The Prairie

It didn’t mention library copy anywhere on the page when I ordered this. At least the cover was right.

The book arrived on time and in excellent condition as advertised. What more could you want?

Third in the Leatherstocking Tales series, The Prairie finds Nathaniel Bumppo beyond the Mississippi as the encroachment of civilization pushes him further and further afield. There are five books to the Leatherstocking Tales. Cooper did not write them in chronological order. Accordingly, The Prairie relates the close of Bumppo's career among the Pawnee and Sioux of the Great Plains. As with The Pioneers, The Prairie starts slow and takes time to develop. Additional concessions must be made for a least one plot twist that tickles the limits of plausibility. It should be remembered, however, that the age and the romantic style of writing then in vogue permitted latitude today's novelists are not afforded. Be that as it may, once past this questionable plot development, it matters little for the book is that grand.Sioux and Pawnee, contesting the plains, find Bumppo, a wagon train of shifty settlers, and a bee-hunting suitor caught between them. What follows is a historical novel which includes every ingredient required for a masterful yarn. Bumppo, in this case "the trapper", represents the ultimate antiestablishmentarian as he longs only for freedom and the space to enjoy it, despising the restrictions of polite society. It is a message that has not lost it's power. Indeed, James Fenimore Cooper, through the Leatherstocking Tales, exquisitely captures a period and place in a manner so evocative that the reader longs to range beside "the trapper" through thick and thin , through the length and breadth of the fledgling American frontier. Having read more than my share of historical fiction, The Leatherstocking Tales rate as one of the finest examples. The Prairie is no exception. Fare thee well, Natty Bumppo.

This large, very elaborately written book is the first of the Leatherstocking tales Cooper wrote. It is, however, about Natty Bumppo's (aka Deerslayer, Leatherstocking, Hawkeye) final days. In this novel, he's more of a peripheral character, witnessing at least 2 other, very intriguing adventures.The story is integrated in fantastic descriptions of the prairie; reading it you can almost feel the beauty and power of the unenslaved American wilderness.