The setting for this historical romance is the French and Indian War, a war which pitted England and its American colonists against the French and their Indian allies. Cora and Alice Munro, the daughters of an English commander, are on their way to join their father. Escorting them through the wilderness are Alice’s fiancé, Major Duncan Heyward, and the treacherous Indian Magua, who secretly serves the French.
Magua’s plan to betray the party to the Iroquois is foiled by the scout Hawkeye and his companions, old chief Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the “last of the Mohicans.” Through a series of fights and rescues, this trio of loyal friends, who embody a code of manly honor and heroics, defend the virtuous sisters from Magua and his Iroquois thugs.
This timeless tale will enchant readers with its panoramic view of America at its conception.
[Cooper's] sympathy is large, and his humor is as genuine—and as perfectly unaffected—as his art.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851), the first major American novelist, was the son of a wealthy landowner who founded Cooperstown, New York. He attended Yale and served in the navy before turning to writing with Precaution (1820), but it was his second book, The Spy (1821), that brought him international fame. After he wrote The Pioneers (1823), public fascination with the character of Natty Bumppo and his use of the American landscape led him to write a series of sequels that gradually unfold the entire life of the frontier scout. The books’ popularity reflected the growing interest in the clash between savagery and civilization on the frontier.
