James Fenimore Cooper: Leatherstocking Tales

[Valandil]

Anyone read them? Liked them? I read them in a stretch when I was commuting on an el train and focused on reading the ride away.

There are five in the series. The most famous is "Last of the Mohicans" - it's second in the series and also the second he wrote. It's good, but I actually think the best is "The Pioneers" which is the first one he wrote, but is fourth chronologically in the series (Cooper wrote that one as a stand-alone story, but had a lot of requests for more stories with a particular character from the book - Natty Bumppo / Leatherstocking - who is named "Hawkeye" in LotM).

"The Pioneers" is a great study of early American life, just after the American revolution as we expand into the frontier. "Last of the Mohicans" is a great adventure story - and has a particularly gripping historical event included in the story. Another point of interest is that these were written in the 1820's and 1830's - when the American frontier was still being opened and when the times written of were still within living memory.

Here are the books in chronological order - with the order written in ( ) afterwards.

1. The Deerslayer (#5)
2. The Last of the Mohicans (#2)
3. The Pathfinder (#4)
4. The Pioneers (#1)
5. The Prairie (#3)

Note that the 'chronological' order is also alphabetical order.

[Valandil]

BTW: If anyone is interested, but intimidated by the thought of reading all five, then read two. Start with "The Last of the Mohicans" - then, if you liked that (but want something ENTIRELY different), read "The Pioneers"

If you only want to read one, read "The Pioneers" - it's not at all like LotM... no Indian warfare, no scalpings, etc. In fact, the first big chunk of the book (maybe half or more) is set on a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (1793, I think).

[Mercutio]

I read part of Deerslayer yesterday (about 10 pages in our lit book). Thought it was a good, basic adventure tale. Didn't read enough to make any more specific opinion.

[Orion]

I have read them all, but already some time ago (10-15 years) so I don´t remember very much from them. The only one of them that I have read more frequently is the Last of the Mohicans. I like it a lot, it is a beautifully written book, with one of the saddest endings in the literature that I have read. (Meaning Cora / Uncas.)

What I liked about them was that they are authentic products of their time, you can at least assume that they tell about their world in a somewhat truthful way; at least more so than a book written in the 20th-21st century about that time.

[Valandil]

Orion - I definitely agree about the authenticity! It's particularly interesting because of contemporary views about American Indians. Cooper's view was actually positive - but he also 'told it like it was' as far as their customs, tendencies, habits, etc. One can see why the clash of cultures was inevitable. There were still MANY tragic episodes perpetuated by whites - so those should not be excused... but you get a fuller picture.

One interesting attitude comes to light in the last book, "The Prairie". It seems like Americans thought that the far west (like coastal, beyond the Rockies) would be settled - and either become a remote extension of the United States - or a similar 'sister-country' - but that the lands in between were just too desolate - and would be sort of a 'no man's land' - perhaps just left to the Indian. Interesting in light of what eventually came to pass.

That final book is set there - on the American prairie. The first four are all in upstate New York.

Mercutio - is the 10 pages all there are in your lit book? Just enough to whet the appetite?