What do you think?
Rate this book
Autobiography Of A Pocket Handkerchief
""An Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief"" is a unique and engaging novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The story is narrated by a pocket handkerchief, who recounts its journey from its creation to its eventual demise. The handkerchief witnesses the lives of various owners, including a young girl, a soldier, and a wealthy aristocrat. Along the way, it experiences love, loss, and betrayal, all while providing a glimpse into the customs and social norms of the time period. The novel is a fascinating exploration of the human experience through the eyes of an inanimate object, and is sure to captivate readers with its imaginative storytelling and vivid descriptions.""Well!"" exclaimed $25, ""this is the first ball I have been at that I was not thought good enough to have a place in the quadrille. You see all the canaille are in the hands of their owners, while we, the elite of pocket- handkerchiefs, are left here in a corner, like so many cloaks.""This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1843
25 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
About the author
James Fenimore Cooper
4,657 books1,123 followersJames Fenimore Cooper was a popular and prolific American writer. He is best known for his historical novel The Last of the Mohicans, one of the Leatherstocking Tales stories, and he also wrote political fiction, maritime fiction, travelogues, and essays on the American politics of the time. His daughter Susan Fenimore Cooper was also a writer.
Series:
* The Leatherstocking Tales
* The Littlepage Manuscripts
* Afloat and Ashore
* Homeward Bound
Series:
* The Leatherstocking Tales
* The Littlepage Manuscripts
* Afloat and Ashore
* Homeward Bound
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 12, 2016
I noticed this title on the James Fenimore Cooper author page at Project Gutenberg and thought the same thing anyone reading this is probably thinking now: WHAT?!
I have a fondness for unusual old books, so I added it to my someday lists. When it came time to read the book (originally serialized in four issues of Graham's Magazine of 1843) I was expecting a tongue-in-cheek bit of fluff. But according to the very interesting forward notes by the secretary of the JFC Society, who transcribed this work for Gutenberg, this was Cooper's first serious attempt at magazine writing. The editors at Graham's must have liked the novelette, since they published other Cooper works over the years as well, including a novel that stretched out for two years!
I appreciate the work Secretary MacDougall put into the transcribing of this book. He left the text as originally printed, but added footnotes to explain the French words and phrases Cooper used throughout, and also some of the now dated events that were commented on in the course of the piece. It would have been quite confusing without these notes, so thank you, Mr. Secretary!
But what about the book itself? Is it interesting? Is it readable? After all, this is an old-fashioned author writing close to 175 years ago. What could he possibly have to say that would entertain anyone these days?
Well, I admit the first paragraph was hard to get through. The pocket handkerchief was talking about ancestors and how even a prince has the blood of a beggar in his veins if he traces his family tree back far enough. Of course the PH said it much more flowery than that. I read that paragraph a few times and am still not entirely certain I 'got it' all. But after that the PH sounded less snooty and began to tell about its life: it came from Yankee flax seed that was grown in Connecticut and shipped in a barrel to Europe. But on the way it was stolen by a French privateer and then sold, so the Yankee flax seed was planted in France, which is how our friend the PH came to be French.
I was tickled by Cooper's imagination: the handkerchief remembers being so happy in the field with its family, even listening to an astronomer who used to sit out near the field at night to watch the stars and lecture students. Oh, but then comes the trauma: It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the scenes which occurred between the time I first sprang from the earth and that in which I was "pulled." The latter was a melancholy day for me, however, arriving prematurely as regarded my vegetable state, since it was early determined that I was to be spun into threads of unusual fineness. I will only say, here, that my youth was a period of innocent pleasures, during which my chief delight was to exhibit my simple but beautiful flowers, in honor of the hand that gave them birth. At the proper season, the whole field was laid low, when a scene of hurry and confusion succeeded, to which I find it exceedingly painful to turn in memory.
The real beginnings of the handkerchief are here, where it goes through the process of being turned into linen of the finest quality. And it is in the bleaching grounds that PH learns about politics. Again, I thought Cooper was clever with the way he wove together the same revolution that Victor Hugo wrote about in Les Miserables and the life of our pocket handkerchief. He has the piece of linen absorbing the opposing political views of the men who tend the bleaching grounds, which accounts for the fact that one side of the length of material held certain views, while the other felt just the opposite, which led to some hefty arguments in the threads, according to PH.
Eventually the material is sold and the finest pieces are bundled into a packet of a dozen handkerchiefs. Now is a good time to explain that at that time, a handkerchief of such quality was not meant for use but for show, or to flirt with, or to wave to a friend. Certainly not for anything so crude as blowing your nose!
Our PH was to be to sold to a special customer of a little shop, but the July Revolution occurred before any sale could be made and PH and its friends spent the time hidden away in a trunk. Finally one day months later the lovely Adrienne comes and buys PH, taking it home to embroider in hopes of earning enough from the sale of the finished piece to keep her elderly Grandmother and herself alive for a few more months. Adrienne and her Grandma had lived near the fields during the bleaching process so PH knew her, and was very proud to be embellished by such an old friend.
