Epic novel by Cooper. Third in the Leatherstocking Tales series.

This is the third sequentially of the Cooper's Leatherstocking saga. I read the first two (The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans) in November and December 1967 and decided now I better read the other three volumes or I wouldn't get them read in my lifetime. This is an exciting book, at times, and while it does not require a detective to know how it will turn out--and who will get the girl--it was fun to read and to see how Cooper works the story out. A bit sententious towards the end especially, but not offensively so. ( )

An excellent book! I quite enjoyed this story of the American frontier on the Great Lakes. Natty Bumppo (called Pathfinder in this book) falls in love. Can such a thing succeed when he is such a wild man? A great story, though sometimes the dialogue gets a bit wordy. Descriptions are lovely. I look forward to readin gmore of Cooper. ( )

One has to be in the proper mood to enjoy these books. A bit of romance, a bit of adventure, quite a bit of moralizing. I enjoyed them when I read them, but have no desire to read them again. I've since read enough history to realize just how fictional these are. If you read them for the adventure and the descriptions of the Northeastern woodlands, I don't think you will be disappointed. Sadly, the plot of each has sort of blended together and I can't remember the details of any. ( )

The Pathfinder (1840), Cooper's most picturesque novel and the fourth of the five Leatherstocking Tales, is a naval story set on the Great Lakes of the 1750s. Fashioned from Cooper's own experience as a midshipman on Lake Ontario in 1808-09, the novel revives Natty Bumpo (who had died in The Prairie), and illuminates Cooper's interest in American history with his concern for social development.