The Prairie Author:James Fenimore Cooper The Prairie marks the closing chapter in JFC's great American saga of the forntiersman Natty Bumppo. In flight from the ever encroaching forces of civilization, the aging hero of the Leatherstocking Tales has journeyed westward seeking to end his days in the still virgin wilderness fo teh Great Plains. But once more he is drawn into an involve... more »ment with society in the form of an emigrant party led by the embittered outcast Ishmael Bush. Once again this man of nautre finds himself in dramatic confrontation wiht civilization -- called upon to exhibit his courage, his resourcefulness, his singular brand of moral rectitude.
Written with the narrative vigor and descriptive power that shape the entire Leatherstocking series, the Parie is, in the words of John Ward, "a threnody over the passing of something fine and herioc in Amercian life ... the passing of an ideal natural order before the invetible advance of society ... We still read Cooper today because he was the first of our authors to seize upon the dramatic possibilities of that unfallen western world that stands at the beginning of our national life."« less
Typical Fenimore Cooper read -- a manners novel, but one of the first depictions of the American West, and the germ of an entire genre. If you are reading outside a class, check the scholarship online, it will help immensely.