James Fenimore Cooper: Leatherstocking Tales

***Valandil*** · 12-15-2003, 12:04 PM

Anyone read them? Liked them? I read them in a stretch when I was commuting on an el train and focused on reading the ride away.

There are five in the series. The most famous is "Last of the Mohicans" - it's second in the series and also the second he wrote. It's good, but I actually think the best is "The Pioneers" which is the first one he wrote, but is fourth chronologically in the series (Cooper wrote that one as a stand-alone story, but had a lot of requests for more stories with a particular character from the book - Natty Bumppo / Leatherstocking - who is named "Hawkeye" in LotM).

"The Pioneers" is a great study of early American life, just after the American revolution as we expand into the frontier. "Last of the Mohicans" is a great adventure story - and has a particularly gripping historical event included in the story. Another point of interest is that these were written in the 1820's and 1830's - when the American frontier was still being opened and when the times written of were still within living memory.

Here are the books in chronological order - with the order written in ( ) afterwards.

1. The Deerslayer (#5)
2. The Last of the Mohicans (#2)
3. The Pathfinder (#4)
4. The Pioneers (#1)
5. The Prairie (#3)

Note that the 'chronological' order is also alphabetical order.

12-15-2003, 12:04 PM	#1
*Valandil* High King at Annuminas Administrator Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Wyoming - USA Posts: 10,752	James Fenimore Cooper: Leatherstocking Tales Anyone read them? Liked them? I read them in a stretch when I was commuting on an el train and focused on reading the ride away. There are five in the series. The most famous is "Last of the Mohicans" - it's second in the series and also the second he wrote. It's good, but I actually think the best is "The Pioneers" which is the first one he wrote, but is fourth chronologically in the series (Cooper wrote that one as a stand-alone story, but had a lot of requests for more stories with a particular character from the book - Natty Bumppo / Leatherstocking - who is named "Hawkeye" in LotM). "The Pioneers" is a great study of early American life, just after the American revolution as we expand into the frontier. "Last of the Mohicans" is a great adventure story - and has a particularly gripping historical event included in the story. Another point of interest is that these were written in the 1820's and 1830's - when the American frontier was still being opened and when the times written of were still within living memory. Here are the books in chronological order - with the order written in ( ) afterwards. 1. The Deerslayer (#5) 2. The Last of the Mohicans (#2) 3. The Pathfinder (#4) 4. The Pioneers (#1) 5. The Prairie (#3) Note that the 'chronological' order is also alphabetical order.