Cooper (1789-1851), while popular in his time, is today remembered mostly for this one book. It is, in fact, acknowledged as the masterpiece of its maker.

These ingredients add up to a masterpiece of American literature that has inspired and influenced creative minds around the world. These rich details fire the imagination, while the tragic romance of the last noble warrior of dying tribe, and of a British gentlewoman taken captive by his most savage enemy, pull at the heart-strings. Speaking of which, a living example of what we mean by the phrase “damnation of memory” is depicted in this book, along with several other American Indian customs that Cooper, at a time when the native races of North America seemed destined for extinction, felt it was his mission to preserve for posterity. I don’t think we do ourselves or our culture a service by censoring the past, or by consigning our own society’s arts and letters to the damnation of memory. As a rule, I would suggest reading it anyway, and thinking for yourself, and letting the voice of an earlier period of cultural history speak for itself. Whether one can do so guiltlessly, with its perhaps embarrassing racial and sexual stereotypes, is entirely up to you. Particularly now that there are audio-book editions, such as the 1989 recording by Larry McKeever that entertained me during a week’s worth of business miles, one can painlessly enjoy this historical romance, in spite of its old-fashioned language and the sometimes ridiculously flowery diction of its speaking characters. Don’t let the fact that this book doesn’t resemble that terrific movie stop you from reading it, however. You really have to grow up a lot, and accept that the two art forms work in different ways and can never, even at their very best, reflect each other very accurately. It’s a trial to be both a bookworm and a movie buff.

I still like the 2002 film The Count of Monte Cristo, even though I now know it resembles its source book even less. It turns out to be not so much a film adaptation of the novel, as a piece of original entertainment based on characters and situations in the novel. Very few of them faithfully represent things in this book. All these years later, I still remember a lot of things about that movie. Purchase hereįorget about the 1992 movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and based on this book published in 1826. The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757

Fenimore cooper the last of mohicans