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    The Last of the Mohicans
    The Last of the Mohicans
    The Last of the Mohicans
    Ebook551 pages14 hours

    The Last of the Mohicans

    By James Fenimore Cooper

    3.5/5

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    The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757, is a historical action novel published in 1826 by the American writer James Fenimore Cooper. The story centers around the transport of the daughters of Colonel Munro, Alice, and Cora, to safety at Fort William Henry during the French and Indian War. Guided by Major Duncan Heyward, Natty Bumppo (Hawk-eye), Chingachgook, and Uncas (the novel's title character), they fend off attacks by the rival Hurons and their leader Maguas, allied with the French. The action, suspense and drama are nonstop in this classic swashbuckling historical adventure novel.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media
    Release dateOct 23, 2018
    ISBN9781974997794
    Author

    James Fenimore Cooper

    James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789 in New Jersey, but later moved to Cooperstown in New York, where he lived most of his life. His novel The Last of the Mohicans was one of the most widely read novels in the 19th century and is generally considered to be his masterpiece. His novels have been adapted for stage, radio, TV and film.

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    Reviews for The Last of the Mohicans

    3.5/5

    1,453 ratings44 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I am totally in agreement with Mark Twain about James Fenimore Cooper's literary "offenses" ... why describe a man as tall and thin when you can spend pages describing every feature from their eyebrows to their toes. Nary a drop of water nor a tree gets by without a vivid, unneeded description. This book has a lot of action (though some problematic as a product of the time it was written in...) but it was hard to get past Cooper's writing style to really get into the story. This is one case where I could see how a movie version would be an improvement over the book.
    • 1/5
      This is another classic that I will never read again. In fact, after the first 10-12%, I gave up on this book.

      No offense to JFC fans, but he just doesn't cut it for me. I usually like authors to be descriptive in their writings, but I think Mr. Cooper got too carried away with it.

