I pledged to read this novel by James Fenimore Cooper during our 4th of July vacation to Cooperstwon, NY in 2014, my first return to that wonderful small town in more than 30 years. And I did exactly that when we returned to Cooperstown for July 4th this year.
It was of personal interest to me, given my personal history with Cooperstown and my many childhood visits there, to read this novel which takes place on Lake Otsego. Given this history, I certainly enjoyed the book.
Having said that, I didn't love it. Like many English novels of the same period it seemed unnecessarily long at many points, with quite a lot of long, drawn out conversations that didn't seem to effect the story.
Also like so many English novels, the story is clearly didactic, in this case for both young men and women. Character, virtue and honor overcome all manner of adversity and trial.
Hurry Harry has a mean character and therefore does not end up winning the heart of beautiful Judith. Conversely, the goodhearted, ethical young Deerslayer does win the heart of Judith.
And Judith, in turn, does not earn the heart of Deerslayer because of her own shortcomings, which include superficiality and vanity.
It was a good read, and as the prequel to the much better-known Last of the Mohicans, I would imagine that I will read that book at some point in the future.
Onward.
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