"The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War), when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. During this war, both the French and the British used Native American allies, but the French were particularly dependent, as they were outnumbered in the Northeast frontier areas by the more numerous British colonists. The novel is primarily set in the upper New York wilderness, detailing...

Vigorous, self-reliant, amazingly resourceful, and moral, Natty Bumppo is the prototype of the Western hero. A faultless arbiter of wilderness justice, he hates middle-class hypocrisy. But he finds his love divided between the woman he has pledged to protect on a treacherous journey and the untouched forest that sustains him in his beliefs. A fast-paced narrative full of adventure and majestic descriptions of early frontier life, Indian raiders, and...

The Deerslayer is the last-written of Cooper's Leatherstocking tales, but the first in the development of the hero, Natty Bumppo. Here Cooper returns Leatherstocking to his youth and to a pristine wilderness. Natty was brought up among the Delaware Indians, engaged in warfare against the Hurons. He helps defend the family of Tom Hutter, a settler, from attack. Judith, a girl of noble birth loves Natty and begs him not to return to the Iroquois, but...

In the Indiana Territory at the beginning of the War of 1812, a powerful war chief of the Shawnee tribe clings desperately to his hold on all the lands he sees as his. He has a hatred for the American settlers that he sees as invaders. He sides with the British in the conflict and musters his warriors to battle. In one attack, the Shawnee swooped down on a small settlement, striking cabins where peaceful settlers went about their daily routines. In...

"Joel McAllister is a lieutenant in the Confederate Army--or at least he was, until Lee surrendered. Now he's determined to get as far away from war as possible, somewhere beyond North and South (and maybe somewhere with some gold): Idaho Territory. Accompanied by his steadfast sergeant, Riley, the two former soldiers travel westward from Texas. But the trail to Silver City is littered with peril--including a band of notoriously merciless Comanche...