The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
List: $44.00 | Sale: $30.80
Club: $22.00

The Last of the Mohicans

Author: James Fenimore Cooper

Narrator: William Hope

Abridged: 16 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/01/2020

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

This famous novel deals with the early frontier period of American history and is set in 1757 during the Seven Years War between the French and the British. Intrepid frontiersman and scout Natty 'Hawkeye' Bumppo, has lived among Indians for most of his life, respecting their customs and acquiring the skills of an experienced woodsman. His closest companion Chingachgook, the Mohican chief, and his son Uncas are the last surviving members of the Mohican tribe. When the evil Magua threatens the life of an innocent English woman, Hawkeye and the Mohicans find themselves at the center of a battle for honor and vengeance.

About James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was America's first successful popular novelist. Son of the prominent federalist William Cooper, founder of the Cooperstown settlement, James was educated at Yale in preparation for a genteel life as a federalist gentleman. After his father's death in an 1809 duel, Cooper quickly squandered his inheritance, and at thirty was on the verge of bankruptcy. He decided to try his hand at writing. His first novel, Precaution, a domestic comedy set in England, lost money, but Cooper had discovered his vocation.

Cooper established his reputation after his second novel, The Spy, and in his third book, the autobiographical Pioneers, Cooper introduced the character of Natty Bumppo, a uniquely American personification of rugged individualism and the pioneer spirit. A second book featuring Bumppo, The Last of the Mohicans, quickly became the most widely read work of the day, solidifying Cooper's popularity in the United States and in Europe.

Cooper was a prolific writer, publishing thirty-two novels, twelve works of nonfiction, one play, and numerous pamphlets and articles. His most lasting contributions to American literature were his five books about Natty Bumppo. Later anthologized as The Leatherstocking Tales, they are best read in the order in which they were written: The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on March 13, 2020

What can one say about Cooper? His historical imagination is profound, his creative use of the gothic landscape is uniquely American, and his influence on plot and characterization in American fiction--including, I recently discovered, South American fiction--is pervasive and extensive. Yet his dict......more

Goodreads review by Werner on July 02, 2020

Note: I've just edited this review slightly to correct a chronological typo. When I read this book the first time, I was nine, not seven years old --I knew, when I wrote the first draft of this review, that I was in 4th grade the first time, so I don't know what I was thinking when I typed "seven!" T......more