Colección Aventuras

The principal character of The Last of the Mohicans is Natty Bumppo, also called Hawkeye, now in middle life and at the height of his powers. The story tells of brutal battles with the Iroquois and their French allies, cruel captures, narrow escapes, and revenge. The beauty of the unspoiled wilderness and sorrow at its disappearance, symbolized in Hawkeye’s Mohican friends, the last of their tribe, are important themes of the novel.

The pivotal set piece of The Last of the Mohicans is the massacre at Fort William Henry during the internecine French and Indian War, as the North American portion of the worldwide Seven Years’ War was known. This is the “factual” event around which Cooper, the first internationally renowned American novelist, builds a compelling tale of wilderness adventure.

Drawing heavily on the American genre of the Native American captivity narrative, he created a template for much American popular fiction, particularly the western. Frontiersman Natty Bumppo, whom the French call La Longue Carabine (the long rifle), had already been introduced as an old man in Cooper’s The Pioneers (1823); here he appears in middle age, as Hawkeye, a scout working for the British, along with Chingachgook and his son, Uncas, two respected members of the Mohican tribe of the Hudson River valley in the British colony of New York who become his companions. Having crossed paths with Cora and Alice Munro, the daughters of a British colonel who are betrayed by their Huron guide, a wily warrior named Magua, Bumppo and friends spend the rest of the novel rescuing them from captivity, escorting them to safety, or pursuing them through the wilderness.

Cooper’s racial politics are conservative; though the novel raises the possibility of interracial romance between Uncas and the genteel Cora (who has a Black mother), the prospect is quashed. Cooper laments the destruction of the wilderness, and of the Native peoples who inhabit it, but all are shown to succumb inevitably to progress, typical of the ideology of 19th-century America. ( )

In 1757, during the French and Indian War, Cora and Alice Munro are traveling to meet their father, who is currently in command of Fort William Henry. Major Duncan Heyward is escorting them, along with their Native American guide, Magua. The deeper the group journeys into the wilderness, the more they begin to suspect that Magua is steering them wrong. Fortunately, they stumble upon Hawkeye, a scout, and his Mohican companions, Chingachgook and Uncas. When the new group points out that Magua has indeed betrayed the ladies, Magua escapes into the woods, rounds up reinforcements, and persistently hunts his erstwhile companions.

I added this to a list of classics that I'd like to read someday because the movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis was filmed around Western North Carolina, where I live, and parts were even filmed within a few miles of my parents' house. My husband and I are currently traveling around the country with his job, so when I realized the book actually takes place around Lake George, New York, only about an hour away from where we are this summer, I knew the time had come to tackle it.

The book was a little bit of a slog but that's partly on me. I can only remember one scene from the movie and it's a sad one. I don't particularly like sad books so I kept avoiding it. The writing is also an odd mix of a lot of action buried under very dense sentence structure. I had to take my time wading through each sentence to figure out what exactly was going on. I'm generally a fast reader and have a hard time slowing myself down for this kind of book. I start to get resentful that it's taking me so long to read the darn thing!

My husband and I finally went up to visit Lake George about the time I was reaching the last few chapters and it's a beautiful place. Fort William Henry, where some pivotal action takes place, was rebuilt in the 1950s so we toured it. I enjoyed seeing the real life place where the fictional book was set. It really added to my experience.

The book was written in 1826 and the language and treatment of the Native American characters reflects that. It wasn't as bad as I expected but as a White woman, I don't know if I'm the best judge. Among the occasional derogatory remarks and stereotypical "silly superstitions," there is some true depth to the Native American characters. Their dwindling populations and lands are treated with a degree of poignancy, in my opinion. For what that's worth.

The edition I checked out of the library is beautifully illustrated with watercolors by Patrick Prugne. It's a gorgeous book.

I liked reading about America in the pre-Revolutionary years, a time I know little about. If the historical period interests you, this is definitely worth a read. ( )

If you're interested in reading this book thinking you'll be getting the same hustle and bustle as the audacious Michael Mann film accompanied by a rousing soundtrack, think again. Though the descriptions are pictorial and painstaking (if that's what you're looking for), they are too long-winded and tedious to the point that they lose their effect and fail to enchant the reader. The plot is a bit silly at times, though it pretends to be serious, with all the captures, recaptures, back-stabbings and melodramatic death sequences that seem to happen at random and just don't seem to satisfy the way the film does (though it be just as exaggerated, it does so knowing it's being cheesy). This book may have been considered "adventuresome" in the early 1800s, but it just doesn't hold well today. ( )

This is Cooper's second entry in the five volume Leatherstocking series. Hawkeye, the fearless warrior, trapper and guide along with his Mohican friend, Chingachgook, fights bad Indians represented in this novel by the Hurons and their chief, Magua. The tile comes from the fact that Chingachgook's son, Uncas, is the last Mohican if he or his father is killed.

While the descriptions of terrain and people are lengthy and in some instances of action, I had to read some paragraphs several times to be sure I understood what actually had taken place. The famous massacre at Fort William Henry was graphically described and Cooper lays the blame at the feet of General Montcalm for not controlling his native allies. ( )