James Fenimore Cooper: The Complete Works (Set of 48 volumes) Paperback – Unabridged, 1 Mar. 2010

I read and enjoyed the Leatherstocking Tales (Last of the Mohicans etc.) before I got this set. They are easy to find, but Cooper's other works are harder to find and well worth reading. So far I have read The Pilot -- a very fictionalized version of John Paul Jones operating off the English coast during the Revolution. In this version, two junior American naval officers are in love with two American young ladies who have been taken to England by their fiercely Loyalist old kinsman/guardian. The story alternates between vivid and accurate naval actions (Cooper had served briefly in the American navy) and light-hearted flirtation, like a mix of C. S. Forester and Jane Austin. There are also a whole series of reversals in which American and British forces alternatively have the upper hand. There is a grim shipwreck, but aside from that it is all good fun. One minor dialogue error -- the old Loyalist keeps referring to the American rebels as "Jacobins" despite the fact that that term did not mean "revolutionaries" until the French Revolution. I look forward to reading more of the less well-known stories.

Cooper brings back the values & mind set of early America like no other, and it is exactly his old fashioned sense of things, combined with a talent for both high action and the picturesque, that makes him ever endearing to those long ago bored with too often pretentious modernism and, ahem, "great" literature. None of this is to say Cooper is without his shortcomings. He, like almost any 19th century novelist, can be unnecessarily long winded, and his earlier (as opposed to later) prose is something confusing, even annoying, to follow sometimes. Even so, this is an author whose works one can positively love, and love coming back to. For years, I have had the entire collection of Cooper's fiction novels in hard bound copies, but I have to admit the convenience of this Delphi Complete Works is much welcome.

Most of his stories were fantastic such as his leatherstocking tales and his tales of the sea. When he wrote stories that were satires like The Monikens they were hard to read. His three European novels would have been better if he would have had more action in them. His non fiction was decent. The two biographys on Coopers life were very good. I learned a lot about the authors life other than his writings. On the whole I'd give it an excellent rating and you can't go wrong at the price of $3.00. The only bad thing about it is there were a lot of typos in his writings that got sickening after awhile.

If you like stories about the American frontier when the Indians were free people and the pioneers where just starting to go west then these are some of the best ever written. Anyone who has seen Last of the Mohicans and enjoyed it will love these stories. Cooper wrote what seemed to me tales set in the authentic world of those times. They are fascinating and exciting. I envy you if you are reading these for the first time.

I've wanted to read these for a long time. Delphi have once again created a great way of reading a classic author's best known books. Highly enjoyable and easy to navigate :)