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= The_Last_of_the_Mohicans =
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Introduction
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'The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757' is an 1826 historical
romance novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the
'Leatherstocking Tales' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary
audiences. 'The Pathfinder', published 14 years later in 1840, is its
sequel; its prequel, 'The Deerslayer', was published a year after 'The
Pathfinder'. 'The Last of the Mohicans' is set in 1757, during the
French and Indian War (the North American theater of 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 on
Indigenous forces since they were outnumbered in the Northeast
frontier areas by the British. Specifically, the events of the novel
are set immediately before, during, and after the Siege of Fort
William Henry.
The novel is set primarily in the area of Lake George, New York,
detailing the transport of Colonel Munro's two daughters, Alice and
Cora, to a safe destination at Fort William Henry. Among the caravan
guarding the women are the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, Major Duncan
Heyward, singing teacher David Gamut, and the Indians Chingachgook and
Uncas, the latter two being the novel's title characters. These
characters are sometimes seen as a microcosm of the budding American
society, particularly with regard to their racial composition.
The novel has been one of the most popular English-language novels
since its publication; it is frequently assigned reading in American
literature courses. It has been adapted numerous times and in many
languages for the stage, films, and cartoons.
Historical background
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Cooper grew up in Cooperstown, New York, which his father had
established on what was then a western frontier settlement that had
developed after the Revolutionary War.
Cooper set this novel during the Seven Years' War, an international
conflict between Great Britain and France, which had a front in North
America known by the Anglo-American colonists as the French and Indian
War. The conflict arrayed American settlers and minimal regular forces
against royal French forces, with both sides also relying on Native
American allies. The war was fought primarily along the frontiers of
the British colonies from Virginia to Nova Scotia.
In the spring of 1757, Lieutenant Colonel George Monro became garrison
commander of Fort William Henry, located on Lake George in the
Province of New York. In early August, Major General Louis-Joseph de
Montcalm and 7,000 troops besieged the fort. On 2 August General Webb,
who commanded the area from his base at Fort Edward south of the lake,
sent 200 regulars and 800 Massachusetts militia to reinforce the
garrison at William Henry. In the novel, this is the relief column
with which Monro's daughters travel.
Monro sent messengers south to Fort Edward on 3 August requesting
reinforcements, but Webb refused to send any of his estimated 1,600
men north because they were all that stood between the French and
Albany. He wrote to Munro on 4 August that he should negotiate the
best terms possible; this communication was intercepted and delivered
to Montcalm. In Cooper's version, the missive was being carried by
Bumppo when he, and it, fell into French hands.
On 7 August Montcalm sent men to the fort under a truce flag to
deliver Webb's dispatch. By then the fort's walls had been breached,
many of its guns were useless, and the garrison had taken significant
casualties. After another day of bombardment by the French, Monro
raised the white flag and agreed to withdraw under parole.
When the withdrawal began, some of Montcalm's Indian allies, angered
at the lost opportunity for loot, attacked the British column.
Cooper's account of the attack and aftermath is lurid and somewhat
inaccurate. A detailed reconstruction of the action and its aftermath
indicates that the final tally of British missing and dead ranges from
70 to 184; more than 500 British were taken captive.
At the time of Cooper's writing, many U.S. settlers believed and
perpetuated the myth that Native Americans were disappearing,
believing they would ultimately be assimilated or killed off entirely
due to the genocidal structure of settler colonialism. Especially in
the East, as native peoples' land was stolen and settled on in the
name of U.S. expansion and Jeffersonian agrarianism, the narrative
that many native peoples were "vanishing" was prevalent in both novels
like Cooper's and local newspapers. This allowed settlers to view
themselves as the original people of the land and reinforced their
belief in European ethnic and racial superiority through, among other
rationalisations, the tenets of scientific racism. In this way, Cooper
was interested in the American progress narrative when more colonists
were increasing pressure on Native Americans, which they, and Cooper,
would then view as "natural".