      The next time I pick up a classic novel, I want to fall in love with it, not throw it in the fire.
    • 4/5
      This novel is set in 1757 during the Seven Years War when Britain and France battled for control of North America. It is very well written, with evocative descriptions of the landscape, and portrays the multi-faceted life of the various tribes of North American "Red Indians", depicting Native American characters in way in a way that no significant American had done before. There are, of course, still examples of the language of the time (published in 1826) that we wouldn't use today ("savages" vs. "civilised men"), but he portrays a rich variety of characters, including the central character, the young and heroic Uncas and his dignified father Chingachgook, and the villainous Magua; compared to these, the white European-American characters are much blander, particularly the sisters Cora and Alice, who are depicted as beautiful bland ciphers, as young female characters so often were in 19th century literature on both sides of the Atlantic. Between them is the figure of Hawkeye/Natty Bumppo, a white man raised by Delaware Indians, able to act as a bridge between the two cultures. The action of the novel revolves around the rescue of Cora and Alice from the clutches of the Hurons who have kidnapped them, and contains some impressive and violent set pieces, involving much scalping. There were passages where my interest waned, nevertheless this is deservedly an early classic of American literature.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up at the local library for $1, so I thought, what the heck. I typically don't choose to read early American literature, so this was about seeing how well someone who predated Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville did. Not terribly well, actually. I had some inkling ahead of time that this was going to be about as realistic as Walter Scott (I made it a little ways into Ivanhoe as a child and tossed it aside). It's actually not that bad for about the first half or so, despite some pretty unlikely events and behavior on both the part of the whites and the Indians But then, about 2/3 of the way through, it starts to be pretty preposterous. It's not without its merits, I guess, but ultimately at this stage of American letters, we don't have a lot to be proud of. Fortunately, that was about to change (Emerson, Whitman, etc.)
    • 3/5
      I can't remember when I read this but it is a borderline "western" that I actually didn't hate, which is seriously saying something. This one provides an interesting perspective and I thought it was alright. I didn't love it and I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone, but it wasn't bad either.
    • 2/5
      Probably better to stick with the movie version on this one.
    • 3/5
      --May contain minor spoilers--This novel held a few charms, but none were sustained throughout. Although the plot is one of adventure and suspense, to the modern reader the prose and dialogue often come off as goofy at best. The multiple epithets for each character, for example, imply a sense of grandeur to the pageant that simply wasn't there. The sentence structure, the narrative voice, the epigraphs that preface each chapter and the dialogue all shared in this effect. I was initially entertained by Cooper's eagerness to please, but eventually groans and eye-rolls began to take their toll. The book is at its best when we're getting to know the characters. I became fond of Major Heyward, and much preferred his character to that of Hawkeye the scout. Hawkeye is likely meant to be portrayed as an amazing hero, but he starts out as a completely insufferable know-it-all. (Hawkeye becomes much more tolerable in the final third of the book, but by that point the book has other problems...) I enjoyed the banter with Gamut, the descriptions of the Munro family's love for and loyalty to one another, and the portrayal of Uncas's and Chingachgook's relationship. Magua makes a worthy foe.Memorably, whenever a character is engaged in a debate or is called upon to make a stirring speech, Cooper goes to great lengths to describe the rhetorical strategy, cunning, and eloquence that must be employed for the occasion. One is asked to hear the listeners of these speeches oooh and aaah as Cooper praises the words of his noble and ignoble characters. These speeches on the page, however, are never all that different from how he has any given character speak the most casual dialogue anyway. It's goofball stuff.Cooper asks for a heavy suspension of disbelief when it comes to the amazing prowess of Hawkeye, but even this does not prepare one for later chapters featuring characters infiltrating enemy villages by wearing... a bear costume. (There was also a brief moment of a character blending in with some beavers.) There are truly impressive moments in the book (the massacre outside the fort, for example) but having recently finished it I just can't take it seriously--I'm hung up on the complete cheese of the hero crawling around disguised as a gruff but domesticated bear and getting away with it. Only the experienced eye of Uncas can notice the subtle differences between this farce and the real thing! I read this book out of literary/historical interest, and I'm glad I read it. I enjoyed it at times, although maybe not for the reasons Cooper may have intended. My curiosity is now satisfied, and I will not be looking to read more Cooper.
