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    The Last of the Mohicans
    The Last of the Mohicans
    The Last of the Mohicans
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    The Last of the Mohicans

    Written by James Fenimore Cooper

    Narrated by Theodore Bickel

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In danger of Indian raids at all times, a small party of colonial Americans flee before the British and their Indian allies during the French and Indian wars. Hawkeye, the scout, is the great figure in this classic story; the climax comes in the tragic encounter between two rival Indians, Magwa and Uncas, the last Mohican chief.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAudio Holdings
    Release dateJan 1, 2009
    ISBN9781601360267
    Author

    James Fenimore Cooper

    James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789 in New Jersey, but later moved to Cooperstown in New York, where he lived most of his life. His novel The Last of the Mohicans was one of the most widely read novels in the 19th century and is generally considered to be his masterpiece. His novels have been adapted for stage, radio, TV and film.

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    Reviews for The Last of the Mohicans

    3.5/5

    1,532 ratings50 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I hated the writing in this book. I slogged all the way through it, but I honestly don't recall much beyond tedium.
    • 5/5
      James Fenimore Cooper's novel "The Last of the Mohicans" (subtitled "A Narrative of 1757"), is a remarkable book for many reasons. First published in 1826, the book represents an early attempt to create substantial literary art from the material of North American history and geography. Although the book has its flaws, it is for the most part a success.In the novel, the white woodsman Hawk-eye and his Mohican Indian comrade Chingachgook join forces to help the daughters of a white military officer through hostile territory. The story takes place in a colonial American setting marked by conflict between French and English forces -- a conflict that also involves various Indian nations.There are a number of exciting (and often graphically violent) scenes of battle and chase. Hawk-eye, a white man who, to a large degree, rejects European-American values, is a fascinating figure -- indeed, he is one of the most enduring fictional creations in all of United States literature. Through the mouths of Hawk-eye and the various Indian characters, Cooper offers some intriguing criticisms of white culture.
    • 2/5
      I had a hard time getting into this book. It is a very interesting plot but the manner in which it is written made it pretty tedious for me. I also felt like things dragged on a bit much.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful story. So much better than it's siblings.
    • 2/5
      There were intriguing moments followed by overlong descriptions. Not my jam, overall.
    • 2/5
      An exciting story but so ponderously told. And if he mentioned either of the Munro women's "weakness of their sex" one more time, I was going to scream. The antiquated language made this a difficult and not entirely enjoyable read.
    • 2/5
      I am totally in agreement with Mark Twain about James Fenimore Cooper's literary "offenses" ... why describe a man as tall and thin when you can spend pages describing every feature from their eyebrows to their toes. Nary a drop of water nor a tree gets by without a vivid, unneeded description. This book has a lot of action (though some problematic as a product of the time it was written in...) but it was hard to get past Cooper's writing style to really get into the story. This is one case where I could see how a movie version would be an improvement over the book.
    • 1/5
      This is another classic that I will never read again. In fact, after the first 10-12%, I gave up on this book.

      No offense to JFC fans, but he just doesn't cut it for me. I usually like authors to be descriptive in their writings, but I think Mr. Cooper got too carried away with it.

