Published in 1826 as the second of Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, The Last of the Mohicans follows the scout Natty Bumppo — known as Hawkeye — and his Mohican companions Chingachgook and Uncas as they protect two young women amid the violent conflicts of the French and Indian War. Cooper’s vivid frontier landscapes and tense action sequences made this one of the most widely read American novels of the nineteenth century.
A foundational text of American literature and the mythology of the frontier, the novel remains compelling adventure reading. Download this free public-domain EPUB at Better Gutenberg.