Plot summary
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Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, are
traveling with Major Duncan Heyward from Fort Edward to Fort William
Henry, where Munro is in command, and acquire another companion in
David Gamut, a singing teacher. They are guided through the forest by
a native named Magua, who leads them through a shortcut unaccompanied
by the New York militia. Heyward is dissatisfied with Magua's
shortcut, and the party roams unguided and finally join Natty Bumppo,
known as Hawk-eye, a scout for the British, and his two Mohican
friends, Chingachgook and his son Uncas. Heyward becomes suspicious
of Magua, and Hawk-eye and the Mohicans agree with his suspicion that
Magua is a Huron scout secretly allied with the French. Upon discovery
as such, Magua escapes, and in the (correct) belief that Magua will
return with Huron reinforcements, Hawk-eye and the Mohicans lead their
new companions to a hidden cave on an island in a river. They are
attacked there by the Hurons, and their ammunition is soon exhausted.
Knowing they will be killed instantly but that the British party will
make valuable captives, Hawk-eye and the Mohicans escape, with a
promise to return for their companions.
Magua and the Hurons capture Heyward, Gamut, and the Munro sisters.
Magua admits that he is seeking revenge against Cora's father, Colonel
Munro, for turning him into an alcoholic with whiskey (causing him to
be temporarily cast out of the Hurons) and then whipping him at a post
for drunken behavior. He offers to spare the party if Cora becomes his
wife, but she refuses. Upon a second refusal, he sentences the
prisoners to death. Hawk-eye and the Mohicans rescue all four and lead
them to a dilapidated building that was involved in a battle between
the Huron and the British some years ago. They are nearly attacked
again, but the Hurons leave the area, rather than disturb the graves
of their tribesmen.
The next day, Hawk-eye leads the party to Fort Henry, past a siege by
the French army. Munro sends Hawk-eye to Fort Edward for
reinforcements, but he is captured by the French, who deliver him to
Fort Henry without the letter. Heyward returns to Colonel Munro and
announces his love for Alice, and Munro gives his permission for
Heyward's courtship. The French general, Montcalm, invites Munro to a
parley and shows him General Webb's letter, in which the British
general has refused reinforcements. At this, Munro agrees to
Montcalm's terms: that the British soldiers, together with their women
and children, must leave the fort and withdraw from the war for
eighteen months. Outside the fort, the column of British evacuees is
betrayed and ambushed by 2,000 Huron warriors; in the ensuing
massacre, Magua kidnaps Cora and Alice, and he leads them toward the
Huron village, with David Gamut in pursuit.
Hawk-eye, the Mohicans, Heyward, and Colonel Munro survive the
massacre and set out to follow Magua, and cross a lake to intercept
his trail. They encounter a band of Hurons by the lakeshore, who spot
the travelers. A canoe chase ensues, in which the rescuers reach land
before the Hurons can kill them, and eventually follow Magua to the
Huron village. Here, they find Gamut (earlier spared by the Hurons as
a harmless madman), who says that Alice is held in this village and
Cora in one belonging to the Lenape (Delaware).
Disguised as a French medicine man, Heyward enters the Huron village
with Gamut to rescue Alice; Hawk-eye and Uncas set out to rescue Cora,
and Munro and Chingachgook remain in safety. Uncas is taken prisoner
by the Hurons and left to starve when he withstands torture, and
Heyward fails to find Alice. A Huron warrior asks Heyward to heal his
lunatic wife, and both are stalked by Hawk-eye in the guise of a bear.
They enter a cave where the madwoman is kept, and the warrior leaves.
Soon after the revelation of his identity to Heyward, Hawk-eye
accompanies him, and they find Alice. They are discovered by Magua,
but Hawk-eye overpowers him, and they leave him tied to a wall.
Thereafter Heyward escapes with Alice, while Hawk-eye remains to save
Uncas. Gamut convinces a Huron to allow him and his magical bear
(Hawk-eye in disguise) to approach Uncas, and they untie him. Uncas
dons the bear disguise, Hawk-eye wears Gamut's clothes, and Gamut
stays in a corner mimicking Uncas. Uncas and Hawk-eye escape by
traveling to the Delaware village where Cora is being held, just as
the Hurons suspect something is amiss and find Magua tied up in the
cave. Magua tells his tribe the full story behind Heyward and
Hawk-eye's deceit before assuming leadership of the Hurons, who vow
revenge.