    • 4/5
      A classic adventure novel, set in young America in 1757 during the French and Indian War, published in 1826, this is the story of how a Scout, named Hawkeye by his Delaware tribe companions, helps to try to rescue the two daughters of an English colonel who has been forced to surrender his fort to the French forces. After their surrender, the English soldiers and the families are unharmed by the victorious French, but their Native American colleagues are less merciful and a massacre and kidnapping takes place. Hawkeye (aka Natty Bumppo), the Mohicans Chingachgook and his son Uncas, and Duncan Heyward, a British major, embark on a rescue mission to try to save Colonel Munro's daughters, Alice and Cora Munro, from a fate worse than death at the hands of the villainous Huron, Magua. This is an exciting adventure, with scattered episodes of shocking savagery by the Hurons who have sided with the French forces, and occasional acts of nobility and sacrifice by the Delaware and Mohicans of the story. My history is not strong enough to have a sense of how accurately the "Indian" characters are portrayed, but the even-handed way in which they are depicted seems unusual for a white author in 1826. The only thing that marred the story for me was the stiff and archaic language and sentence structure, but it may well be that this was entirely a product of the times and was well-received by readers at the time. It did make the reading of an exciting story a difficult slog for the most part. This particular copy is undated, but there is a handwritten name and probable date: Cleopatra Price, '13 (1913 of course).
    • 2/5
      I really did not enjoy this at all. The characters were one dimensional and the plot was boring as well as unbelievable. I understand that Cooper had a pretty high opinion of his writing but I don't think the books have stood the test of time.
    • 4/5
      The Last of the Mohicans is a story about two sisters escorted from fort Henry to their fathers house for a visit. Guided through the forest by a major. The major named Duncan Heyward. Also he was guided by a Mohican. They stumble upon an Indian that leads them on the wrong direction. Once they find out he runs away bringing back more allies. but saved by a adopted settler by one of the last Mohicans.This book is an intresting read, Yet it is not related to your work or your selected genre expressed to me from you, Mr. Poppe, For that reason this read would not be good for you currently. So i would not recommended this as of right now. If you are interested in fictional history when you are retired, maybe you could kick back to this book in your senior years.
    • 3/5
      Overall a good story, but told in a very awkward style. I kept drifting off, my mind wandering as I read it. It just simply couldn't keep my attention even though the story itself and most of the characters were very good.
    • 1/5
      Having to read this in high school is one of the things that made me think I hated to read. I'm sure there are those for whom this is their cup of tea, but it should never be inflicted on high school students! It seemed like it was about a guy who walked around in the woods for hundreds of pages. Granted, my experience with it might be different as an adult, but I don't see myself trying again with this one.
    • 3/5
      Who knew a book so full of action could be so boring? I didn't even cry at the end,,,
    • 4/5
      My favorite of the series, when I read this it moved me greatly.One has to be in the proper mood to enjoy these books. A bit of romance, a bit of adventure, quite a bit of moralizing. I enjoyed them when I read them, but have no desire to read them again. I've since read enough history to realize just how fictional these are. If you read them for the adventure and the descriptions of the Northeastern woodlands, I don't think you will be disappointed. Sadly, the plot of each has sort of blended together and I can't remember the details of any.
    • 2/5
      I had a hard time getting into this book. It is a very interesting plot but the manner in which it is written made it pretty tedious for me. I also felt like things dragged on a bit much.
    • 5/5
      Such a timely work, I enjoyed twice as much -- it stands on it's own as a classic, and moreso to me as historic fiction. An enjoyable read. I read it in between two books about writing and it served as a good case study of character, plot, etc. Just after finishing it, I read Rita Mae Brown's "Starting from Scratch," in which she references it with regard to Cooper's showing such depth in the relationship between men (the Scout and the Sagamore and Uncas), while leaving the women (Cora and Alice) completely two-dimensional. In fairness to Cooper, the story was more about the men and their role, but a look at the women's (as well as the indian women's) personality could have added some interesting perspective. Finally, I enjoyed it in accompaniment to the genealogical research of my family in that area at that time. Great interaction between the three principal men. It's an adventure story, but Cooper makes you feel the Scout's heartfelt philosophy and Chingachgook's people.
    • 1/5
