James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales: Volume One

The Leatherstocking Tales #1 & 3

by James Fenimore Cooper, Blake Nevins (Editor)

The five novels in The Leatherstocking Tales (collected in two Library of America volumes), Cooper’s great saga of the American wilderness, form a pageant of the American frontier. Cooper’s hero, Natty Bumppo, is forced ever farther into the heart of the continent by the advance of civilization that he inadvertently serves as advance scout, missionary, and critic. Praised by Balzac, Melville, and D. H. Lawrence, The Leatherstocking Tales narrates the conflict of nations (Indian, English, French, and American) amid the dense woods, desolate prairies, and transcendent landscapes of the New World.

Leatherstocking first appears in The Pioneers (1823), as an aged hunter living on the fringe of settlement near Templeton (Cooperstown), New York, at the end of the eighteenth century. There he becomes caught in the struggles of party, family, and class to control the changing American land and to determine what sort of civilization will replace the rapidly vanishing wilderness. When Natty Bumppo started an American tradition by setting off into the sunset at the novel’s close, one early reader said, “I longed to go with him.”

The Last of the Mohicans (1826) is a pure unabashed narrative of adventure. It looks back to the earlier time of the French and Indian Wars, when Natty and his two companions, Chingachgook and Uncas, survivors of a once-proud Indian nation, attempt a daring rescue and seek to forestall the plan of the French to unleash their Mingo allies on a wave of terror through the English settlements.

The Prairie>/em> (1827) takes up Natty in his eighties, driven by the continuous march of civilization to his last refuge on the Great Plains across the Mississippi. On this vast and barren stage, the Sioux and Pawnee, the outlaw clan of Ishmael Bush, and members of the Lewis and Clark expedition enact a romantic drama of intrigue, pursuit, and biblical justice that reflects Cooper’s historical dialectic of culture and nature, of the American nation and the American continent.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Literature, American, Anthologies, 19th Century

1347 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1826

About the author

James 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

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cooper, have mercy. I give up. A quarter of the way through The Prairie, which is the last Leatherstocking novel left to read, I just can't take it any longer.

The Pioneers was interesting. The first appearance of Mr. Bumpo, he is actually a secondary character in an ensemble tale about an early western New York town. He just a strange white man who lives in the woods with his Indian friend and wins a holiday shooting contest. (There's always a shooting contest in these books) He doesn't become the Natty Bumpo we know and love until he saves the herione of the novel from a forest fire. A lot of our American Hero cliches seem to have been born in this book. Loner, wise-but-uneducated, reluctant to be a hero until the time is needed, rides off into the sunset at the end. (Literally. I'll give The Coop a pass on this one as he invented the cliche.)

The Last of the Mohicans is sort of hysterical in its wrongness. It's a nonstop adventure story, (nonstop in an early 19th century way)There are bad Indians and good Indians, an effete choirmaster used for comic relief, two maidens this time (one mixed-race) and another shooting contest. The best part is when Hawkeye (as he is called in this one) sneaks into a bad-Indian camp by dressing in a bear suit. So, these guys, who Cooper has constantly described as being so in tune with nature that they can tell a moose fart from a squirell's a hundred miles away, can't figure out that this bear is just a guy in a bear suit. And the bear suit actually gives Hawkeye Bear super-powers! He's able to wrestle the meanest, baddest Indian of all into submission while dressed as a bear. Anyway, I believe nothing about this historically or narratively, but it's still sort of entertaining.

The Prairie, I just can't handle. I sit down to read and suddenly everything else is a lot more interesting. It even made me check my Twitter feed for the first time in a year! There's something about a family on the prairie, and Bumpo is all old and looking back on his life. I know he dies at the end, and even the chance to see that doesn't make me want to move on. There's no reason I have to read all of these novels. So that's it, I'm done.

Well, maybe I'll skim through the rest and see if there's another shooting contest.