Uncas and Hawk-eye are being held prisoner with Alice, Cora, and
Heyward by the Delawares. Magua enters the Delaware village and
demands the return of his prisoners. During the ensuing council
meeting, Uncas is revealed to be a Mohican, a once-dominant tribe
closely related to the Delawares. Tamenund, the sage of the Delawares,
sides with Uncas and frees the prisoners, except Cora, whom he awards
to Magua according to tribal custom. This makes a showdown between the
Hurons and Delawares inevitable, but to satisfy laws of hospitality,
Tamenund gives Magua a three-hour head start before pursuit. While the
Delawares are preparing for battle, David Gamut escapes the Huron
village and tells his companions that Magua has positioned his men in
the woods between the Huron and Delaware villages. Undeterred, Uncas,
Hawk-eye, Heyward, Gamut, and the Delawares march into the woods to
fight the Hurons.
In the ensuing battle, the Delawares are joined by Chingachgook and
Munro, and ultimately vanquish the Hurons and capture their village,
but Magua escapes with Cora and two other Hurons; Uncas, Hawk-eye,
Heyward, and Gamut pursue them up to a high mountain. In a fight at
the edge of a cliff, one of the Hurons kills Cora, Gamut kills one of
the Hurons, Magua kills Uncas, and Hawk-eye kills Magua. The novel
concludes with a lengthy account of the funerals of Uncas and Cora at
the Delaware village, and Hawk-eye reaffirms his friendship with
Chingachgook. Tamenund prophesies: "The pale-faces are masters of the
earth, and the time of the red-men has not yet come again..."
Characters
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* Chingachgook (usually pronounced , ): last chief of the Mohican
tribe, escort to the Munro sisters. Father to Uncas, and after his
death, the eponymous "Last of the Mohicans". His name was an Unami
Delaware word meaning "Big Snake".
* Uncas - the son of Chingachgook and called by him "Last of the
Mohicans", as there were no pure-blooded Mohican women for him to
marry. He is also known as , the Bounding Elk.
* Nathaniel Bumppo/Hawk-eye: ; a frontiersman who becomes an escort to
the Munro sisters. Known to the Indians and the French as for his
marksmanship and signature weapon.
* Magua (, ) - the villain: a Huron chief driven from his tribe for
drunkenness; known as ("Sly Fox").
* Cora Munro: a dark-haired daughter of Colonel Munro; serious,
intelligent, and calm in the face of danger. Her mother, whom Munro
met and married in the West Indies, was a mulatto or mixed-race woman,
described as "descended, remotely" from slaves. Scholars have
sometimes termed Cora a quadroon, but Cooper may have imagined her
with even less African ancestry. Diane Roberts described Cora as "the
first tragic mulatta in American literature." Cora's mother died when
she was young.
* Alice Munro: Cora's blonde half-sister; cheerful, playful, frail,
and charming. She is the daughter of Alice Graham, Munro's second
wife.
* Colonel Munro: a British army colonel in command of Fort William
Henry.
* Duncan Heyward - a British army major from Virginia who falls in
love with Alice Munro.
* David Gamut: a psalmodist (teacher of psalm-singing), known as "the
singing master".
* General Daniel Webb - Colonel Munro's commanding officer, who takes
command at Fort Edward.
* General - the French commander-in-chief, called by the Huron and
other Indian allies of the French as "The great white father of the
Canadas."
* Tamenund - An ancient, wise, and revered Delaware (Lenape) sage,
who has outlived three generations of warriors.
Development
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According to Susan Fenimore Cooper, the author's eldest daughter,
Cooper first conceived the idea for the book while visiting the
Adirondack Mountains in 1825 with a party of English gentlemen. The
party passed through the Catskills, an area with which Cooper was
already familiar, and about which he had written in his first novel
featuring Natty Bumppo: 'The Pioneers.' They passed on to Lake George
and Glens falls.
