My Featured Novel

I. About the Novel:The Last of the Mohicans

The most popular of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, The Last of the Mohicans takes place in 1757 during the French and Indian War and recounts the story of an unarmed massacre, the kidnapping of two sisters, and their rescue by Hawk-eye and his two Mohican friends Uncas and Chingachook. The novel was quite popular when published (1826) and is still a staple in most American Literature courses.

Works Cited （参考文献）

"The Last of the Mohicans." The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://americanliterature.com/author/james-fenimore-cooper/book/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary>.           

II. Versions of the Novel in the Mass Media

A. Movie Versions
Much has been made about how authentic "The Last of the Mohicans" is, about how the cast learned wilderness survival skills and how every bow, arrow, canoe and moccasin was constructed according to the ancient ways. That's the kind of publicity Cecil B. DeMille used to churn out, as if he had created a brand new world from scratch, like God.

B. Stage Versions

The music of The Last of the Mohicans.

Stage performance

III. About the Author:James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey, the eleventh of twelve children. When he was one year old, he moved with parents William and Elizabeth to Cooperstown on Ostego Lake in central New York. During Cooper's boyhood, there were few backwoods settlers left and even fewer Indians. However, Cooper's early experiences in this frontier town gave him the background knowledge used in the Pioneers (1923).

In 1826, at the height of his popularity, he sailed for Europe for what became a seven year stay. He wrote The Prairie (1827) and Notions of the Americans (1828) a defense of the United States against the attacks of European travelers. Under the half-patronizing epithet of "the American Scott" he wrote three historical novels that mimicked the writing of Sir Walter Scott. Returning to the US in 1833, Cooper was so hurt by a review that he penned A Letter to his Countrymen (1834) which was a bitter attack on American provincialism. He also became involved in disputes in Cooperstown where he was attacked by newspapers as a false aristocrat poisoned by European influences. In response, Cooper immersed himself in law suits aimed at gaining damages that would tame the irresponsibility of the press. Cooper established the principle that reviewers must work within the bounds of truth when they deal with an author rather than the book. Even with this scandal at his heels, Cooper continued to write a school primer, The American Democrat (1838) and three more Leatherstocking Tales: The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841). Then came Cooper's obsession with the sea from his previous experience in the Navy. He penned The History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839), The Cruise of Sommers (1844), and The Distinguished American Naval Officers (1846). At the time of his death on September 14, 1851, Cooper was more successful and respected abroad than at home. Out of step with his countrymen, his work was very influential to European writers like Honore de Balzac and Leo Tolstoy. Yet, the weaknesses of Fenimore's fiction are quite well known and wide-spread. Mark Twain tore apart Fenimore's romanticism in Fenimore Coopers Literary Offenses (1895). Clearly, Fenimore's tone was criticized as being reactionary, romantic, and pedagogical in tone. However, Cooper did contribute a great deal to the genre of American fiction. In the grand enterprise, even today, everyone has read books and seen films that are directly and indirectly affected by Cooper's conception of Natty Bumppo and his creation of the American novel.

Works Cited （参考文献）

"Biography of James Fenimore Cooper." Biography of James Fenimore Cooper. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2016. <http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/COOPER/cooperbiography.html>.           

IV. My Reaction

A. Reaction Point - setting

・Setting means the story of background, configuration or place.
・This is the story about the fight between the French and the British in North America in 1757. In this story, most things happens near the Hudson River.

B. Reaction Point - theme

・Theme means that the story of gist and subject.
・The theme of this story is the fight between two countries and also the love too.

C. Reaction Point - protagonist

・Protagonist means the main character of this book.
・Mainly four people appeared in this story. Cora, Alice, Uncas and Hawkeye.

Cora and Alice are sisters, whose father is the British Colonel Munro.

Uncas and Hawkeye are Chingachgook's son and they are the last of the mohicans.

D. My General Opinion

This story is a little bit difficult for me to understand because fight is not so familiar for us now, and difficult to imagine. But it was very interesting and so I want to recommend this book for many people. And I want to read more of his book.