[Charlie Eckhaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Pathfinder: Turgid, snail-paced reading (I can only tolerate a chapter of Cooper per day,) but there's a point where almost everything clicks and rapid progress is made. The weakest of the four I've thus far tackled, determination is the key to completing them. Moving outcome, as expected.

The Deerslayer: This is a surprise, something happens in the first hundred pages, and I'm sailing along reading, getting the sentence meanings much more quickly. Interesting comments on proper application of The Bible's teachings. With under 200 pages to go, I'm still encouraged by the pace and suspense, even the occasional humorous remarks. Under 100 pages left, reaching the story's climax feels a bit draggy. Nice buildup at the Indian grounds. Quite an emotional conclusion done so well.

Now that I've finished the entire series, I'd say it was worth it, for the at least 10% substance to the plot, although it was difficult to get accustomed to the writing style. The chapter heading literary excerpts intrigue as to earlier literary works, but also convey how much more trying it would be to sustain an effort to decipher the ancient styles and language/spellings of their sources. Some of the conventions of Western films were no doubt rooted here.

I would have enjoyed more connecting material (of both characters and plot) among the novels.

[Ann-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved The Last of the Mohicans when I was a teenager, and I have long wanted to read the complete series. My memory of Mohicans is that it is pretty much an adventure story. Initially, The Pioneers seemed like it might be something more. It began very slowly, with the author clearly trying to create a portrait of the early American republic as a melting pot--the characters include Quakers and Episcopalians; a Frenchman, a German, and a Native American; free blacks and slaves; and people of different social classes as well. Each person or group has it's own distinct accent or way of speaking. There was a sort of peaceable kingdom feeling to it, and I thought Cooper might be asking a question about what kind of people will make up the new American civilization. But at a certain point, it simply accelerated into a romance, with one cliffhanger after another and two very Dickensian revelations about a character's true identity and his family's connection to the frontiersman Natty Bumppo (aka The Leatherstocking). There's an undercurrent of sadness, however, as one era ends and another begins. Natty often laments the encroachment of civilization on the wilderness, and Chingachgook, the last of his people, dies. There are some genuinely funny parts too.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omnibus volume 1 of 2 in the Library of America edition of the "Leatherstocking tales"--five novels by Cooper that cover the live of a great woodsman in the 18th and 19th centuries. The most well known of the stories "Last of the Mohicans", was neither the first written nor the first in sequence, as Cooper compiled his life-work in scattershot style.

Library of Amerca Volume 1
written in
1823 "The Pioneers"
1826 "The Last of the Mohicans"
1827 "The Prairie"

Library of America Volume 2
(James Fenimore Cooper : The Leatherstocking Tales II: The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer (Library of America))
written in
1840 "The Pathfinder"
1841 "The Deerslayer"



Books in the Library of America series deserve praise for their quality binding and paper, portable size, minimal but useful supporting materials, and reasonable price. I was fortunate to find this 2-volume set at a library book sale brand new (still in shrink wrap!) for $4 (total list price of $75).

First, lets address the order in which the reader may choose to read the books--as written by Cooper, or in chronological order of the character Natty Bumpo. After some internal debate, I chose to read them as Cooper wrote them, looking for changes in his character and his writing style to see if either the books or the character notably improved or regressed. To read them in chronological order of Natty Bumpo'ls life, read in this sequence:

"The Deerslayer"
"The Last of the Mohicans" - set in 1757 near present-day Glen Falls, NY, during the French and Indian War (the story references historical events and characters from the war).
"The Pathfinder"
"The Pioneers" - set in 1780s in upstate New York, farther west than the events in "Mohicans"
"The Prairie" - set in 1805 in the American midwest.

