Résumé
Résumé de Tue-cerf
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love adventure with moral weight, early American history, and scenic wilderness storytelling. It also rewards anyone curious about the roots of the Western.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Deerslayer is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper, published in 1841. It is the last of the five Leatherstocking Tales to be written, yet it comes first in the life of its hero, Natty Bumppo. Here he is a young man of about twenty-one, called Deerslayer, on the edge of his first warpath. The book was written for readers in a young America who wanted to know what the wilderness had been like and who had lived there.
The setting is Glimmerglass, a quiet lake in the hills of New York, in the years before the American Revolution. Two white trappers, a Delaware warrior, two sisters, and a band of Huron hunters all meet around its shores. Cooper uses their meeting to ask hard questions. What does honesty cost? Can a man keep his word when his enemies do not? What do the white settlers owe the people whose land they enter?
You get a story of canoes, ambushes, a floating house on stilts, and a young man who tries to live by a simple code. You also get a portrait of a character who became a pattern for later heroes of the American frontier. We begin with the lake, and with the friend who leads Deerslayer into trouble.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Two friends meet at the lakeFree
- 2The Hutters live on the water
- 3A plan for scalps brings war
- 4Deerslayer's first fight tests his code
- 5Chingachgook, Wah-ta-Wah, and the rescue
- 6Judith, Hetty, and the Castle under siege
- 7A promise given to the enemy
- 8What the book is about: honour, race, and land
- 9How Cooper tells the story
Point clé 1 sur 9
Two friends meet at the lake
The story opens in the forest near Glimmerglass, where two men meet by chance. One is Deerslayer, a young hunter raised among the Delaware people by missionaries and by his own wits. The other is Hurry Harry March, a big, loud, boastful frontiersman. Hurry Harry is known for his strength and his good looks, and he is bound for the lake on business of his own.
Deerslayer has a name from the Delaware, who call him the Deerslayer because of his skill as a hunter. He has not yet killed a man, and he says so with plain pride. He believes a person should act by what he calls his gifts, the duties that belong to his race and his nature. For him that means honesty, courage, and no cruelty.
The two men are about to meet the Delaware chief Chingachgook, whom Deerslayer has promised to help. Chingachgook has come to rescue his betrothed, Wah-ta-Wah, who was carried off by the Hurons. The young Delaware is a fine warrior but shy of the woman he loves.
From the start, Cooper sets two ideas of the frontier side by side. Hurry Harry sees the woods as a place to take what he can. Deerslayer sees them as a place where a person must still answer to God and to his own conscience. That contrast will drive the whole book.
The lake itself is a character too. It lies still and beautiful, with forest around it, and it seems untouched. But danger hides in its calm, and the first signs of it soon appear.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Deerslayer
- A young hunter raised among the Delaware, he is Chingachgook's trusted friend and Hurry Harry March's principled companion.
- Chingachgook
- A Delaware warrior and Deerslayer's close friend, he seeks to rescue his betrothed, Wah-ta-Wah, from the Hurons.
- Hurry Harry March
- A powerful, boastful frontiersman, he pursues Judith Hutter and joins Thomas Hutter in seeking money from scalps.
- Thomas Hutter
- A trapper with a troubled past, he lives with his daughters, Judith and Hetty, in a fortified lake dwelling.
- Judith Hutter
- Thomas Hutter's beautiful elder daughter and Hetty's sister, she attracts Hurry Harry March's attention but seeks someone trustworthy.
- Hetty Hutter
- Judith's younger sister and Thomas Hutter's daughter, she relies on her Bible and speaks with disarming honesty.
- Wah-ta-Wah
- Chingachgook's brave betrothed, she is held by the Hurons while he and Deerslayer prepare to help her.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 217,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 14 h 30 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Tue-cerf
What is The Deerslayer about?
It tells of a young hunter called Deerslayer who helps a Delaware friend rescue his betrothed on Glimmerglass lake in New York. He is caught up in a fight between settlers, the Hurons, and a family living on the water.
Is The Deerslayer part of a series?
Yes. It is one of the five Leatherstocking Tales. Cooper wrote it last, in 1841, but it comes first in the hero's life, showing Natty Bumppo as a young man.
Is The Deerslayer a true story?
No. The characters and plot are fiction. The setting, upstate New York before the American Revolution, is real, and the lake was modelled on Otsego Lake near Cooper's home town of Cooperstown.
Is The Deerslayer hard to read?
Readers find clear adventure, strong scenes on the water, and a simple hero.
Who are the Hurons and the Delaware in the book?
They are two Native American peoples. In the novel the Delaware are Deerslayer's friends and allies, while the Hurons, also called Mingos, are their enemies who hold Wah-ta-Wah and attack the lake.