Mondays Book Talk - The Last of the Mohicans

Written by Ben Kesp

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper 

The Last of the Mohicans is a book I had wanted to read with sometime. I am a fan of the 1992 movie that sees Daniel Day Lewis and Madeline Stowe give powerful performances of the main characters Hawkeye and Cora Munroe. The book written by James Fenimore Cooper is the second of five novels published between 1823 and 1841 which were collectively known as the “Leatherstocking Tales”. The books feature the character “Natty Bumppo” or better known as Hawkeye, a frontiersman who finds himself in various adventures with Native American Indians and European settlers. 

The Last of the Mohicans is set between 1756 and 1763 during the time of the English/French wars with the Native American Indians siding with the French. A small group of English soldiers are accompanying Cora and Alice, the two daughters of the English General Munroe led by Magua of the Huron Indian tribe to Fort William Henry. Magua deceives the group and abandons them leaving the sisters, along with the English officer Duncan Heyward and the tall singing master David Gamut to be escorted by the frontiersman Hawkeye. Hawkeye is joined by his two Indian friends, Chingachgook and his son Uncas, who are the last of the Mohican tribe. The Mohican tribe did not actually exist in real life but is Cooper’s creation of amalgamating the names of two actual Native American Indian tribes. 

The book is full of suspense, great action and an amazing adventure story. Cooper details the Native American Indian way of life, showing the struggles and loss of the French and English soldiers and turns Indian against Indian in a final conflict that has disastrous outcomes for the dying race of the Mohican tribe in this great saga. 

If you are a fan of the film, be aware that the book is told in a different format, richer in detail, plot lines, suspense and gives a more accurate description of what life was really like in the savage wilderness of the American frontier. I found this a great read that transports you back to a wild and savage time in American history.