Impressed with the caves behind the falls, one member of the party
suggested that "here was the very scene for a romance." Susan Cooper
says that Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, made this remark.
Cooper promised Stanley "that a book should be written, in which these
caves should have a place; the idea of a romance essentially Indian in
character then first suggesting itself to his mind."
Seeking a resource for his research, Cooper found it in the writings
of Moravian missionaries. Two he used were David Zeisberger
(1721-1808) and John Heckewelder (1743-1823). Here he found good,
relatively non-judgmental accounts of the Indians. It was also here he
apparently first heard of the Native American Wassamapah, known as Job
to the fur traders. Pennsylvania Germans pronounced his name
"Tschoop," the inspiration for Chingachgook. His birthdate is unknown.
Tschoop's written history began on April 16, 1742 when he was baptized
by Moravian preacher C.H.Rauch at Shekomeko, Connecticut. Rauch took
him with him when the Moravian First Sea Congregation came to
Philadelphia that June. It was also here that Tschoop met Count von
Zinzendorf. Many non-Moravian whites were not convinced that Tschoop
was a real Christian and made life difficult for him in Connecticut.
Finally, he joined a group of Moravian Indians living in Bethlehem
where the current City Hall is located. Here they got along peacefully
in the community. Unfortunately, the Indians had no immunity to
diseases that the Europeans brought with them. In 1746 smallpox began
to take its toll on the community. It was August 27, 1746 that
Job/Tschoop was buried in row eight of God's acre cemetery. Here he
was remembered by Moravians, and "much lamented by his people and the
white Brethren."
Cooper began work on the novel immediately. He and his family stayed
for the summer in a cottage belonging to a friend, situated on the
Long Island shore of the Sound, opposite Blackwell's Island, not far
from Hallett's Cove (the area is now part of Astoria). He wrote
quickly and completed the novel in the space of three or four months.
He suffered a serious illness thought to have been brought on by
sunstroke and, at one point, he dictated the outline of the fight
between Magua and Chingachgook (12th chapter), to his wife, who
thought that he was delirious.
In the novel, Hawkeye refers to Lake George as the 'Horican'. Cooper
felt that Lake George was too plain, while the French name, 'Le Lac du
St. Sacrement', was "too complicated". Horican he found on an old map
of the area; it was a French transliteration of a native group who had
once lived in the area.
Cooper grew up in Cooperstown, New York, the frontier town founded by
his father. His daughter said that as a young man he had few
opportunities to meet and talk with Native Americans: "occasionally
some small party of the Oneidas, or other representatives of the Five
Nations, had crossed his path in the valley of the Susquehanna River,
or on the shores of Lake Ontario, where he served when a midshipman in
the navy." He read what sources were available at the
time--Heckewelder, Charlevoix, William Penn, Smith, Elliot, Colden,
Lang, Lewis and Clark, and Mackenzie.
By using the name Uncas for one of his characters, he seemed to
confuse the two regional tribes: the Mohegan of Connecticut, of which
Uncas had been a well-known sachem, and the Mohican of upstate New
York. The popularity of Cooper's book helped spread the confusion.
In the period when Cooper was writing, deputations from the Western
tribes frequently traveled through the region along the Mohawk River,
on their way to New York or Washington, D.C. He made a point of
visiting these parties as they passed through Albany and New York. On
several occasions, he followed them to Washington to observe them for
longer. He also talked to the military officers and interpreters who
accompanied them.
Critical reception
======================================================================
The novel was first published in 1826 by Carey & Lea, of
Philadelphia. According to Susan Cooper, its success was "greater than
that of any previous book from the same pen" and "in Europe, the book
produced quite a startling effect."