Cooper started with "The Pioneers", placing the aging Bumpo close to the end of his scouting career as the pioneers of the title crowd into and cut down his wilderness in upstate New York. The pioneers clear out the forests that Bumpo knows and loves. and drive away the wildlife he knows and respects and on which he earns his living and his livelihood. The series starter is at once more philosophical (Cooper--through the voice of Bumpo--comes across as a thoroughly modern environmentalist) and humorous (much of the book centers around the comical characters of the pioneers) than "Last of the Mohicans". Cooper's environmentalism is best expressed by Bumpo in "The Prairies", where he prophesies with the wisdom of his 80 years:

"Look around you, men; what will the Yankee choppers say, when they have cut their path from the eastern to the western waters, and find that a hand, which can lay the 'arth bare at a blow, has been here, and swept the country, in very mockery of their wickedness. They will turn on their tracks, like a fox that doubles, and then the rank smell of their own footsteps, will show them the madness of their waste."

We have lived to witness the fulfillment of his prophecy.

"Mohicans" is 2/3 of a ripping fast adventure story, that bogs down in the last 1/3 in arcane Native American politics. Cooper makes much--too much--of the political differences between and among Native tribes, distinctions made by a 19th century writer of an 18th century tale, distinctions based on 16th-century white European biases, none of which are meaningful or accurate to 21st century readers steeped in 20th-century revisionism to try to correct the tragic history of those last 5 centuries.

That said, it is easy to see why "Mohicans" is the centerpiece and most popular of the books, and the one most accessible to Hollywood (12 movie and television versions, including some foreign language films, most recently starring Daniel-Day Lewis in 1992). Cooper knows how to write a chase and a cliffhanger which that best screenwriter would have trouble improving upon, and his main characters (Bumpo and his native partners Chingachgook and Uncas) are not only strikingly modern in their environmentalism, but also in their laconic heroism. Clint Eastwood surely must have studied and copied their delivery to create his anti-heroic Dirty Harry Callahan persona.

"The Prairie" may be the strangest to read, as the reader progresses through the tale with the foreknowledge that he will see the end of the life of Natty Bumpo the person, but not the end of Natty Bumpo the literary character. This, and Cooper's writing style that now reads as wordy and stilted, take some of the edge off what could have been a great deathbed ending. Plus, like "The Pioneers", this book returns to the semi-comic style, with characters inserted for comic relief who engage in long monologues that just don't hold up as well today as when written 150 years or more ago. The Library of America notes on the texts says that "Mohicans" was aggressively edited to accelerate the pace of the narrative, and it shows.

"The Prairie" as the title suggests, was set on the flat grassland at the western edge of the "settled lands"--but still east of the Mississippi when Cooper originally wrote the novel! A measure of how quickly America was expanding west is evidenced by notes in revised editions just 20 years after Cooper's original writing that the setttlers had now overcome this territory and that "the 'settler' preceded by the 'trapper,' has already established himself on the shores of that vast sea [Pacific Ocean]."

Natty Bumpo is now a very old man (regularly admitting to four score years, and at one point referencing four score plus seven winters, or 87 years old) for his time. He is weak, shaky garrulous, forgetful and losing his eyesight, but still smart enough to think before acting, and wise enough to lead the motley crew of characters who stumble across his path out of harms way.

I would rate "Mohicans" five stars, "The Pioneers" four stars, and "The Prairie" three stars, and thrown in a bonus to Library of America for its aforementioned virtues. In general then, the experiment in reading the books in the sequence written didn't show a falloff of the quality of Cooper's writing, but rather reflects the writing style of the time and demonstrates the value of judicious editing in the case of "Mohicans." Interestingly, "The Prairie" was written and published during an extended stay in Paris, at a time when Cooper's financial straits demanded financial more than critical success. While born into landed wealth in upstate New York (Cooperstown is named for his family), Cooper endured periods of financial and critical failure during his career, and embroiled himself in several lawsuits that, won or lost, cost him money and reputation.

One interesting thing I took away from these three novels was how Cooper's writing preshadows (and possibly influenced?) J. R. R. Tolkien

1. The use of landscape and weather as characters and portents. The weather moves, predicts, and influences the actions and attitudes of characters.