      If time travel were possible, I'd go back in time and assassinate James Fenimore Cooper before he ever put pen to paper (in this imaginary scenario, let it be known that I also possess mad ninja skills). Why do I hate Cooper so much? Let me count the ways:1) His never-ending description of every rock, twig, river, etc., that the main characters come into contact with. No pebble escapes his scrutiny. This book would have been 3 pages long without the description. And even then, it would have been 3 pages too long.2) Native American dialogue is limited to the occasional exclamation of "Hugh." Not Hugh as in Hefner, but something more like "huh." They're a quiet people, apparently. I'm shocked they don't greet each other by saying, "How."2 1/2) While we're on the subject, they're all stereotypes of either the noble savage variety or the "me big chief Ugh-a-Mug gotta have 'em squaw" variety. The whole thing is a racist piece of crap. And don't tell me that Cooper was reflecting the beliefs of the time because, while that may explain the racism, it doesn't explain away the crap bit.3) Practically every speech by Hawk-eye will contain some bit of dialogue such as, "Even though white blood runs through my veins." Lest we forget he's white since he's been hobnobbing with the natives for so long.4) Those damn women just keep getting kidnapped.5) For an action story, it's mind-numbingly boring. To illustrate, I give you a riveting, action packed scene in which Duncan, the British officer, tries to distract le Renard Subtil (also known as Magua, also known as Wes Studi in the film) with a discussion of French etymology. Dash cunning of him, don't you think? It sure would have sucked if he had just attacked him with a knife, a gun, or even a rapier wit. Apparently Duncan's plan was to wear down his enemy with sheer boredom:'Here is some confusion in names between us, le Renard,' said Duncan, hoping to provoke a discussion. 'Daim is the French for deer, and cerf for stag; elan is the true term, when one would speak of an elk.'6) Everyone is known by about three or four different names, because anything less would have been confusing. Right, Coop?7) Did I mention that it's just frickin' boring? I would rather slam my head in a car door than ever read this book again.The best part about the book was that there were entire sections in French. For once, lack of knowledge about a foreign language has paid off! I was practically giddy with excitement when I encountered entire pages of French dialogue as it meant, mon Dieu!, I got to skip the entire page.
    • 3/5
      The title of the story pretty much sums up the main storyline. The Last of the Mohicans is surprise, about the last of the Mohicans. Well if you want to be technical, it's about the last two Mohicans, a Father and his Son, but based on the title of the story, you can pretty much guess what happens at the end. The story is centred around two sisters, Cora and Alice who are the daughters of a British General. They are travelling back to meet up with their Father at one of the British trading posts when they are betrayed by an Indian guide (antagonist) who is supposed to show them they way through the wilderness. Long story short, the girls are caught and then freed and then caught again (this happens multiple times) and during this whole time, the Mohicans and their friend, the Scout (I am assuming he is British as well) who are the protagonist of the story are in constant pursuit to rescue these two damsels from the perils of their captors - the savages.As with so many other classics that I've read in the past, the first couple of chapters are always the most laborious to read as it takes me some time to catch onto the idioms and the language that these books usually take. I often find that I am reading the same paragraphs multiple times in order to wrap my mind around what the author is trying to convey. Overall The Last of the Mohicans was a pleasant enough read. There were certain portions of the book that keep me going while other parts rather dragged (after the second rescue and capture, it got rather annoying), and my mind would start wandering. With a little dash of adventure and a smidgeon of romance, the story passed relatively quickly for the most part. If you are a lover of Classics then I would definitely give this book a chance, but otherwise, for most readers, I think time could be better spent elsewhere.
    • 2/5
      I was a history major in college and even studied much about the French and Indian War. The movie of the same title is great, so I thought the book would be worth a read. I was very, very wrong. The book is a long and rather awful read. I hate to say such bad things about a famous American novel and writer, but the story just did not make much sense sometimes and the narrative was long and very hard to read. If you like the movie, the story is completely different. It may be worth a read if you have the time.
    • 4/5
