The Deerslayer

by James Fenimore Cooper Narrated by Peter Berkrot

Overview

Natty Bumppo , one of the greatest heroes in American literature, is the rugged frontiersman of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels that includes The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer. Although it was the final volume to be written, The Deerslayer is the first in the chronology of Natty Bumppo's life, depicting the character as a young man testing himself in the wilderness and against enemies for the first time.



Set in the 1740s just after the start of the French and Indian wars, the novel opens as Natty Bumppo-known as Deerslayer-and his friend Hurry Harry travel to Tom Hutter's house in upstate New York. Hurry plans to marry Tom's beautiful daughter Judith, while Deerslayer has come to help his close friend Chingachgook save his bride-to-be, Wah-ta-Wah, from the Huron Indians. When war breaks out and Hurry and Tom are captured by Indians, Deerslayer must go on his first warpath to rescue them.



One of the earliest novels to be considered truly "American," The Deerslayer is a masterpiece of suspense, adventure, and romance.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

James Fenimore Cooper was the first great American novelist.”—A. B. Guthrie

Kliatt

Packed with vivid description of action and locale, romance and yearning. Todd’s voice is extraordinary, rich and deep. We hear the personality of the characters, with all of their earnestness, shaped by awareness of their stations in life.”

Wilkie Collins

Cooper is the greatest artist in the domain of romantic fiction in America.”

AudioFile

How did they sound—the people who, long ago, lived at or beyond the edge of the settled world? Raymond Todd answers this question as well as an audio performer can: by varying accents, pace, and inflection to convey both character types and individuals like Natty Bumpo and Chingachgook. The results are plausible and entertaining.”

A. B. Guthrie

James Fenimore Cooper was the first great American novelist.”

OCT/NOV 02 - AudioFile

How did they sound--the people who, long ago, lived at or beyond the edge of the settled world? Raymond Todd answers this question as well as an audio performer can: by varying accents, pace, and inflection to convey both character types and individuals like Natty Bumpo and Chingachgook. The results are plausible and entertaining. Todd enlivens the outdated qualities of Cooper’s novel, specifically, excessive soliloquizing on the part of all characters--especially Bumpo--and Cooper’s oft-cited views on red and white "gifts." Nonetheless, the novel remains valuable in providing a glimpse of a long-vanished world. T.J.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171267919
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/14/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

From the Introduction by Leslie A. Fiedler

In 1789, the year James Fenimore Cooper was born, the thirteen North Americancade he enjoyed a leisured existence as a gentleman farmer on inherited lands in both Cooperstown and Westchester County. Popular legend holds that Cooper turned to writing when his wife jokingly suggested that he attempt a novel, but it is now known thatme a gentleman farmer and householder. The one thing he still needed was a proper wife, which he was lucky enough to find in Susan DeLancey. She, as he already knew, came from a family richer and more securely upper class than his own and, as he learned, was also an affable, intelligent woman who was fond of reading. Cooper was content with this, yet at first he did not join her when she was busy with her books but indulged in the male pastimes of hunting and hiking in the nearby hills.

After Susan had given birth to four daughters, to whom she at first read and then taught to read to each other, Cooper would stay close enough to wherever they were reading to hear them. Surely some of the erotic and sentimental passages read in the voices of those he loved must have moved him deeply. But there is no record of any positive responses on his part. A single negative one, however, is recorded in almost everything that has ever been written about him.

One time, those accounts tell us, annoyed by the ineptitude of the text being read, he cried out, “Why do you waste time and money reading trash that anybody who can spell his own name could write better. Even me!” To this Susan is said to have answered–jokingly, according to some–“Why don’t you give it a try?I’d love to see you try.” Cooper responded that he would and, surprisingly enough, did, finally producing a full-length imitation of Jane Austen. When it was in print he would tell anyone who would listen that he was now a professional writer who would write fifty more books–and sell them. This almost no one believed he would do, and many wished he would not even try.

Though Cooper was aware that neither the critics nor the general reader were interested in any more Jane Austen clones, he felt he had to keep on writing because the family inheritance on which he had been living had begun to shrink, and at the same time it had become much more expensive to feed, clothe, and educate his growing daughters. What he really wanted to write was another book that saw the world through female eyes and talked about it in a female voice. In fact, he continued for a little while to experiment with transvestite fiction, even publishing two such short stories under the female pseudonym of Jane Morgan.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Copyright 2002 by James Fenimore Cooper

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