576 pages
English language
Published Nov. 1, 1996 by Penguin Classics.
The Deerslayer is the last book in Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy, but acts as a prequel to the other novels. It begins with the rapid civilizing of New York, in which surrounds the following books take place. It introduces the hero of the Tales, Natty Bumppo, and his philosophy that every living thing should follow its own nature. He is contrasted to other, less conscientious, frontiersmen.
I liked it more when I read it as a child. Reading it now, I had trouble ignoring the "white mans gifts" and "woman's weakness". Some of the ideas put forth are hard to read.
