The Deerslayer

Set during the French and Indian Wars, The Deerslayer vividly captures the essence of both the murderous humanity and the natural beauty that distinguished America s founding. The last of Cooper s famous Leatherstocking Tales, it is first chronologically in the frontier adventures of the backwoods scout Natty Bumppo. Amid a terrain largely inspired by Cooper s own boyhood, Natty s initiation in the moral codes of wilderness society is examined in what is, according to D. H. Lawrence, the loveliest and best of the Leatherstocking series.