Rural Hours

Can’t believe I was unaware of the existence of this American masterpiece until now!

Great book. Much detail here of the daily lives of our nineteenth century forbearers, written from a first hand perspective. Essential reading for the descendants of Otsego County.

Such a treasure of Americana and Women's History. Lovely lyrical language, a treat for any who loves nature and 19th century Literature.

This journal of Susan Fenimore Cooper (naturalist and daughter of James Fenimore Cooper) was published in 1887 and describes detailed observations of nature and life in the course of a year at Cooperstown, NY. I read it when I need to relax to get to sleep, but I don’t mean this in a bad way. I love Cooperstown and Lake Otsego, so I enjoy the author’s observations of nature and town life. But the observations are very detailed, and she does go off on extensive tangents. So, I get to read and learn about a place I love as I drift off to sleep.

A nature writer a little before Thoreau.

For over a century, admirer's of Susan Fenimore Cooper's "Rural Hours" (1850) have been dependent on a heavily abridged version dating from 1887 -- the only one to be reprinted in modern times. Though "Rural Hours" is generally accepted both as good reading and as a major contribution to American nature writing, it has not previously been available as the author originally wrote it -- and as others, including Thoreau, read it. Susan Fenimore Cooper, long overshadowed by her novelist father, is today becoming recognized as an important writer of the 19th century; this new text will make her most important and influential work fully available again both to scholars and to a new generation of readers.

This book was a bestseller in the 1850s and is an account of Cooper's observations of the natural world. If you like nature writing you will probably like it, though it does ramble a little at times.

This is more of a diary than a book with a plot. the writing though is very good and discriptive.

Increíble

Interesting to be able to read through journals of years past. This book is the nature journal (mostly) of an American, so the nature entries are in relation to what her home region in America was like. From an environmental stand point it’s very interesting seeing how things have changed and what is similar. This book was a recommend read with Ambleside Online homeschooling book lists. We also use Country Notes of an Edwardian Lady (purchased second hand), which covers the climate, flora and fauna in the United Kingdom.