      For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. While this novel features the same time frame (French and Indian War), the same geography (New York/Canadian border) and the same characters (with the addition of David Gamut, who did not appear in the movie), much of the action, plot and story lines differ significantly.James Fenimore Cooper, the author of Last of the Mohicans and several others of the same genre, came under fairly scathing criticism from none other than Mark Twain, concerning both his style and the contents of his tales. Certainly, Cooper was somewhat wordy, and imbued his heroes with outlandish talents and skills, but not to the detriment of the story, in my opinion.The hero of this novel, and the others in the Leatherstocking series, is known variously as Hawkeye, the Long Rifle or the Scout, an American who has been raised by a Mohican chief, Chingachgook, and his son, Uncas (last of the Mohicans). Hawkeye is the quintessential frontier woodsman, well versed in all of the skills possessed by the natives, but imbued with all of the intelligence, morality and virtues of his race. Some have criticized Cooper for his stereotypical portrayal of the Native Americans (the Delaware as noble savages, the Huron as simply bloodthirsty beasts), but this falls within the common critical failing of attributing current societal norms and mores to historical personages. In any event, Hawkeye and his Mohicans befriend an English officer charged with transporting two English maidens to an English fort on Lake Champlain. The English have been betrayed by their Huron guide (Magua). The balance of the novel entails the effort to rescue the women from their Huron captors with the aid of the friendly Delaware tribe. Much woodscraft, skill in battle and Indian practices and beliefs are contained within the story.While I much preferred the movie to the novel, having much to do with the striking visuals provided by the former, I cannot overly fault the latter and found it to be entertaining taken as a whole. Taking it for what it is, an early-19th century look at the French and Indian War, the reader could do far worse than this classic work.
    • 2/5
      I haven't read James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans since high school and thought it would interesting to revisit, especially after seeing the move starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It certainly kept me reading, but it won't become a favorite for several reasons. Cooper seems to have been a man with a chip on his shoulder; his preface is rather combative and if you wish to see a snub there, you may. I'm sure other reviewers have covered the racism angle of this story more thoroughly than I wish to. I'll just say, it's there but it's not unmitigated. Chingachgook and Uncas are certainly portrayed as heroes, and the rich figurative speeches Cooper puts in the mouths of all the Indian characters is simply beautiful. Not all the white characters are good, either; Montcalm comes in for some well-deserved reproach. But overall, if you want to enjoy this you have to overlook a lot. And it's not just the racist undertones that you have to overlook. The improbable disguises that our heroes assume, dashing in and out of hostile villages without being recognized, stretch credulity just a bit far and render the story awkward. The heroines are, of course, astonishingly beautiful and delicate females whose small feet are noted several times as a sign of pure breeding. Cora has some backbone, but she seems a little unreal. The movie is almost unrecognizable from its source. The love interests are thoroughly mixed up, people die who survived and survive who died, and by raising Hawk-eye to such prominence over his Delaware companions, the filmmakers caused the name of the film to no longer make much sense. And what a pity there was no room for the humor of David Gamut's character! In comparing the book to the film, there's some irony to be found in Cooper's preface, in which he says, "...it is a very unsafe experiment either for a writer or a projector to trust to the inventive powers of anyone but himself." How many other authors whose works have been adapted into films could say the same? At least it has a lovely soundtrack. I see why this tale is still read and enjoyed, and I wouldn't say no to reading more of Cooper's stories. But it's flawed.
    • 4/5
      I think people get mad at this book because it is written in the romantic style. Of course there is lofty language, of course it is strewn with figurative language and idealistic undertones. In fact, that is what made the novel revolutionary (not to mention an unseen-before anthropologist's cultural relativity..sort of.) If you don't like sentimentalism...then don't read fiction from the romantic period in America. And by romantic I don't mean love, I mean a deference to natural surroundings and a higher appreciation for artistry and sentimentalism. The characters are well developed, believable in that larger-than-life way. There is a proper hero, a fallen woman, an epic grace to the way the story flows. War and adventure is at the forefront, and a there is a hint of travel, journey, experience. To anyone who understands why historic literature is the way it is, I recommend this four star book.
    • 3/5
      This would've been a lot better book had they not interupted the action parts with long dialouge. Still, pretty good.
    • 3/5
      OK, let's start with what I enjoyed about this classic - great story and wonderful characters. In this book you really get a good mental picture of Hawkeye, the scout, and Uncas, the last purebred Mohican chief. You fall in love with Cora's heroism and you detest Magua as a treacherous villain. Now, what did I not like - the writing style! This book was so wordy and hard to slug through. Although I enjoyed all the conversations between the characters the descriptions were so tedious and peppered with footnotes. Toward the end of the book, I found myself fast forwarding through the footnotes - some of them were several tracks long! I can see why people love this book - what a great story! But does anyone like his writing style? Last of the Mohicans is the Last of Cooper's books for me!
