The Deerslayer

In the 1740s, on the shores of Lake Otsego in the forests of New York, young Natty Bumppo, a hunter raised among the Delaware people and known as Deerslayer, joins his friend Chingachgook to rescue Chingachgook's bride, Wah-ta-Wah, from a Huron war party. They become caught up with Tom Hutter, a rough trapper who lives in a 'castle' built on the water, and his two daughters, the proud, beautiful Judith and the simple, gentle Hetty, as Deerslayer kills a man for the first time and earns a new name, Hawkeye.

Published in 1841, The Deerslayer was the last of James Fenimore Cooper's five Leatherstocking Tales to be written but the first in the hero's life. It is still read for its descriptions of the lake and the forest, although Mark Twain mocked its style in a famous essay. Read next The Last of the Mohicans.