# Who Here Has ACTUALLY READ J.F. Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992 "2007-09-13T00:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/1 "2007-09-13T00:22:27Z")
Man, I TRIED it…but I couldn’t stay with it-just terrible reading. They say this novel was a sensation when it hit Europe (about 1840 or so?). Does it get better? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/2 "2007-09-13T00:28:06Z")
Me and \*\*Mark Twain \*\* say This Novel Sucks. If you want some tricky mid-19th century American literature that _delivers_, try Melville’s [The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade](http://www.amazon.com/Confidence-Man-Norton-Critical-Editions/dp/039397927X/ref=sr_1_2/103-1518416-0570237?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189643101&sr=1-2). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/3 "2007-09-13T00:29:56Z")
For the Straight Dope, read Twains [Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses](http://ww3.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html). And at the time, Cooper was considered one of America’s greatest writers. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/4 "2007-09-13T00:37:22Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] For the Straight Dope, read Twains [Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses](http://ww3.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html). And at the time, Cooper was considered one of America’s greatest writers. [/QUOTE] From the link: > [@](#): > > 1. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the “Deerslayer” tale. What the hell? I either really have to read this tale or avoid it… ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/5 "2007-09-13T00:39:44Z")
I liked _Last of the Mohicans_. \ I mean, it isn’t the same as reading something from the last twenty years, but then, neither is reading anything by Dickens. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/6 "2007-09-13T00:46:38Z")
I’ve read it, years ago. I recall liking the Daniel Day Lewis movie more. Much more. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/7 "2007-09-13T00:57:31Z")
I’ve read it, and I enjoyed it. Though it does take a while to get up to speed, what with Cooper’s habit of not telling you a character’s name until five chapters after he’s introduced. And I still maintain that Twain’s essay on Cooper’s literary offenses was a joke, since most of the things he complains about are equally true, or more so, of his own writing. Which doesn’t make Twain’s writing bad, either. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/8 "2007-09-13T01:15:55Z")
I’ve read it twice, and I liked it. I also read the Deerslayer. I also liked Silas Marner and the Scarlet Letter, but wasn’t much impressed by the Great Gatsby. It takes all kinds. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/9 "2007-09-13T01:18:08Z")
I had a religious experience and became a born-again Christian for two years to mentally escape the fact that we were reading “Deerslayer” in English class. True story. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/10 "2007-09-13T01:49:30Z")
I read it after receiving it as a gift in junior high. I assume I made it thru, as I do remember liking it. My older sister went nuts for the whole series a few years later, when she was in late high school/college. ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/11 "2007-09-13T02:48:41Z")
I read the Deerslayer in 7th grade. I couldn’t tell you much more than that. I never saw Last of the Mohicans movie, but it’s one of the traditional family stories that my mom, dad and aunt all went to see it, sat through the whole thing, then turned to each other en masse and said, “that was crap, wasn’t it?” -Lil ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/12 "2007-09-13T02:53:25Z")
I slogged through it and “The Waterwitch”. Both were dreadful and boring. I would not choose to read another book by him. Jim ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/13 "2007-09-13T02:56:13Z")
[QUOTE=scotandrsn] I had a religious experience and became a born-again Christian for two years to mentally escape the fact that we were reading “Deerslayer” in English class. True story. [/QUOTE] I’m not even sure what that means, but I swear that is the best one sentence book review in the history of literature. While I’m tempted to ask for the longer version, there’s simply no way it could touch the perfection you’ve got already, so it’s probably best to let that stand. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/14 "2007-09-13T03:03:07Z")
This is what one editor had to say about cooper when a judge allowed parts of his books to be read to the jury during a lawsuit in 1841: > [@](#): > > Can the reader … imagine a more grievous torture than … the reading of Mr. Cooper’s stupid and slanderous trash? Oh, it was too much – five jurymen are supposed to have been carried out fainting.” ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/15 "2007-09-13T03:04:46Z")
Many moons ago. I don’t remember much, if anything, about it. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/16 "2007-09-13T03:18:11Z")
[QUOTE=delphica] I’m not even sure what that means, but I swear that is the best one sentence book review in the history of literature. While I’m tempted to ask for the longer version, there’s simply no way it could touch the perfection you’ve got already, so it’s probably best to let that stand. [/QUOTE] Well, I did have a religious experience that led to a brief bout of Christianity. The exact moment was in fact in Mr. Goodman’s English class, where the giant green book with the tiny text held a treasure trove of horrors. What was on my mind was my now ex-summer-girlfriend. I just remember feeling great despair and pessimism, and then suddenly felt a sense of great clarity, which occupied me for some time afterward. Of course this was October, and thoughts of my ex had not really troubled me that much in the intervening time. So I think what was really going on was that my mind was willing to do something, ANYTHING, to get away from “The Deerslayer”, the worst piece of shit I have ever forced myself to scrape my eyeballs across. ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/17 "2007-09-13T03:39:30Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] I liked _Last of the Mohicans_. \ I mean, it isn’t the same as reading something from the last twenty years, but then, neither is reading anything by Dickens. [/QUOTE] Anything I’ve read by Dickens was much more readable than _Last of the Mohicans_. I made my way through it but was unimpressed. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/18 "2007-09-13T03:42:28Z")
I read Deerslayer and Last of the Mohicans. I’d bought the whole series, but didn’t really feel like going any further with it, so I bookcrossed the rest. I didn’t hate the books, they were a little tough, I felt like continuing the story was going to be worse than letting it end with LotM. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/19 "2007-09-13T04:14:18Z")
Deerslayer was fucking awful. It just was. It was a while ago, but I remember liking the Last of the Mohicans. I didn’t like it enough to re-read it though. I’m a reader, don’t get access to that many English language books, so I tend to re-read a lot of books. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992/20 "2007-09-13T04:24:06Z")
I read _The Deerslayer_, but as I was sitting down to read LotM, someone snapped a twig, and I ran away. _The Deerslayer_ didn’t make my day, but I didn’t think it was terrible. As a mindless adventure story, I can see how it would have been the “Star Wars” of its day. What I really can’t stand from that period is anything by Hawthorne. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-actually-read-j-f-coopers-last-of-the-mohicans/418992.md?page=2)