2. The role of the "hidden king" taking his rightful place when identified after proving his worth as a commoner and a warrior among his people (Uncas in "Mohicans" and Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy).

3. The use of names to impart different meanings, perceptions, and purposes to a character based on the names others used to describe them- for example

Nathaniel Bumpo - given English name.

Natty Bumpo/Bumpho - informal English name.

Leatherstocking - English nickname for his long soft-leather leggings and moccasins he was known for wearing.

Hawkeye - name given by English-ally Indians for his accurate shooting aim

"the scout" or "the trapper" - names used often by Cooper to identify the character by his role

Longue Carabine - name given by French-ally Indians for his long-barreled rifle (which in a critical confrontation about which white man is really about

After writing these notes pointing out ways in which I found similarities between Cooper and Tolkien, I found this hit in Wikipedia:

"Cooper's work has greatly influenced J.R.R. Tolkien, whose Elves have many elements of Cooper's portraits of noble Native Americans, while some passages -- like the journey down the river Anduin in The Two Towers -- read like passages from The Last of the Mohicans."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fe...

However, finding additional hits to confirm this was difficult, and would make a worthy subject for future research for a English or American literature masters thesis.

[Michael Sypes · Rating 5 out of 5]

As difficult as it might be to read a 19th century novel, the feel you have for the world Cooper presents is phenomenal. I can see the woods around me, and smell the leaves. These final two novels in the Leatherstocking series were both a lot of fun, as Natty Bumppo becomes more of the main character.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no business giving this book a 3-star review, these stories are, without question, American classics. In reality I am giving myself a 3-star review for my ability to appreciate it. This is an honest review by a regular guy.

“Last of the Mohicans” is one of my favorite movies, but I seem to be in the minority among US adults who never had to read the book for school, so it was on my reading list for a while. I learned that The Last of the Mohicans was the second book in the Leatherstocking Trilogy, so I picked a second-hand hardcopy that contained all three, published by The Library of America.

Little did I know that I was embarking on a ten-month, 1,300+ page literary challenge. James Fennimore Cooper wrote these books in the 1800s, with historic dialogue that was very difficult to follow. The tales started with the French & Indian War in the 1700s and ended with the crossing of the Louisiana Purchase in covered wagons in the 1800s so it covers a vast and interesting time in American history.

Two things really frustrated me about this book. First, the books are not written chronologically. It starts with The Pioneers when the protagonist, Leatherstocking, is in his 60s, then it goes back to when he was presumably in his late twenties or early thirties in Last of the Mohicans, then he is in the twilight of his years in The Prairie. I understand that is the order the books were written, but I would advise any reader to start with The Last of the Mohicans, then The Pioneers, then, The Prairie. Related, later in life, James Fennimore Cooper wrote two other stories with the Leatherstocking character in his youth. If you are really ambitious, start there.

Second, the protagonist goes by Leatherstocking, Nathaniel, Hawkeye, The Hunter, The Trapper, Le Long Carabine, it took me forever to realize it was all the same guy!

I did love the main character Leatherstocking, a classic American badass, a faithful Christian raised by Indians as a sure-shot Indian warrior and woodsman. He was a fearless and loyal man with unwavering integrity, incorporating the best characteristics of both Indians and European settlers. Additionally, he is the earliest conservationist in literature that I know of. In The Pioneers, he admonished those in the village for killing animals and fish beyond what they can consume. He loathed deforestation, in The Prairie he explains how he walked from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean before Lewis & Clarke, to avoid the sound of saws. This was written over 200 years ago, and we are still having the same argument!

Finally, I thought James Fennimore Cooper did a wonderful job depicting the Native Americans, they were all written as complex human characters, like everyone in the book, some were good, others were not.

Should you read it? If you love classic American Literature, American History, of have trouble sleeping, get the anthology. If you are unsure, start with The Last of the Mohicans.