Over time the book grew to be regarded by some as the first Great
American Novel. It was not always the case. Cooper's novels were
popular in their day, but contemporary and subsequent 19th-century
reviewers were often critical, or dismissive. For example, the
reviewer of the 'London Magazine' (May 1826) described the novel as
"clearly by much the worst of Mr. Cooper's performances." Mark Twain
notably derided the author in his essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary
Offenses", published in 'North American Review' (July 1895). Twain
complained that Cooper lacked a variety of styles and was overly
wordy. In the early 1940s, Twain scholar Bernard DeVoto found that
there was more to the essay, and pieced together a second one from the
extra writing, titled "Fenimore Cooper's Further Literary Offenses,"
in which Twain re-writes a small section of 'The Last of the
Mohicans', claiming that Cooper, "the generous spendthrift", used 100
"extra and unnecessary words" in the original version.
Re-reading the book in his later years, Cooper noted some
inconsistencies of plot and characterization, particularly the
character of Munro. But, he wrote that in general, "the book must
needs have some interest for the reader since it could amuse even the
writer, who had in a great measure forgotten the details of his work."
Legacy
======================================================================
'The Last of the Mohicans' has been James Fenimore Cooper's most
popular work. It has influenced popular opinion about American Indians
and the frontier period of eastern American history. The romanticized
images of the strong, fearless, and ever-resourceful frontiersman
(i.e., Natty Bumppo), as well as the stoic, wise, and noble "red man"
(i.e., Chingachgook), were notions derived from Cooper's
characterizations more than from anywhere else. The phrase, "the last
of the Mohicans", has come to represent the sole survivor of a noble
race or type.
In the 'M*A*S*H' book, film and television franchise, the character
Hawkeye Pierce is given his nickname by his father, after Hawk-eye
from 'The Last of the Mohicans'. A main character in the original
novel and subsequent film adaptation, Hawkeye, as portrayed by Alan
Alda, is the central character in the long-running TV series.
Films
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A number of films have been based on the lengthy book, making various
cuts, compressions, and changes. The American adaptations include:
* 'Leather Stocking' (1909) directed by David Wark Griffith;
* 'The Last of the Mohicans' a 1911 version starring James Cruze
directed by Theodore Marston;
* 'The Last of the Mohicans' (1920), starring Wallace Beery; directed
by Maurice Tourneur;
* 'The Last of the Mohicans' (1932), a serial version starring Harry
Carey;
* 'The Last of the Mohicans' (1936) starring Randolph Scott and Bruce
Cabot;
* 'Last of the Redmen' (1947) starring Jon Hall and Michael O'Shea;
* 'The Iroquois Trail' (1950) starring George Montgomery;
* 'Fall of the Mohicans' (1965) starring Jack Taylor, José Marco (José
Joandó Roselló), Luis Induni and Daniel Martin;
* 'The Last of the Mohicans' (1968);
* 'Last of the Mohicans' (1977);
* 'The Last of the Mohicans' (1992), starring Daniel Day-Lewis.
The 1920 film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library
of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry. According to the director Michael Mann, his
1992 version was based more on the 1936 film version. Mann believes
Cooper's novel is "not a very good book", taking issue with Cooper's
sympathy for the Euro-Americans and their seizure of the American
Indians' domain.
In Germany, , with Béla Lugosi as Chingachgook, was the second part of
the two-part film released in 1920. 'The Last Tomahawk' directed by
Harald Reinl was a 1965 West German/Italian/Spanish co-production
setting elements of the story in the era after the American Civil War.
Based on the same series of the novels, ('Chingachgook the Great
Serpent'), starring Gojko Mitić as Chingachgook, appeared in East
Germany in 1967, and became popular throughout the Eastern Bloc.
Radio
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*' The Last of the Mohicans' was adapted for radio in two one-hour
episodes directed by Michael Fox and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995
(subsequently on BBC Radio 7), with Michael Fiest, Philip Franks,
Helen McCrory, and Naomi Radcliffe.
Television
============
*There was a Canadian television series, 'Hawkeye and the Last of the
Mohicans' in 1957 with John Hart as Hawkeye and Lon Chaney Jr. as
Chingachgook.
*The BBC made a TV serial of the book in 1971, with Philip Madoc as
Magua, Kenneth Ives as Hawkeye and John Abineri as Chingachgook, which
some critics believe to be the most faithful and the best adaptation.
