Other editions of book The Deerslayer

On the human imagination events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has travelled far and seen much is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity. In no other way can we account for the venerable air that is already gathering around American annals. When the mind reverts to the earliest days of colonial history, the period seems remote and obscure, the thousand changes that thicken along the links of recollections, throwing back the origin of the nation to a day so distant as seemingly to reach the mists of time; and yet four lives of ordinary duration would suffice to transmit, from mouth to mouth, in the form of tradition, all that civilized man has achieved within the limits of the republic. Although New York alone possesses a population materially exceeding that of either of the four smallest kingdoms of Europe, or materially exceeding that of the entire Swiss Confederation, it is little more than two centuries since the Dutch commenced their settlement, rescuing the region from the savage state. Thus, what seems venerable by an accumulation of changes is reduced to familiarity when we come seriously to consider it solely in connection with time.

The deadly crack of a long rifle and the piercing cries of Indians on the warpath shatter the serenity of beautiful Lake Glimmerglass. Danger has invaded the vast forests of upper New York State as Deerslayer and his loyal Mohican friend Chingachgook attempt the daring rescue of an Indian maiden imprisoned in a Huron camp. Soon they are caught in the cross fire between a cunning enemy and two white bounty hunters who mercilessly kill for profit.The last of the Leatherstocking Tales to be written, though first in the chronology of the hero’s life, The Deerslayer is James Fenimore Cooper’s masterpiece. A fine combination of romance, adventure, and morality, this classic novel of the frontier is an eloquent beginning for Cooper’s great wildernes saga—and an unforgettable introduction to the famous character who has been said to embody the conscience of America: the noble woodsman Deerslayer.

With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Deerslayer is the culmination of James Fenimore Cooper s Leather-Stocking novels, featuring Natty Bumppo (the deer-slaying young frontiersman) and the Mohican chief, Chingachgook. Cooper portrays the hubris of the conquest of a vast territory. The action takes place during the American wars of the 1740s. Natty and his friend Harry attempt to save a trapper and two young women, whose floating fort on Lake Glimmerglass is besieged by the ruthless Iroquois. The tension steadily increases to the point at which a cruel outcome seems inevitable. The exciting action, the romantic potentialities and the knowledgeable evocation of frontier life (with its moral and racial conflicts) have made this novel a perennial favourite. The courageous Natty, with his problematic values, has set the precedent for countless American heroes. Culturally, The Deerslayer has proved to be a powerfully influential work.

The incidents of this tale occurred between the years 1740 and 1745, when the settled portions of the colony of New York were confined to the four Atlantic counties, a narrow belt of country on each side of the Hudson, extending from its mouth to the falls near its head, and to a few advanced “neighborhoods” on the Mohawk and the Schoharie. Broad belts of the virgin wilderness not only reached the shores of the first river, but they even crossed it, stretching away into New England, and affording forest covers to the noiseless moccasin of the native warrior, as he trod the secret and bloody war-path. A bird's-eye view of the whole region east of the Mississippi must then have offered one vast expanse of woods, relieved by a comparatively narrow fringe of cultivation along the sea, dotted by the glittering surfaces of lakes, and intersected by the waving lines of river. In such a vast picture of solemn solitude, the district of country we design to paint sinks into insignificance, though we feel encouraged to proceed by the conviction that, with slight and immaterial distinctions, he who succeeds in giving an accurate idea of any portion of this wild region must necessarily convey a tolerably correct notion of the whole. Whatever may be the changes produced by man, the eternal round of the seasons is unbroken. Summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, return in their stated order with a sublime precision, affording to man one of the noblest of all the occasions he enjoys of proving the high powers of his far-reaching mind, in compassing the laws that control their exact uniformity, and in calculating their never-ending revolutions.Centuries of summer suns had warmed the tops of the same noble oaks and pines, sending their heats even to the tenacious roots, when voices were heard calling to each other, in the depths of a forest, of which the leafy surface lay bathed in the brilliant light of a cloudless day in June, while the trunks of the trees rose in gloomy grandeur in the shades beneath. The calls were in different tones, evidently proceeding from two men who had lost their way, and were searching in different directions for their path. At length a shout proclaimed success, and presently a man of gigantic mould broke out of the tangled labyrinth of a small swamp, emerging into an opening that appeared to have been formed partly by the ravages of the wind, and partly by those of fire. This little area, which afforded a good view of the sky, although it was pretty well filled with dead trees, lay on the side of one of the high hills, or low mountains, into which nearly the whole surface of the adjacent country was broken.“Here is room to breathe in!” exclaimed the liberated forester, as soon as he found himself under a clear sky, shaking his huge frame like a mastiff that has just escaped from a snowbank. “Hurrah! Deerslayer; here is daylight, at last, and yonder is the lake.”- Taken from "The Deerslayer" written by James Fenimore Cooper

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.

The Deerslayer, or The first Warpath was written by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1841. This novel is a wonderful adventure in the classical sense of life, love, and scriptural lessons. It is a romanticized depiction of upstate New York during the 1740s and is the prequel to "The Last of the Mohicans" although it was written later. The protagonist, Deerslayer, is portrayed in a heroic, idealistic manner. With Cooper's detail writing, it is definitely recommended reading it as an introduction to "The Last of the Mohicans."It talks about a restless white youth raised by Indians, Natty Bumppo, also called Deerslayer for the daring that sets him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense, the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe, then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized" men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.