The Last of the Mohicans

by James Fenimore Cooper, Richard Hutson (Introduction), Hugh C. MacDougall (Afterword)

Overview

The classic tale of Hawkeye—Natty Bumppo—the frontier scout who turned his back on "civilization," and his friendship with a Mohican warrior as they escort two sisters through the dangerous wilderness of Indian country in frontier America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101157596
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/05/2005
Series:	Signet Classics Series
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	223,098
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) was born in Burlington, New Jersey, and his family moved to Cooperstown, New York, while he was still an infant. He attended Yale College until he was expelled for bad behavior. He served in the U.S. Navy, resigning in 1811 to get married. With his story The Pilot (1823), Cooper set the style for a new genre of sea fiction. His most famous novels are the Leather-Stocking Tales including The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841), featuring the quintessential American hero Natty Bumppo. Cooper, a keen social critic, wrote several well-regarded naval histories.
 
Richard Hutson is an associate professor of English and director of the American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. His teaching and writing have been primarily on American popular culture of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially on the American West.
 
Hugh C. MacDougall, a graduate of Harvard, Columbia Law School and Columbia School of International Affairs, served in the State Department for twenty-eight years, including postings in tropical Africa, Brazil, and Burma. He is a founder of the James Fenimore Cooper Society, and has presented many papers on Cooper and his writings.


From the Paperback edition.

Date of Birth:

September 15, 1789

Date of Death:

September 14, 1851

Place of Birth:

Burlington, New Jersey

Place of Death:

Cooperstown, New York

Education:

Yale University (expelled in 1805)

Read an Excerpt

Chapter I

Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared; The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold:— Say, is my kingdom lost? Richard II, III.ii. 93–95.

It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered, before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide, and, apparently, an impervious boundary of forests, severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the practised native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty; and it would seem, that in time, there was no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe.

Perhaps no district, throughout the wide extent of the intermediate frontiers, can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness of the savage warfare of those periods, than the country which lies between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes.

The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the combatants, were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the borders of the neighbouring province of New-York, forming a natural passage across half the distance that the French were compelled to master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination, it received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were so limpid, as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries, to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the title of the lake “du Saint Sacrement.” The less zealous English thought they conferred a sufficient honour on its unsullied fountains, when they bestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the House of Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of “Horican.”*

Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the “holy lake” extended a dozen leagues still farther to the south. With the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point, where, with the usual obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide.

While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorges of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested. Forts were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities of the route, and were taken and retaken, rased and rebuilt, as victory alighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandmen shrunk back from the dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancient settlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of the sceptres of the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in these forests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that were haggard with care, or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its glades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes of its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, of many a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in the noontide of his spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness.

* As each nation of the Indians had either its language or its dialect, they usually gave different names to the same places, though nearly all of their appellations were descriptive of the object. Thus, a literal translation of the name of this beautiful sheet of water, used by the tribe that dwelt on its banks, would be “The tail of the Lake.” Lake George, as it is vulgarly, and now indeed legally, called, forms a sort of tail to Lake Champlain, when viewed on the map. Hence the name. [1831]

It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed, that the incidents we shall attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war which England and France last waged, for the possession of a country, that neither was destined to retain.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Illustrations

Historical Introduction

Preface [1826]

Introduction [1831]

Addition to the 1831 Introduction [1850]

The Last of the Mohicans

Explanatory Notes

Textual Commentary

Textual Notes

Emendations

Rejected Readings

Word-Division

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In his immortal friendship of Chingachgook and Natty Bumppo [Cooper] dreamed the nucleus of a new society….A stark human relationship of two men, deeper than the deeps of sex. Deeper than property, deeper than fatherhood, deeper than marriage, deeper than Love.” –D. H. Lawrence

“The Last of the Mohicans raises again the question of the efficacy of human effort to control irrational forces at work in individual men, races, and nations. The question has never been more pertinent than now.” –James Franklin Beard 

Editorial Reviews

In his immortal friendship of Chingachgook and Natty Bumppo [Cooper] dreamed the nucleus of a new society…A stark human relationship of two men, deeper than the deeps of sex. Deeper than property, deeper than fatherhood, deeper than marriage, deeper than Love.”—D. H. Lawrence
 
“The Last of the Mohicans raises again the question of the efficacy of human effort to control irrational forces at work in individual men, races, and nations. The question has never been more pertinent than now.”—James Franklin Beard

From the Publisher

Cooper’s sympathy is large, and his humor is as genuine—and as perfectly unaffected—as his art.

Joseph Conrad

Nearly 200 years on, the tale of The Last of the Mohicans is still a part of the American consciousness.

PopMatters - Kerrie Mills

"Paul Gutjahr's edition of The Last of the Mohicans is a model text, ideally suited for the classroom or the general reader. The decision to print the novel in its original two-volume format foregrounds Cooper's careful structuring of the book. Gutjahr's informative introduction effectively explores the novel's formal structure and its engagements with colonial and antebellum American history. The contextual materials included are also well-chosen. Including excerpts of Cooper's ethnographic source material in the edition is extremely helpful, as this will aid readers in developing a deeper understanding of the novel's representations of colonial history. This is certainly an edition I will use and recommend."

David J. Carlson California State University

"James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans presents a double challenge to today's readers; a work of historical fiction, it has become, in itself, a historical artifact in need of explication. Paul Gutjahr's elegant introduction and judicious choice of secondary sources help to place Cooper's novel in its historical moment, while at the same time clarifying the novel's own engagements with American history. Accentuating Cooper's engagement with issues of race, gender, and hemispheric conflict, Gutjahr's edition reminds us of why Cooper's novel remains timely and even urgent. It will be the edition of choice for scholars, students, and casual readers alike."

Leon Jackson University of South Carolina

Nearly 200 years on, the tale of The Last of the Mohicans is still a part of the American consciousness.
— Kerrie Mills

PopMatters

Set in colonial America during the French and Indian Wars, this story follows Alice Munro, Cora Munro, and Duncan Heyward as they travel with Magua to Fort William Henry. Along the way, they join a group of Mohicans named Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye. Due to the ongoing war between British and French, it is difficult to know who is a friend or who is an enemy. However, it soon becomes apparent that Magua is not to be trusted and intends to kidnap Heyward and the Munros. Cora learns that Magua wants to exact revenge on her father, and she offers herself to Magua; fortunately, the Mohicans come to their rescue. The women and Heyward are rescued, but they must hasten to the fort. When they arrive, Colonel Munro realizes that he cannot get reinforcements and must surrender to the French. Then, Huron Indians attack, and Magua is able to capture Cora. Cooper’s classic story has an exotic setting, adventure, and romance. It also has some unique observations about class and race. However, the stilted writing makes it difficult to follow. Also, the lush illustrations do not correspond to the page on which they appear; this might add to readers’ confusion. High school readers (or those wanting to compare this with the 1992 movie) might read this, especially given its handsome presentation. However, the book’s cost and the availability of other, free versions might still discourage examination of this rendition. Reviewer: Elizabeth Fronk; Ages 12 up.

Children's Literature - Elizabeth Fronk