[Jeff Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm all over the place with Coopers's writing. My entire experience with Cooper consists only of his "The Last of the Mohicans" story. At first I wanted to rate his work with one star because of the difficulty I had understanding his writing style. Additionally I felt that his habit of repeatedly bashing racial themes into his sentences made me wonder if I would not be able to finish his tail. But slowly I got used to his style and engrossed in the characters so much that I looked forward every day to find out what would happen to them next. As the yarn wore on in the later chapters the story again became tiresome. At points it was absolutely absurd. For example to spend hundreds of pages telling me how the aboriginal inhabitants contained heightened senses due to their lifestyle among the forests of America, only to have an entire village not notice that 'the scout' had wondered in among them in the guise of a bear was a breaking point for me. I put the book down and decided that I just wasn't the target audience for it. I eventually came back and finished the story. I'm happy to have finished it and I will not be reading any more Cooper if I can avoid it.

[Joe Slavinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd, previously, read the first three "Leatherstocking Tales", in volume 1 of this publication. Those three books, were written between 1823, and 1827. It was fourteen years later, that "The Pathfinder" was written, and "The Deerslayer" came a year later. Cooper was 53, that year. The fourteen year gap changed his writing style relatively little. Both these stories are fairly well-paced, with great characters, some action, and suspense. My only difficulty with this volume, is that Cooper spends a lot more time explaining, and pontificating, as he's telling the story. Maybe that was much more the standard practice, of novel-writing, in the early 19th Century. His are the only books, so far, that I've read from that period. This doesn't mean that I don't recommend the books, just that you should be prepared for the archaic language, and Cooper's verbosity.

[Joe Slavinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ran across the Library of America, 2 volume set, of Cooper's "The Leather Stocking Tales", at the library, while browsing. My Dad had always been enamored of "The Last of the Mohicans", so it piqued my curiosity. This first volume contains the first three novels, "The Pioneers", "The Last of the Mohicans", and "The Prairie". It took me a while to get used to the language, but once I did, it was smooth sailing. Natty Bumpo is as great a character who ever had his own series. Cooper's writing is well-paced, with very human characters, some thrilling action, and tells his stories very well. I'm looking forward to reading the second volume, which includes the novels, "The Pathfinder", and "The Deerslayer". This set presents the novels in chronological order. The first was written in 1823, and the last in 1842.

[Belinda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good GOSH, I hate me some James Fenimore Cooper. Don't even start with me about how these are classics. I know they are, and that for some reason they're important to American literature, even though they are horribly-written books about Native Americans by a guy who never laid an eye on one...it's the Revolutionary War version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (which I like, so shut up), or something. BLECCCCHHH.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the LotM and The Praire. Unlike most people of a literary bent (including my two favorite American authors), I don't hate Cooper. He's too longwinded, which makes him tiring to read, and tropes he uses are silly, but he's still important. Last of the Mohicans is obviously better known that Prairie, so I'd recommend starting with that one.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ignorant me, I never knew classics could be such thrillers! I could say read it for the description of wild America in the 1700's, but I listened to it and got caught up in the breakneck speed of the plot.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally! Just seemed to go on forever!

[Vanjr · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been 30 plus years since I first (and for that matter last) read the Leatherstocking Tails (most having been read during my first year or two of medical school-and yes I should have spent less time on Cooper and more time on neuroanatomy). My impression of them from so long ago is that they were fantastic. Maybe they were compared to ready Kandel and Swartz Principles of Neuroscience. I do clearly recall my favorite was the first one I read, Deerslayer. This first volume is mixed. Many of the current generation will be put off by the treatment of the author of Native Americans and women. But this was written at at a different time and era and I disagree with those who judge it by standards almost 200 years in the future. The storyline admittedly is relatively weak and the most famous of all-The Last of the Mohicans may be my least favorite. Of the three books in this volume by far my favorite was The Prairie, mainly for the echoes of the two prior books and the "end of the story" even if two more books were yet to come.
So for those new to this series, judge not on your current world views, but learn what some thought and considered and contemplated almost 200 years ago. It is interesting how the protagonist is so "American" with his disdain for books and learnin' and his outdoor, yet hermit like existence-some things have not changed...

[Clayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these in chronological order rather than published order: The Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers, then The Prairie. The main thing that slowed me down with the first, otherwise wonderful, Mohicans, was the the period vernacular English. After getting used to that, the other two volumes just flew by. I found myself fascinated by the detailed description of the lives and habits of the people of this time and place. I will not soon forget this story, and am already thinking a re-read (something I do very rarely) will be in order someday so as to knit together a little more tightly the stories of the characters who passed through all three volumes, with all of them dead by the end -- the last of old age in his nineties!! One of the more curious aspects for me was the treatment of the indigenous Indians throughout. Not only are they important characters, but the various tribes encountered are described as being quite different from one another in character, some given a very elevated status, some a very low status. I will definitely be seeking out more of Cooper's books, as he makes the time he lived in leap off the page in full living color.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not totally thrilled by the order of the books, but the order is the date they were originally published, & there's not much to do about that! I guess a good way of looking at it, is the first is something that happens today, the second is what happened earlier in his life, & the last is what happens later in his life to his death. The two stories in the next volume have to fit in here somehow!

One of my thought while I was reading was, "how will people today be able to relate to this? There are so many Biblical references! & the French!" When I got finished reading the books, I read thru the back which not only includes a history of James Cooper's life & publications, but also notes that give explain the references & interpret the French! (However, some still assume a Biblical understanding like "Obed was the father of Jess, who was the father of David, One of David's sons was Absalom, another was Solomon, who was the grandfather of Asa." I will definitely be using this when I read the second volume!

[Phil Carroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Read The Pioneers only]
This is the best-worst, or the worst-best, book I've ever read. I read it because of my interest in the pioneer phase of white expansion. I plan to read some nonfiction of the topic, but Cooper's place in the establishment of an American literature bought him enough patience to slog through this disaster. I am eternally grateful this is not my contemporary literature. Did the boredom Cooper induced directly influence the creation of TV? Most likely. I may or may not return to this to give it a more detailed review, but I'll end for now with this observation. Besides telling the dullest tale possible, Cooper also managed to equivocate with the white and native sides to the struggle for land ownership. He presents solid criticism of the white man's ways, but then undercuts that criticism with sentimentality and clear narrative allegiance to the white man's supremacy. Can't have it both ways, Mr Cooper.

[Tony Sellers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read "The Last of the Mohicans" and decided to read all of "Volume 1 and 2 of The Leatherstocking Tales".

The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans and The Pathfinder were fun and a quick read, but the style of writing and repeated themes starts to get old by the time I got to The Pioneers and The Prairie. I had to push myself to get through the last 2 books, but I feel like I have a good understanding of the works of James Fenimore Cooper now.

The Last of the Mohicans is an American classic and a good start to see if this series is for you.

[CASPER HILEMAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

The classic by Cooper of frontier warfare between competing empires. The last of a people, the last of a tribe are caught in this great power game. This tale of frontier America published in 1826 is still both poignant and pertinent. Do not let the age of this novel scare you the language is easy to read and the characters are excellent.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read Last of the Mohicans: May 3- Aug 9, 2017.

[Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hang on for the ride of your life! This is as exciting as any read you could try to find. Edge of your seat, genuine cliffhanger!! So much action, the pages turn by themselves.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Omnibus volume 2 of 2 in the Library of America edition of the "Leatherstocking tales"

JFC disinterrs and resurrects his hero Natty Bumpo nearly 15 years after sending him off into eternity from "The Prairie", the third installment of the Leatherstocking tales. "The Pathfinder" picks up the tale as a sequel to "The Last of the Mohicans", and the first quarter of the new tale is a virtual repeat of the earlier plot. Leatherstocking, now called The Pathfinder almost exclusively in this tale, guides the daughter of a British officer and her companion through the wilderness of upstate New York to a British fort.

