The Deerslayer

The last written of Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales returns to the youth of his famous frontiersman, Natty Bumppo, here earning the name Deerslayer on his first campaign. The action unfolds around a glassy lake in 1740s New York, where a settler and his two daughters are besieged by Huron warriors and a reckless companion drags Deerslayer into the fighting. Torn between the code of the woods and the brutal customs of frontier war, the young hunter refuses to take a life dishonorably even at great risk to himself. Cooper fills the story with canoe chases, captures, and hairbreadth escapes, along with his lingering feeling for the wilderness. This free PDF and EPUB edition presents the full novel.