    • 5/5
      A wonderful story. So much better than it's siblings.
    • 4/5
      Cooper's famous tale of the white scout Hawkeye (aka Natty Bumppo aka La Longue Carabine) who has forsaken the growing materialism of "civilized" society to live amongst the natives in the woods of 18th century New York offers what should have been a lively tale of adventure. The year is 1757, the French and Indian War rages in North America, both the British and French having their own Indian allies. The daughters of a British commander, Munro, must travel from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, guided by a Huron whom their father trusts. That Huron, Magua, turns out to be an ersatz ally of the French commander Montcalm. Hawkeye and his companions, father and son Chingachgook and Uncas, rescue the daughters, Cora and Alice. They lose them to Magua and his band of Huron. They rescue them again. Then, when they finally arrive at Fort William Henry, it is nearly too late as the French have it under a ferocious siege. Munro surrenders the fort to Montcalm who lets the British troops retreat to Fort Edward. Magua has other designs and attacks and massacres the British, yet again kidnapping the Munro girls.The racial and gender views of the time are repeatedly brought forth in the narrative, and this is not just Cooper regurgitating beliefs from 100 years prior to his writing. In the preface, Cooper himself states that women should not read his book as they won't like it, it's too manly. On practically every other page, Hawkeye, while treating his two Delaware as of his own family, reminds his white companions and the reader that his blood has no cross, meaning no cross-contamination with native blood. After a dozen or so instances, it gets incredibly trying seeing it on the page again and again.Somewhere inside is a great adventure story, but you have to get through a multitude of asides, 18th century racial philosophy that is repeatedly placed in the reader's face and a density of language beyond the usual anachronistics of early 19th century literature. It still, however, retains its place in literary history as one of the earliest examples of the American novel.
    • 1/5
      Very antiquated language. Too hard to read.
    • 3/5
      Cooper claimed he could write a better book than most that were printed in the day, and this is the result of his efforts. It remains surprisingly readable, for such an early work, although compared to the refined movie it is a little bloated.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those icons of American literature that everyone has heard about, but not everyone gets around to actually reading. I don't know why I had never picked it up before, unless maybe I read something of Cooper's in school and didn't enjoy it. But I decided to see for myself what it was all about.Despite my expectations, the book was pretty easy to read. There were a few times when I skimmed through, especially towards the end, but there was a lot of action and the story was interesting. It is quite different from modern books in a couple of ways. First, the dialogue. Nobody speaks like that! In fact, I doubt they ever spoke like that! Usually it was just sort of one of those things you read and don't think about, but a couple of times it actually brought me back out of the story, especially when Hawkeye would use some dialectal spelling of a word which didn't need any spelling change in the first place. So that was sometimes disconcerting.The other major shift is the whole 'noble savage' thing. See, it starts with these two sisters who are daughters of an English - well, Scottish major, who is defending a fort from some French soldiers and Indians. They want to travel from one fort to another to meet him. They get captured, and lost, and rescued, and then arrive and a bunch more adventures ensue. They are rescued by Hawkeye and his two companions, both Mohicans. Somehow, there's all this stuff in there that translates into Bad Indian versus Good Indian. It's all pretty dated. If you ask me, none of them were all that noble! What's with all the scalping and dashing babies brains out? But Uncas and his father, the two Mohicans, were certainly more the heroic type. I just have to wonder how much of this is romanticized, and I think the answer is, most of it. It was still a good story, but I think modern readers would find it a little hard to puzzle out. I was helped a lot by sparknotes.com and their reader's guide. 3 stars because it is a good story, but it's not really told in a way that I loved.
    • 4/5
      No, I didn't care for this one much, I'm afraid. A main character who is white but lives among the Indians and so embodies the best of both worlds (the forest prowess of the natives but the moral and intellectual superiority of the white man), natives who are inherently lesser, but with two 'noble' exceptions, white soldiers who are brave but dumb and weak compared to that amazing main character, and two damosels in constant need of rescuing - blech. I will say that the ending was unexpectedly un-pat, which was a bit of a nice surprise, but not enough to save this one.

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    The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper

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