The variations on the theme in this installment arise from placing most of the action on Lake Ontario and its islands, and giving The Pathfinder an active romantic interest in the female lead (while the movie version of "The Last of the Mohicans" made much of the love interest, the original story did not). This takes The Pathfinder out of his natural element and gives Cooper new opportunities for farce and romance. While these scenes sometimes seem quaint or stilted today, the story holds together, and Cooper's handling of chase and battle scenes still holds up well today.

Not so for the finale. "The Deerslayer" is the worst by far of the series, Cooper over-indulging in his tendency for repetitive, wordy asides with no editor willing or able to trim the mess down to readability. Very little action takes place on this account of Leatherstocking's first time on the "warpath." Your best is to skip it, unless you are determined, as I was, to complete the series.

[Michael Sypes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last of the Mohicans is an absolutely amazing story. Yeah, the movies (I especially like the Daniel Day-Lewis version) are great, but this is different. Those are 20th Century Movies, and this is a 19th Century novel.
The first book (The Pioneers) was rather weak, I thought. By the time a certain plot twist (a common one for the time) comes out, I really didn't care, or even remember who they were talking about.
The Prairie is an engaging tale too.
Is Cooper's writing really great? Well, as countless critics (Clemens among them) have contended, no. However, aside from the plots being hopelessly contrived, there's no mistaking that you feel you are experience the grandeur of the natural world in which these tales take place.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this because I have lately become interested in Schubert's life and late compositions. (Damn that sounds pretentious. I mean, I've been listening to his last piano sonata and feeling moved by it. Is that any better?) Apparently Schubert got very interested in Cooper's books, at the very end of his life, when he had syphilis, mercury poisoning, and typhus. I can kind of see, now, why he gave up the ghost. If the works of James fenimore Cooper were all you had to live for...

But I should reserve judgment, at least until I've finished reading.

[Toothy_grin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read The Prairie from this collection last winter, having previously read only one of the Leatherstocking Tales (The Last of the Mohicans). I read this after reading The Pathfinder, so I had something of a sense of the course of Natty's life, and I was curious to learn if Cooper revealed much of the geography between New York and the prairie. He didn't, but I wasn't disappointed. Instead, I felt a sense almost of reverence for the glimpse into that part of our collective past, and gratitude for a good story.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a hard start with this but after the first few chapters you get into the rhythm and poetry of Cooper's writing. He really is very poetic and writes beautifully. Some of the subject matter was a little gruesome for me. My husband said he would go through and mark it so I wouldn't have to read it but he forgot and now I have a really horrific image in my head. I know those things were reality but I still would rather not have those kinds of images in my head. I would recommend this to anyone who would like a good classic.

[Martin Bihl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Prairie - finished 01/29/12

The Pioneers - finished 02/12/11

While this is the 4th of the 5 books in the series that i've read, you can definitely tell that it is an early work by Cooper. It takes forever to get going, with asides and tangents and sidebars that meander like one of the mountain streams that he's writing about. Once it does get going, however, it's compelling and interesting. And, to Cooper's credit, it resonates with the other books in the series. But I wouldn't start here if you were introducing yourself to the series.


Last of the Mohicans - finished 06/03/03

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect to enjoy these novels as much as I did, but fortunately they were really suspenseful and strange enough to sustain my interest over 1300 pages. These stories reminded me (or made me want to revisit) Thomas Pynchon, with their focus on changing boundaries, the world reconfiguring itself, and of course the odd intrusion of scientific language. There are parts of The Pioneers where it seems like Cooper wants to show off his knowledge of physics, and the running joke of the Doctor in The Prarie runs on way too long.

[Thom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm more soft-headed than a lot of people, and I have a sympathy for early American authors, but this collection (The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie) was downright edifying. The language is nearly rococo, but you learn to love it. Natty Bumppo is a beautiful character that has been nothing but maligned by movie adaptations.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true, though, happily, for human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned, are to be seen relieving its deformities, and mitigating if not excusing its crimes.