''The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea'' is a

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ...

by American author

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought ...

, first published in

1840 Events January–March * January 3 – One of the predecessor papers of the ''Herald Sun'' of Melbourne, Australia, ''The Port Phillip Herald'', is founded. * January 10 – Uniform Penny Post is introduced in the United Kingdom. * Jan ...

. It is the fourth novel Cooper wrote featuring

Natty Bumppo Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo is a fictional character and the protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper's pentalogy of novels known as the '' Leatherstocking Tales''. Fictional biography Natty Bumppo, the child of white parents, grew up among Delaware ...

, his fictitious frontier hero, and the third chronological episode of the '' Leatherstocking Tales''. The inland sea of the title is

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border span ...

Composition

''The Pathfinder'' was written 13 years after Natty Bumppo had ended his career in ''

The Prairie ''The Prairie: A Tale'' (1827) is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper, the third novel written by him featuring Natty Bumppo. His fictitious frontier hero Bumppo is never called by his name, but is instead referred to as "the trapper" or "the old m ...

''. Cooper had questioned the wisdom of reviving this hero, and he was at the time engaged in fierce litigations with newspapers. The adventures of the plot on the water take authority from the fact that Cooper had as midshipman actually seen service on Lake Ontario.

Plot

''The Pathfinder'' shows Natty at his old trick of guiding tender damsels through the dangerous woods, and the siege at the blockhouse and the storm on Lake Ontario are considerably like other of Cooper's sieges and storms. Natty, in this novel commonly called the Pathfinder, keeps in a hardy middle age his simple and honest nature, which is severely tested by his love for a nineteen-year-old young woman, Mabel Dunham. She is a conventional heroine of romance. A certain soft amiability about her turns for a time all the thoughts of the scout to the world of domestic affections. More talkative than ever before, he reveals new mental and moral traits. With the same touch of realism which had kept Uncas and Cora apart in ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is a historical romance written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826. It is the second book of the ''Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfind ...

'', Cooper separates these lovers, and sends Natty's romantic interest to the arms of a younger suitor, restoring the hero to his home in the wilderness.

Distinctions

It is the only book in the ''Leatherstocking'' series to show Natty Bumppo in love, and the first of Cooper's books which made important imaginative use of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. The sobriquet "The Pathfinder" was subsequently attached to explorer John C. Frémont.

References

External links

* 1840 American novels Historical novels Novels by James Fenimore Cooper Novels set in the American colonial era Novels set in the 18th century {{1840s-novel-stub

Composition

Plot

Distinctions

References

Further reading

External links