, Miles would have married her, despite social differences. But on his return as master of his own merchantman from his third voyage, Miles finds that Lucy is a rich heiress and he, though an independent shipowner, is far below her in wealth. That alone might doom their romance. But then she is also pursued by many a wealthy young Manhattanite. --(3) Finally, religion, particularly Anglican Christianity, plays a large role in AFLOAT AND ASHORE. Recently, a novelist friend of mine set a thriller in our mountain North Carolina backyard, possibly the 60 most intensely Protestant square miles of the entire USA. His treatment of our fellow citizens was utterly secular. Under pressure, far too many characters, for my taste, in a valley whose most famous inhabitant is the Reverend Dr. Billy Graham, acted like selfish semi-cannibals. I protested. The author said: "Religion,
alas, does not sell novels."
So if you won't read a novel because a couple of its principal characters are intensely religious, you had best skip both AFLOAT AND ASHORE and especially MILES WALLINGFORD. The hero's sister Grace was secretly betrothed at age fifteen to young Rupert Hardinge, with whom she had been raised virtually as sister and brother. Once Rupert, an intensely narcissistic young man whose faults become increasingly severe in the narrative, begins to move in higher Manhattan society, to acquire debts and to play the grand seigneur, he also throws over frail, very religious Grace for a more fashionable young woman from England. That woman's life, parenthetically, had been rescued in London by Miles on his first voyage during a visit to London. Grace's constitution declines steadily toward the end of the first novel and reaches its tearful end not far into MILES WALLINGFORD. Kindly wait for my review of that follow-on novel to learn of one of the most impressively genuine and morally uplifting Christian deaths in English literature. -OOO- Recommended: * * * * YES! http://www1.epinions.com/review/James_Fenimore_Cooper _Afloat_and_Ashore_epi/content_522873310852 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= For this novel's detailed plot
and alphabetical listing of all characters see http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/writings/plots/ walker-afloat.html excerpt giving more prominent persons:
"Margaret Bradfort, Chloe Clawbonny, Dido Clawbonny, Nebuchadnezzar Clawbonny, Mrs. Drewett, Andrew Drewett, Rev. Mr. Hardinge, Lucy Hardinge, Rupert Hardinge, Captain Moses Marble, Emily Merton, Major Merton, Mrs. Merton, Roger Talcott, Tin-Pot, Mrs. Wallingford, Grace Wallingford, John Wallingford, Miles Wallingford, Miles Wallingford [the younger]." file: cooper_afloat http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/cooper_afloat.html |