      The next time I pick up a classic novel, I want to fall in love with it, not throw it in the fire.
    • 4/5
      This novel is set in 1757 during the Seven Years War when Britain and France battled for control of North America. It is very well written, with evocative descriptions of the landscape, and portrays the multi-faceted life of the various tribes of North American "Red Indians", depicting Native American characters in way in a way that no significant American had done before. There are, of course, still examples of the language of the time (published in 1826) that we wouldn't use today ("savages" vs. "civilised men"), but he portrays a rich variety of characters, including the central character, the young and heroic Uncas and his dignified father Chingachgook, and the villainous Magua; compared to these, the white European-American characters are much blander, particularly the sisters Cora and Alice, who are depicted as beautiful bland ciphers, as young female characters so often were in 19th century literature on both sides of the Atlantic. Between them is the figure of Hawkeye/Natty Bumppo, a white man raised by Delaware Indians, able to act as a bridge between the two cultures. The action of the novel revolves around the rescue of Cora and Alice from the clutches of the Hurons who have kidnapped them, and contains some impressive and violent set pieces, involving much scalping. There were passages where my interest waned, nevertheless this is deservedly an early classic of American literature.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up at the local library for $1, so I thought, what the heck. I typically don't choose to read early American literature, so this was about seeing how well someone who predated Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville did. Not terribly well, actually. I had some inkling ahead of time that this was going to be about as realistic as Walter Scott (I made it a little ways into Ivanhoe as a child and tossed it aside). It's actually not that bad for about the first half or so, despite some pretty unlikely events and behavior on both the part of the whites and the Indians But then, about 2/3 of the way through, it starts to be pretty preposterous. It's not without its merits, I guess, but ultimately at this stage of American letters, we don't have a lot to be proud of. Fortunately, that was about to change (Emerson, Whitman, etc.)
    • 3/5
      I can't remember when I read this but it is a borderline "western" that I actually didn't hate, which is seriously saying something. This one provides an interesting perspective and I thought it was alright. I didn't love it and I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone, but it wasn't bad either.
    • 1/5
      Very antiquated language. Too hard to read.
    • 4/5
      No, I didn't care for this one much, I'm afraid. A main character who is white but lives among the Indians and so embodies the best of both worlds (the forest prowess of the natives but the moral and intellectual superiority of the white man), natives who are inherently lesser, but with two 'noble' exceptions, white soldiers who are brave but dumb and weak compared to that amazing main character, and two damosels in constant need of rescuing - blech. I will say that the ending was unexpectedly un-pat, which was a bit of a nice surprise, but not enough to save this one.
    • 3/5
      The Last of the Mohicans opens with the journey of British Colonel Munro’s two daughters, Alice and Cora, from Fort Edward to Fort Henry amid the backdrop of the French and Indian War. For their protection they are escorted by Major Heyward Duncan and a Huron Indian (native American) named Magua. On their journey they are joined by David Gamut, a Psalmist; Hawkeye, a white scout who travels with Indians; and Hawkeyes’ companions Chingachgook and his son Uncas, both of whom are members of the once great Mohican tribe. Their trip soon goes horribly wrong, and they will be left to undergo an epic journey that lasts for the rest of the novel.The first aspect of this novel that will strike the modern reader is the amount of racial stereotyping that is present. The Indians are presented as always having a larger sense of the sights and sounds of the world around them than their white companions are capable of possessing, and the white people have a better understanding of human relationships, more empathy, and more civilized refinement than the Native Americans. There is even stereotyping present among the individual groups within the races as the French are untrustworthy and the Hurons are portrayed as duplicitous. However, if the modern reader is able to keep in mind that Cooper was writing with the cultural knowledge and understanding of his time period, I feel that there is still a lot to be taken and enjoyed from this novel.One thing that I liked about the novel was the theme of characters revealing their hidden strengths. There are several times during their ordeals that they encounter that the sisters, portrayed as dainty, civilized women early in the novel, are able to show strength, cunning, and valor. Another example of this is the aforementioned David Gamut. Gamut is a very weak character throughout most of the novel and is more interesting in singing Psalms than in carrying out the traits that would make him successful in the environment that he is travelling in; yet, when given the opportunity, he shows himself to be cunning and brave when necessary. This depth of character and character development made this novel more enjoyable for me. Within this development of these characters, Cooper reveals a strong central theme of brotherhood that can develop among companions. Scout, Uncas, and Chingachgook make for a strong mixed-race family unit at the outset of the novel, and they work as a team to be successful at many times in the novel. However, as the novel progresses, we begin to see them grow closer and work more closely with Haywood, Gamut, Munro, and the two sisters until the final climax when it becomes apparent how much the dynamic of brotherhood between characters has changed over the course of the novel. For me, that was the most brilliant part of this novel, and it made me glad that I had read it.However, while I am glad that I read it, I still cannot say that it was particularly brilliant or great. The writing was clunky at times, the racial stereotypes were there, and there wasn’t much that made me really think deeply about the human condition. Overall, I thought that it was a flawed novel with some positive aspects that helped to redeem it. I recommend it provided that the reader’s expectations aren’t too high.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful story. So much better than it's siblings.
    • 2/5
      Probably better to stick with the movie version on this one.
    • 2/5
      Watch the movie! For once, I think the film versions (none of which are completely true to the book) are better than the original novel. Cooper has written an exciting adventure story in such a way that it is a struggle to read. It is tempting to blame that on the early date it was written (1826) except that Jane Austen wrote even earlier and in a much easier style!