Twists and turns follow, political commentaries are made by Cooper in the voice of PH, and she (yes, it turns out that PH is a female handkerchief!) eventually arrives in America to have a fun conversation with a Yankee shirt while hanging on the line after a laundering, and to witness American Society of the day, which was already well on the way to becoming the acquisitive, materialistic, I Paid X Amount For This Item Aren't I Wonderful type of place it is now.
PH explains a few times how she knows everything that she does: there is a 'mesmeristic talent' that all handkerchiefs and other items made of natural fibers possess which allows them to sense the feelings of the people nearest them. Maybe this is why we all have our favorite shirts or pairs of jeans? We are not choosing them on our own, they just want to get out of the house as often as possible?!
Anyway, I thought the whole story was clever, and I enjoyed it very much. I find myself looking around to imagine what kind of tale various objects in this room would tell if they could. The bookcase, the old clay marble I found in the yard, the curtains. I could have a lot of fun with this idea!
I have a fondness for unusual old books, so I added it to my someday lists. When it came time to read the book (originally serialized in four issues of Graham's Magazine of 1843) I was expecting a tongue-in-cheek bit of fluff. But according to the very interesting forward notes by the secretary of the JFC Society, who transcribed this work for Gutenberg, this was Cooper's first serious attempt at magazine writing. The editors at Graham's must have liked the novelette, since they published other Cooper works over the years as well, including a novel that stretched out for two years!
I appreciate the work Secretary MacDougall put into the transcribing of this book. He left the text as originally printed, but added footnotes to explain the French words and phrases Cooper used throughout, and also some of the now dated events that were commented on in the course of the piece. It would have been quite confusing without these notes, so thank you, Mr. Secretary!
But what about the book itself? Is it interesting? Is it readable? After all, this is an old-fashioned author writing close to 175 years ago. What could he possibly have to say that would entertain anyone these days?
Well, I admit the first paragraph was hard to get through. The pocket handkerchief was talking about ancestors and how even a prince has the blood of a beggar in his veins if he traces his family tree back far enough. Of course the PH said it much more flowery than that. I read that paragraph a few times and am still not entirely certain I 'got it' all. But after that the PH sounded less snooty and began to tell about its life: it came from Yankee flax seed that was grown in Connecticut and shipped in a barrel to Europe. But on the way it was stolen by a French privateer and then sold, so the Yankee flax seed was planted in France, which is how our friend the PH came to be French.
I was tickled by Cooper's imagination: the handkerchief remembers being so happy in the field with its family, even listening to an astronomer who used to sit out near the field at night to watch the stars and lecture students. Oh, but then comes the trauma: It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the scenes which occurred between the time I first sprang from the earth and that in which I was "pulled." The latter was a melancholy day for me, however, arriving prematurely as regarded my vegetable state, since it was early determined that I was to be spun into threads of unusual fineness. I will only say, here, that my youth was a period of innocent pleasures, during which my chief delight was to exhibit my simple but beautiful flowers, in honor of the hand that gave them birth. At the proper season, the whole field was laid low, when a scene of hurry and confusion succeeded, to which I find it exceedingly painful to turn in memory.
The real beginnings of the handkerchief are here, where it goes through the process of being turned into linen of the finest quality. And it is in the bleaching grounds that PH learns about politics. Again, I thought Cooper was clever with the way he wove together the same revolution that Victor Hugo wrote about in Les Miserables and the life of our pocket handkerchief. He has the piece of linen absorbing the opposing political views of the men who tend the bleaching grounds, which accounts for the fact that one side of the length of material held certain views, while the other felt just the opposite, which led to some hefty arguments in the threads, according to PH.
Eventually the material is sold and the finest pieces are bundled into a packet of a dozen handkerchiefs. Now is a good time to explain that at that time, a handkerchief of such quality was not meant for use but for show, or to flirt with, or to wave to a friend. Certainly not for anything so crude as blowing your nose!
Our PH was to be to sold to a special customer of a little shop, but the July Revolution occurred before any sale could be made and PH and its friends spent the time hidden away in a trunk. Finally one day months later the lovely Adrienne comes and buys PH, taking it home to embroider in hopes of earning enough from the sale of the finished piece to keep her elderly Grandmother and herself alive for a few more months. Adrienne and her Grandma had lived near the fields during the bleaching process so PH knew her, and was very proud to be embellished by such an old friend.
Twists and turns follow, political commentaries are made by Cooper in the voice of PH, and she (yes, it turns out that PH is a female handkerchief!) eventually arrives in America to have a fun conversation with a Yankee shirt while hanging on the line after a laundering, and to witness American Society of the day, which was already well on the way to becoming the acquisitive, materialistic, I Paid X Amount For This Item Aren't I Wonderful type of place it is now.
PH explains a few times how she knows everything that she does: there is a 'mesmeristic talent' that all handkerchiefs and other items made of natural fibers possess which allows them to sense the feelings of the people nearest them. Maybe this is why we all have our favorite shirts or pairs of jeans? We are not choosing them on our own, they just want to get out of the house as often as possible?!
Anyway, I thought the whole story was clever, and I enjoyed it very much. I find myself looking around to imagine what kind of tale various objects in this room would tell if they could. The bookcase, the old clay marble I found in the yard, the curtains. I could have a lot of fun with this idea!
