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kenopsian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
The Last of the Mohicans is old-timey. You could pick one random page from this book and read it without context, and for every single page you'd know that it was written in the 1800s. It's a snapshot of life during this time in the American frontier from the perspective of a white man, with all the romanticization and mild racism which that entails. From beginning to end it's a romp through the wilderness periodically interrupted by a wild gunfight, so if you're one of the few dozen people on Earth that finds this premise interesting, you're in for a treat.
Listen. I love boring old books. There's something wrong with me, and I accept that, but the fact remains that I'm the kind of person that liked Heart of Darkness despite the fact that at every given point I had no idea what was happening. In this regard, The Last of the Mohicans is flawless. There are ornately written, page-long descriptions of trees. There are bizarrely written yet musical sentences with nine commas and one semicolon that you have to read three times to understand. There are characters that say "thee" and "thou". I find stories like this relaxing and fascinating. Relaxing, because the tendency of the author to focus all his attention on one thing at a time leaves the story completely without urgency and akin to a late afternoon stroll. Fascinating, because the world in which the story takes place and in which the author lives is so distant from my own that it's almost alien.
If you're going to enjoy The Last of the Mohicans, you need to understand that the book's worth lies in the unique perspective it provides of a white guy in 1800s America. It is beyond intriguing to see how James Cooper views the American frontier, women, and Native Americans. However, as one might expect, there are countless points in which Cooper's beliefs about the world made me cringe. Everything that the book's two main female characters do is followed by a variation of the phrase "as was the nature of their sex", and even without the misogyny it's just annoying to read over and over again. The characterization of the Native Americans featured in the story is far worse, with an abundance of the "noble savage" trope and depictions of Native Americans as inherently less civilized than white people. At one point, a group of Hurons eat a fawn raw. It takes up three sentences and is never mentioned again. I am not an expert in the culture of the Hurons, or any Native Americans for that matter, but I don't think they did this.
However, Cooper isn't without his merits. Although he is obviously affected by the attitudes of his time, this book is sometimes awe-inspiring in just how progressive some of it must have been in the time when it was written. The main Native American characters Chingachgook and Uncas are shown to be moral and venerable, and rather than treating Native Americans as a monolith, Cooper makes obvious distinctions between the different tribes and cultures among them. Furthermore, Cora, a female character, is repeatedly shown to be strong and almost stoic, with a male character at one point remarking that she would be a great soldier on the battlefield. Hawkeye, the central character, repeatedly remarks that Native Americans and Christian whites will go to their own preferred heavens after their deaths, contradicting the notion among many white Christians at the time that Native Americans were heathens doomed to hell. No, The Last of the Mohicans isn't the most PC, and for many readers this understandably makes it a bit unpleasant. However, this also makes it an interesting look into the mindset and perceptions of a white man at the time, and furthermore even makes a few strides beyond the more harmful beliefs of that era.
Aside from this, The Last of the Mohicans is a legitimately competent story. In older novels I usually feel as if the characters are just a means to relay the plot, but in this book I found myself loving all of them despite their archaic dialogue. Although many of the scenes go on far too long (about a fourth of it is spent in one single cave) the fights are exciting and at points I found myself eager to find out what happens next.
If you were the kid in English class that secretly really liked all of the assigned readings, or you just really enjoy descriptions of trees, this is the book for you. However, if you're even the slightest bit easily bored, you might want to pass on this one.
Listen. I love boring old books. There's something wrong with me, and I accept that, but the fact remains that I'm the kind of person that liked Heart of Darkness despite the fact that at every given point I had no idea what was happening. In this regard, The Last of the Mohicans is flawless. There are ornately written, page-long descriptions of trees. There are bizarrely written yet musical sentences with nine commas and one semicolon that you have to read three times to understand. There are characters that say "thee" and "thou". I find stories like this relaxing and fascinating. Relaxing, because the tendency of the author to focus all his attention on one thing at a time leaves the story completely without urgency and akin to a late afternoon stroll. Fascinating, because the world in which the story takes place and in which the author lives is so distant from my own that it's almost alien.
If you're going to enjoy The Last of the Mohicans, you need to understand that the book's worth lies in the unique perspective it provides of a white guy in 1800s America. It is beyond intriguing to see how James Cooper views the American frontier, women, and Native Americans. However, as one might expect, there are countless points in which Cooper's beliefs about the world made me cringe. Everything that the book's two main female characters do is followed by a variation of the phrase "as was the nature of their sex", and even without the misogyny it's just annoying to read over and over again. The characterization of the Native Americans featured in the story is far worse, with an abundance of the "noble savage" trope and depictions of Native Americans as inherently less civilized than white people. At one point, a group of Hurons eat a fawn raw. It takes up three sentences and is never mentioned again. I am not an expert in the culture of the Hurons, or any Native Americans for that matter, but I don't think they did this.
However, Cooper isn't without his merits. Although he is obviously affected by the attitudes of his time, this book is sometimes awe-inspiring in just how progressive some of it must have been in the time when it was written. The main Native American characters Chingachgook and Uncas are shown to be moral and venerable, and rather than treating Native Americans as a monolith, Cooper makes obvious distinctions between the different tribes and cultures among them. Furthermore, Cora, a female character, is repeatedly shown to be strong and almost stoic, with a male character at one point remarking that she would be a great soldier on the battlefield. Hawkeye, the central character, repeatedly remarks that Native Americans and Christian whites will go to their own preferred heavens after their deaths, contradicting the notion among many white Christians at the time that Native Americans were heathens doomed to hell. No, The Last of the Mohicans isn't the most PC, and for many readers this understandably makes it a bit unpleasant. However, this also makes it an interesting look into the mindset and perceptions of a white man at the time, and furthermore even makes a few strides beyond the more harmful beliefs of that era.
Aside from this, The Last of the Mohicans is a legitimately competent story. In older novels I usually feel as if the characters are just a means to relay the plot, but in this book I found myself loving all of them despite their archaic dialogue. Although many of the scenes go on far too long (about a fourth of it is spent in one single cave) the fights are exciting and at points I found myself eager to find out what happens next.
If you were the kid in English class that secretly really liked all of the assigned readings, or you just really enjoy descriptions of trees, this is the book for you. However, if you're even the slightest bit easily bored, you might want to pass on this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Racism, Animal death, Child death, Grief, and Sexism
Minor: Rape
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