      This audiobook edition also has some problems. This digital audiobook from Recorded Books has chapter markers but they bear no relation to the chapters in the text! I suspect that they represent the sides of cassette tapes -- but at least there wasn't any "This is the end of..." bits. The narrator was okay. Unfortunately, his voice, instead of compelling my attention, caused my mind to wander. For some sections, I had to resort to reading my Kindle edition after repeated attempts to listen left me unable to comprehend what was happening.
    • 3/5
      Book on CD performed by William Costello
      3.5***

      The second (and most popular) of the Leatherstocking Tales is set in 1757, during the French and Indian wars. It’s an adventure novel and romance, featuring Hawkeye (a/k/a Leatherstocking, Natty Bumpo or the Scout), a white man who has adopted Indian ways. His “brothers” are the Mohicans: Chingachgook and Uncas. They weave through the lush landscape of upper New York, fighting to save Cora and Alice Munro, the beautiful daughters of a fort commander, from a treacherous Huron renegade, Magua.

      I’m sure this was assigned reading in high school, and am equally sure that I relied on the Cliff’s notes to get through the exam and didn’t actually read this classic American novel. As an adult I can appreciate the prose and the style of 18th-century writing, but it still frustrates me. For the modern-day reader Cooper includes way too much verbiage to get to the point.

      But if the reader can persist, s/he will find a tension-filled adventure – the chases through the wilderness, and major fights/battles are very suspenseful in places. And there is a significant message about the clash of civilizations as the Europeans fought over territory while ignoring the rights, wishes, livelihoods of the indigenous population. Cooper’s historical romance gave us many of the elements so common in frontier fiction: a loner hero, “noble savage” trusted companion, lovely heroines in danger, and a plot full of chases and epic battles. Looked at it that way, I am reminded of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.

      What surprised me most on this reading was Cora’s character. Her strength, intelligence, courage and willingness to sacrifice herself made her a much more complex character than the typical “helpless maiden in distress.”

      William Costello does a fairly good job of reading the audio version, though his slow pace at the beginning made me reconsider whether I wanted to keep listening. I think, however, it was more due to Cooper’s style of writing, than to Costello’s skill as a performer.

      I do have to admit, that the glorious cinematography and music score of the 1992 film, starring Daniel Day Lewis as Hawkeye, kept running through my mind as I read/listened. While that film has significant departures in plot from Cooper’s novel, it did make me think that I should probably actually read the book, so when our local university book discussion group announced this book in the lineup for fall, I immediately RSVP’d. I’m glad I finally read it, and am looking forward to the discussion.