*In a 1977 American television film, Steve Forrest starred as Hawkeye
with Ned Romero as Chingachgook and Don Shanks as Uncas.
*Steven J. Cannell produced an American television series in 1994-95
called Hawkeye, created by Kim LeMasters and filmed in Canada. It ran
for one season, with 22 episodes, and starred Lee Horsley, Lynda
Carter, and Rodney A. Grant.
*From 2004 to 2007, the RAI made an animated TV series, 'Last of the
Mohicans' with Ted Russof as Uncas, Katie McGovern as Cora, and
Flaminia Fegarotti as Alice.
Opera
=======
Alva Henderson's operatic version premiered in Wilmington, Delaware,
in 1976.
In 1977, Lake George Opera presented the same work.
Comics
========
Classic Comics #4, 'The Last of the Mohicans', first published 1942.
Marvel Comics has published two versions of the story: in 1976 a
one-issue version as part of their 'Marvel Classics Comics' series
(issue #13). In 2007, they published a six-issue mini-series to start
the new 'Marvel Illustrated' series.
Famed manga artist Shigeru Sugiura wrote and illustrated a very loose
manga adaptation of the story in 1952-53 (remade in 1973-74). This
adaptation is heavily influenced by American movies and western comics
and is filled with absurd humor and anachronistic jokes. An English
translation of Sugiura's 1973-4 version including a lengthy essay on
Sugiura's artistic influences was published in the United States in
2013.
See also
======================================================================
*
* France in the Seven Years' War
* George Washington in the French and Indian War
* Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
Further reading
======================================================================
*H. Daniel Peck (ed.): 'New Essays on The Last of the Mohicans'.
Cambridge University Press 1992,
*Martin Barker, Roger Sabin: 'The Lasting of the Mohicans'. University
Press of Mississippi 1995,
*George Dekker (ed.), John P. Williams (ed.): 'James Fenimore Cooper:
The Critical Heritage'. Routledge 1997, , pp. 87-114
*Craig White: 'Student Companion to James Fenimore Cooper'. Greenwood
Publishing 2006, , pp. 101-124
*Donald A. Ringe: "Mode and Meaning in 'The Last of the Mohicans'", In
W. M. Verhoeven (ed.): 'James Fenimore Cooper: New Historical and
Literary Contexts'. Rodopi 1993, , pp. 109-124
([
https://books.google.com/books?id=rwPodnirDnsC&pg=PA109 excerpt
at ])
* "The Last of the Mohicans." Literary Themes for Students. 2006.
(June 17, 2014).
*Thomas Philbrick: 'The Last of the Mohicans and the Sounds of
Discord'. American Literature, Vol. 43, No. 1 (March 1971), pp. 25-41
([
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2924478 JSTOR])
*Melissa McFarland Pennell: 'Masterpieces of American Romantic
Literature'. Greenwood, 2006, , pp. 9-27
([
https://books.google.com/books?id=d8AbdwW3tscC&pg=PA13 excerpt
at Google Books])
*Frank Bergmann: 'The Meanings of Indians and Their Land in Cooper's
The Last of the Mohicans.' In: Frank Bergmann (ed.): 'Upstate
Literature: Essays in Memory of Thomas F. O'Donnell'. Syracuse
University Press, 1985, , pp. 117-128
([
https://books.google.com/books?id=XaNd2ua7gVgC&&pg=PA117
excerpt at Google Books])
External links
======================================================================
*
;Digital editions
*
*
*[
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL77958W/The_last_of_the_Mohicans 'The
Last of the Mohicans'] at Open Library
*
;Associated material
*[
http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/index.html 'The James Fenimore
Cooper Society'] - extensive collection of material about Cooper, in
particular many scholarly articles on him and his work
*[
http://www.fwhmuseum.com/ Fort William Henry Museum]
*[
http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08009.html Fort William Henry: The
Siege & Massacre]
*[
http://www.lastofthemohicansoutdoordrama.org 'Last of the Mohicans'
Outdoor Drama]
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Mohicans
