The Last of the Mohicans (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) | 
| Author: James Fenimore Cooper
Creator: Stephen Railton
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $4.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 80716
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 1593080654
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.3
EAN: 9781593080655
ASIN: 1593080654
Publication Date: November 1, 2003
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. During the fierce French and Indian wars, an adroit scout named Hawkeye and his companion Chingachgook weave through the spectacular and dangerous wilderness of upstate New York, fighting to save the beautiful Munro sisters from the Huron renegade Magua. The Last of the Mohicans is the most popular of James Fenimore Cooper’s five Leatherstocking Tales. With its death-defying chases and teeth-clenching suspense, this American classic established many archetypes of American frontier fiction. An engrossing “Western” by America’s first great novelist, The Last of the Mohicans is a story of survival and treachery, love and deliverance. Stephen Railton, Professor of English at the University of Virginia, has written books on Cooper, Mark Twain, and the American Renaissance, and has created major websites on Twain, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and American culture.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Native American Classic October 1, 2008
Having read this classic many years ago, I had the opportunity to read it to my children again. It still raised my imagination, leaving the feeling of the deep woods and crafty, dangerous indians lurking about. It is a great adventure, with immortal characters, burdened with their own faults and fates. Cooper was a masterful storyteller if somewhat historically inaccurate, for his readers enjoyment. The noble savage as portrayed here swept the country's imagination for many decades.
George E. Miller, author of The Lone War Cry
The Last of the Mohicans July 27, 2008
This is a good book to read, though it tends to drag on at times. The story is well known, and attests to the authorship of James Fenimore Cooper. This will forever be a classic piece of American literature with characters people can identify with and appreciate. Cooper is a very good storyteller.
Another "character" of the work is the landscape in which the story unfolds. Cooper's description of upstate New York does for literature what the Romantic painters of the Hudson River School did on canvas. Cooper writes of the crags and forests in such a way that the reader feels every drop of water or every sharp stone the books character's encounter.
As said this book drags on at times but in general it has a good pace. Twenty-first century readers will struggle at times with the context and verbage, but this will remain an important book from the nineteenth century.
Last of the Mohicans November 10, 2007
I enjoyed this book thoroughly and would refer to anyone reading of the interest to read this title.
A novel of historical importance - but not accurate October 27, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Back in the early 1800s, there was a writer who lived in New York State and loved its natural beauty. He began writing a series of novels describing the life of a wilderness man - Hawkeye - and his two Mohican indian companions. The indians were father and son, Chingachgook and Uncas. The books, known as the Leatherstocking Tales, became a world-wide sensation. Set in the wilds of the 1757 French-Indian War, the stories were near enough in time that they seemed familiar, but wild enough in characters, locations and situations that people all around the world ate them up.
Because the book was one of the first created by an American about a uniquely American topic, it's often taught in literature classes - and because it's about wild "cowboys and indians" without sex or explicit violence, it's often red by young kids. How does this story hold up in modern times?
First, if you've seen any movie version, you are only seeing one eighth of the story. The book was long and dense. To cut that down to two or less hours is to cut out a TON of plot line. Much of the intricacies of the various indian tribes and their relationships to each other is lost, and usually they cut out several key characters as well.
In many ways the book is interesting and progressive for something written in the 1800s. Remember, even in the 1900s, Irish were being ostracized and native Americans were treated far worse. So back in 1826, James set his story around a Scotsman - Munro - and his two daughters, Cora and Alice. Not only that, but Cora was a quarter black - Munro had married a mixed-blood woman during his youth, then remarried a Scotswoman later to have Alice. So there are discussions where Munro strongly defends his daughter, where Hawkeye strongly defends his native friends, and where there are discussions about what a person is worth vs the color of their skin.
On the other hand, though, there are a lot of wild generalities made about native Americans. The book throws around terms such as 'barbaric' and 'devious' and 'lying' quite freely. You could say that they are the incorrect misconceptions of the main characters - but that doesn't make sense. Cora, mixed-blood herself, is quick to defend and speak up for the natives. Hawkeye certainly appreciates them. Maybe it is more like the gross generalizations made in many action-adventure movies where, for example, Indiana Jones fights off hordes of faceless "evil Arabs". You don't ask those movies to be accurate or understanding of the enemies. Maybe it's unfair to have asked this book to give accurate, well rounded descriptions of the "bad Indians". The problem is that the book became so popular, in lands where this book was their only glimpse of American Indian life, that they created very inaccurate portrayals that took a long time to dismiss.
The book was written very formally. I am generally a fast reader and can zip through books, but this one really makes you slow down and pay attention. If you like to skim books you might find this extremely troublesome. It's not just that it's an "old book" - even people back when it was written found the style difficult. You can say that it should have been written to read more smoothly - but on the other hand, it's not necessarily a bad thing to slow down and pay attention to what you are reading. Think of it as speed bumps which force you to slow down and really admire the landscape around you. I didn't find the prose style difficult at all and quite got into the hang of it.
Really, in the end, you can appreciate this book for being a high adventure novel written in the early 1800s by an American, about Americans, that opened the world's eyes to some of America's beauty. In that sense it achieved its goal quite nicely. For that reason, it's important for modern day people to read it and to understand its place in history, just like we read the Odyssey.
But it's also important to understand this is not a treatise on the actual characters and natures of the native Americans described. While James F. Cooper was familiar with the lands of New York that he describes, he had very little familiarity with the indian tribes. Many of his descriptions are misguided at best, and downright harmful and nasty at worst.
 Best book I've read in many moons September 8, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book has lost none of its flavor. The writing is wonderfully lyrical, and the plot is set at a breathless pace. It may be old, but it still reads as well as ever. It deserves the place history has given it.
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