    • 2/5
      I haven't read James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans since high school and thought it would interesting to revisit, especially after seeing the move starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It certainly kept me reading, but it won't become a favorite for several reasons. Cooper seems to have been a man with a chip on his shoulder; his preface is rather combative and if you wish to see a snub there, you may. I'm sure other reviewers have covered the racism angle of this story more thoroughly than I wish to. I'll just say, it's there but it's not unmitigated. Chingachgook and Uncas are certainly portrayed as heroes, and the rich figurative speeches Cooper puts in the mouths of all the Indian characters is simply beautiful. Not all the white characters are good, either; Montcalm comes in for some well-deserved reproach. But overall, if you want to enjoy this you have to overlook a lot. And it's not just the racist undertones that you have to overlook. The improbable disguises that our heroes assume, dashing in and out of hostile villages without being recognized, stretch credulity just a bit far and render the story awkward. The heroines are, of course, astonishingly beautiful and delicate females whose small feet are noted several times as a sign of pure breeding. Cora has some backbone, but she seems a little unreal. The movie is almost unrecognizable from its source. The love interests are thoroughly mixed up, people die who survived and survive who died, and by raising Hawk-eye to such prominence over his Delaware companions, the filmmakers caused the name of the film to no longer make much sense. And what a pity there was no room for the humor of David Gamut's character! In comparing the book to the film, there's some irony to be found in Cooper's preface, in which he says, "...it is a very unsafe experiment either for a writer or a projector to trust to the inventive powers of anyone but himself." How many other authors whose works have been adapted into films could say the same? At least it has a lovely soundtrack. I see why this tale is still read and enjoyed, and I wouldn't say no to reading more of Cooper's stories. But it's flawed.
    • 4/5
      A classic adventure novel, set in young America in 1757 during the French and Indian War, published in 1826, this is the story of how a Scout, named Hawkeye by his Delaware tribe companions, helps to try to rescue the two daughters of an English colonel who has been forced to surrender his fort to the French forces. After their surrender, the English soldiers and the families are unharmed by the victorious French, but their Native American colleagues are less merciful and a massacre and kidnapping takes place. Hawkeye (aka Natty Bumppo), the Mohicans Chingachgook and his son Uncas, and Duncan Heyward, a British major, embark on a rescue mission to try to save Colonel Munro's daughters, Alice and Cora Munro, from a fate worse than death at the hands of the villainous Huron, Magua. This is an exciting adventure, with scattered episodes of shocking savagery by the Hurons who have sided with the French forces, and occasional acts of nobility and sacrifice by the Delaware and Mohicans of the story. My history is not strong enough to have a sense of how accurately the "Indian" characters are portrayed, but the even-handed way in which they are depicted seems unusual for a white author in 1826. The only thing that marred the story for me was the stiff and archaic language and sentence structure, but it may well be that this was entirely a product of the times and was well-received by readers at the time. It did make the reading of an exciting story a difficult slog for the most part. This particular copy is undated, but there is a handwritten name and probable date: Cleopatra Price, '13 (1913 of course).
    • 1/5
      A perfectly good cheapo edition with two typos and no critical apparatus. The only reason you might want to read a scholarly edition is that regular notes will give you blessed breaks in the text of this appallingly awful novel.The novel does have merits. If you have come here after reading the Deerslayer you will find something much more readable because Cooper's intrusive authorial voice is budding but not yet in full flower. If this is your first experience of Cooper, I know it's hard to believe, but he actually gets worse. The dialogue is broken but thankfully he makes little attempt to represent Hawkeye's pronouciation.What you're lacking is anything like the thematic unity of the prequel. There Hawkeye's internal conflict will his ethnic identity is reflected in the plot. There's none of that here. I did find myself wondering a couple of times if Hawkeye was protesting too much and is actually supposed to be mixed race and in denial, but on reflection I think he's just degenerated into a sort of contemptuous racist. I found myself wondering why the Mohicans put up with him. I certainly found it hard to do so.There are so many examples of unparalleled incompetence but I shall restrict myself to this little diamond from page 301:“The effect of so strange an echo on David may better be imagined than described.”Bad enough, but he then proceeds to the end of the chapter, taking a further 71 words to describe the effect.
    • 3/5
      Boriŋ. But ðen I was a kid.
    • 4/5
      The Last of the Mohicans is a story about two sisters escorted from fort Henry to their fathers house for a visit. Guided through the forest by a major. The major named Duncan Heyward. Also he was guided by a Mohican. They stumble upon an Indian that leads them on the wrong direction. Once they find out he runs away bringing back more allies. but saved by a adopted settler by one of the last Mohicans.This book is an intresting read, Yet it is not related to your work or your selected genre expressed to me from you, Mr. Poppe, For that reason this read would not be good for you currently. So i would not recommended this as of right now. If you are interested in fictional history when you are retired, maybe you could kick back to this book in your senior years.
    • 4/5
      For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. While this novel features the same time frame (French and Indian War), the same geography (New York/Canadian border) and the same characters (with the addition of David Gamut, who did not appear in the movie), much of the action, plot and story lines differ significantly.James Fenimore Cooper, the author of Last of the Mohicans and several others of the same genre, came under fairly scathing criticism from none other than Mark Twain, concerning both his style and the contents of his tales. Certainly, Cooper was somewhat wordy, and imbued his heroes with outlandish talents and skills, but not to the detriment of the story, in my opinion.The hero of this novel, and the others in the Leatherstocking series, is known variously as Hawkeye, the Long Rifle or the Scout, an American who has been raised by a Mohican chief, Chingachgook, and his son, Uncas (last of the Mohicans). Hawkeye is the quintessential frontier woodsman, well versed in all of the skills possessed by the natives, but imbued with all of the intelligence, morality and virtues of his race. Some have criticized Cooper for his stereotypical portrayal of the Native Americans (the Delaware as noble savages, the Huron as simply bloodthirsty beasts), but this falls within the common critical failing of attributing current societal norms and mores to historical personages. In any event, Hawkeye and his Mohicans befriend an English officer charged with transporting two English maidens to an English fort on Lake Champlain. The English have been betrayed by their Huron guide (Magua). The balance of the novel entails the effort to rescue the women from their Huron captors with the aid of the friendly Delaware tribe. Much woodscraft, skill in battle and Indian practices and beliefs are contained within the story.While I much preferred the movie to the novel, having much to do with the striking visuals provided by the former, I cannot overly fault the latter and found it to be entertaining taken as a whole. Taking it for what it is, an early-19th century look at the French and Indian War, the reader could do far worse than this classic work.
    • 4/5
      Kidnapping, adventures tramping through the woods, battles between Native American tribes, this book is full of adventure! This is the most well-known book from Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales series. It’s set during the French and Indian War in 1757. Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, are being escorted through the forest in New York when they are kidnapped by members of the Huron tribe. The leader of the band is the vile and unrepentant Magua. The Munro sisters’ protectors, including Major Duncan Heyward, Hawkeye, two Mohican Indians, Chingachgook and Uncas, and a singing teacher named David, attempt to rescue them. Their methods are clever, dressing as animals, even using David’s love of singing at one point! I also loved that there are quotes from Shakespeare throughout the text. He was so revered, even at a time when his plays weren’t readily available. The book was published in 1826, but even back then there are so many mentions about the atrocities that were done to the Native Americans. There are fascinating parts that delve into the history of that time period, but much of the plot is spent with one group chasing another group through the woods. I’ll admit it became tedious after a while. BOTTOM LINE: Wonderful historical information, but it stretched on and became repetitive.
    • 3/5
      Overall a good story, but told in a very awkward style. I kept drifting off, my mind wandering as I read it. It just simply couldn't keep my attention even though the story itself and most of the characters were very good.
    • 5/5
      Difficult to adjust to the writing style? No doubt. Patience required even then? Yes. Nevertheless an artfully and skillfully accomplished novel? Absolutely. This book is so descriptive and tedious in its setting because the merciless and rugged wilderness of N. American before colonisation and Europeans ultimately conquered it was in and of itself one of the primary characters in the novel, just as important as that of the Mohicans, their Indian foes, and the white settlers. While it's a work of fiction, in order to fully understand the tale, it forced me to educate myself on the history of the French-Indian War, most of which it appears I'd forgotten. I'd recommend this book to those interested in the history of colonisation of N. American and certainly anyone interested in Native American culture and the clash between it and the white settlers. A beautiful piece of work.
    • 4/5
      The Last of the Mohicans
      by James Fenimore Cooper
      Published 1826
      Pages: 416
      Genre: Fiction, historical romance
      My copy: kindle/☊, narrated by Larry McKeever.
      Rating ★ ★ ★ 1/2

      Story of the Seven Year War of 1757. Frontiersman, Hawkeye and his Native American friend Uncas, along with David Gamut, the singing teacher, and Major Duncan Heyward, the group's military leader set off to rescue the two Munro sisters who have been taken captive. This author is one of the first to include Native American's in his writing and he does a good job of respecting their culture. There is the suggestion of interracial marriage in the story which would have been quite controversial and maybe also was the reason for his popularity. I think his book might have been one of the very first to make this suggestion. While it is a historical novel and also a novel about a people, there are some inaccuracies. The author's prose is not easy to read. Audio made it better and McKeever had a fine voice but the quality of the audio was poor. I had an echo and also the transitions were quite obvious. Twain criticized Cooper as being a spendthrift as far as his use of words.
    • 4/5
      This is a difficult book to read. I only read it because I loved the moive "Lat of the Mohicans" with Daniel Day Lewis. The really interesting part is that some threads of the original are present in the movie. Some of the best lines in the movies are actually taken from the book. 
    • 3/5
      OK, let's start with what I enjoyed about this classic - great story and wonderful characters. In this book you really get a good mental picture of Hawkeye, the scout, and Uncas, the last purebred Mohican chief. You fall in love with Cora's heroism and you detest Magua as a treacherous villain. Now, what did I not like - the writing style! This book was so wordy and hard to slug through. Although I enjoyed all the conversations between the characters the descriptions were so tedious and peppered with footnotes. Toward the end of the book, I found myself fast forwarding through the footnotes - some of them were several tracks long! I can see why people love this book - what a great story! But does anyone like his writing style? Last of the Mohicans is the Last of Cooper's books for me!