The Deerslayer

by James Fenimore Cooper Book 1 in the Leatherstocking Tales series.

First published 1841

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3.7(15,375)

A young Natty Bumppo, not yet the seasoned Hawkeye of later adventures, comes to Otsego Lake with Hurry Harry and meets the Hutter family at their isolated lake dwelling. Chingachgook is seeking to recover Wah-ta-Wah, and Natty is drawn into a conflict that forces him to kill for the first time and to test the moral code by which he intends to live.

The novel functions as Natty’s origin story, contrasting his skill in the forest with his refusal to treat violence as sport or conquest. Judith and Hetty Hutter, Chingachgook and the surrounding Indigenous communities expose him to competing ideas of loyalty, vengeance and possession, establishing the independence and unease with settlement that shape his later life.