March 26, 2023
Konu farklı gibi karakter alışılmışın dışında, kabul fakat bir yerde bir eksik var gibi. Kısa bir kitap, yormadan okunuyor fakat nedense hem kopukluk hem de eee ne oldu şimdi? Hissiyatı var. Bu tip kısa kısa kitaplar var okumak istediğim. Fakat zamanı iyi kullanmak adına sanıyorum biraz daha iyi seçmek lazım.
April 6, 2010
In all honesty, I thought this book was awful. I was expecting something funny, witty, intelligent,but I don't feel that it was any of the above. Perhaps, I will one day re-read it, maybe I missed the point....
October 23, 2013
I was pleasantly surprised and delighted by this book. How original, the story is narrated by the hankerchief itself, and through this, Cooper gave us a nice view of politics, culture and social life in France and America. it reminded me of Tim Obrian's The Things They Carried...
August 19, 2024
Sevimli bir hikaye olsa da zamansız bir hikaye değil. Yazıldığı döneme ve coğrafyaya yönelik bol sayıda atıf içeriyor, bu nedenle metne gerçek değerini katan esprileri, taşlamaları ve eleştirileri yakalayamıyoruz, elimizde kala kala sevimli bir hikaye kalıyor.
April 26, 2016
This is a quirky little book that is narrated by a pocket handkerchief that remembers it's time growing in the cotton fields, being picked, dried and woven and being carried and transferred from owner to owner. As our narrator moves through French and American society we get an interesting insight into the people and characters that dominate and the duties and expectations of the era, told through the innocent eyes of an outsider with a sense of light hearted wit that would've been lacking had we had a more traditional narrator.
August 2, 2016
Critic Thomas Bender(great name) didn't like it.I did.
July 29, 2023
Asıl puanım 3.5/5. İsmi ilginç gelen bu roman benden tam 200 yıl önce doğan Cooper tarafından yazılmış. Kitap eski olduğu için çok beklentim yoktu ama beğendim. Arkada Fransız Devrimi yaşanırken bir cep mendili hayatını anlatıyor. Zavallı Adienne'in başına gelenler üzdü. Yazarın satıcıları ve gazetecileri pek sevmediği anlaşılıyor, pek de haksız sayılmaz sanırım.
April 22, 2024
This was a delightful romp through an interesting period of time as seen through the eyes of a pocket handkerchief. Thoroughly enjoyed reading about how people thought in the day, what their aspirations were and what drove them, and of course, understanding more about the disappearing pocket handkerchief. A quick, worthwhile read.
June 30, 2020
Quite an innovative way of telling a story. The adventures of the handkerchief through history and on two continents kept my attention. The footnotes were informative and I was grateful the book had them. Besides the historical facts, it was interesting learning about Cooper’s thoughts on subjects touched on in the story.
October 10, 2019
Weird but beautiful.
January 25, 2026
Hikaye güzel ve farklı ancak anltımda bazı kopukluklar var gibi, ayrıca sürekli bir dipnot okuma zorunluluğunun okuma keyfimi kesntiye uğrattını düşünüyorum.
July 12, 2016
I'll be honest; there were parts I really struggled with and 4 stars is maybe a bit generous.
The parts I could understand, I really enjoyed. The moment I read the title in the book shop I knew I had to buy this book and I'm really glad I did. For such a short story and for the time it was written there is a wealth of feeling and emotion; the last couple of chapters were fabulously well done.
I think its something to do with having a completely helpless narrator, I felt so bad for Adrianne and the fact that nothing could be done to help her made that stronger.
It did seem to end rather quickly after so much slow build up and there wasn't any kind of conclusion but I liked it, it was weird and interesting.
The parts I could understand, I really enjoyed. The moment I read the title in the book shop I knew I had to buy this book and I'm really glad I did. For such a short story and for the time it was written there is a wealth of feeling and emotion; the last couple of chapters were fabulously well done.
I think its something to do with having a completely helpless narrator, I felt so bad for Adrianne and the fact that nothing could be done to help her made that stronger.
It did seem to end rather quickly after so much slow build up and there wasn't any kind of conclusion but I liked it, it was weird and interesting.
February 1, 2015
What a delight! This story was part of a compilation of short stories I am currently reading. I almost skipped it, as it was the longest of the stories and the title was less than intriguing. I'm so glad I gave it a shot! The language was wonderful and the characters well-defined. A fun little gem.
April 1, 2019
Here’s a surprisingly enchanting novelette that speaks about society from the viewpoint of a (female) handkerchief, and it was written by James Fenimore Cooper, which piqued my interest. This story is a satire on the subject of ego
September 30, 2012
Definitely an interesting read with high language and hidden political/moral truths. Cooper weaves a fine story and represents his views of America and her people.
February 25, 2014
Sweet storyline.
November 11, 2014
Best book I've read in a long time! Excellent vocabulary, witty, insightful, & God-honoring.
May 25, 2015
Kudos to the author for being able to write such an interesting story from the point of view of a handkerchief.
March 3, 2018
That TWIST.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews