The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

How hard is The Last of the Mohicans to read?

The Last of the Mohicans scores 44 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 68 out of 100

Cooper employs a formal 19th-century vocabulary, frequently using words like 'sententious,' 'corroborative,' 'imbecility,' and 'animadversions.' The dialogue of characters like Hawkeye introduces a distinct frontier idiom with archaisms ('atwixt,' 'vartue') and colloquialisms, while descriptions of Native American culture include specific tribal names and customs, demanding a broad understanding from the reader. This places it above 'The Great Gatsby' (45) but below the extreme linguistic experimentation of 'Finnegans Wake' (99).

Sentence structure: 75 out of 100

Sentences are notably long and often feature multiple nested clauses, inversions, and extensive descriptive phrases, requiring sustained attention to parse meaning. The prose frequently links independent clauses with semicolons and commas, creating a dense, formal style that is more demanding than '1984' (35) but less labyrinthine than Henry James's 'The Golden Bowl' (88).

Abstraction: 62 out of 100

While primarily a narrative of adventure, the text frequently pauses for philosophical digressions on Native American character, the clash of civilizations, and the nature of justice and faith, particularly in the dialogues between Hawkeye and Chingachgook. The narrator also interjects extensive moral and historical commentary, elevating the content beyond purely concrete events, though not reaching the pure abstraction of 'The Waste Land' (92).

Information density: 60 out of 100

The narrative is rich with historical context, detailed descriptions of wilderness settings, military strategies, and Native American customs and terminology, often presented within long, multi-clause sentences. Footnotes further expand on geographical and cultural details, requiring the reader to process a high volume of specific information per page, comparable to the historical detail and multiple timeframes in '2666' (75).

Narrative indirection: 30 out of 100

The narrative is largely direct, with the omniscient narrator frequently explaining historical context, character motivations, and even cultural nuances through explicit exposition and footnotes. For instance, the introduction explicitly states that 'most of the information necessary to understand its allusions, are rendered sufficiently obvious to the reader in the text itself, or in the accompanying notes,' placing it closer to the directness of '1984' (35) than to works requiring significant inference.

Symbolic density: 50 out of 100

While the title 'The Last of the Mohicans' carries clear thematic weight regarding a vanishing race, the text primarily functions as a literal adventure narrative rather than relying on dense, complex symbolism. Objects and settings, such as the wilderness or Hawkeye's rifle 'Killdeer,' are presented more for their practical significance and character development than as pervasive allegorical elements, making it less symbolically rich than 'Moby-Dick' (90) but more so than 'Diary of a Young Girl' (18).

Ironic distance: 25 out of 100

Cooper's narrative maintains a consistently earnest and didactic tone, with little to no ironic distance between the stated text and implied authorial meaning. The narrator often interjects with moralizing or explanatory comments, and characters like Hawkeye, while sometimes prejudiced, are presented with a straightforwardness that lacks the subtle critique or unreliable charm found in 'Lolita' (75). This directness aligns it with 'Diary of a Young Girl' (15).

Resolution withholding: 35 out of 100

The narrative generally provides clear resolutions to immediate plot points and dangers, such as the successful escape from Magua and the outcome of the battle at the falls. While the larger conflict of the war continues, individual episodes conclude with explicit outcomes and plans for the future, offering more closure than works like 'The Crying of Lot 49' (75) and closer to the clear progression of 'Beach Read' (25).

Structural complexity: 30 out of 100

The novel employs a largely linear and chronological structure, with a consistent third-person omniscient point of view. Although there are shifts in focus between groups of characters and occasional authorial interjections or footnotes, these elements do not disrupt the narrative flow or introduce formal experimentation, making it far less complex than 'Ulysses' (98) and more akin to the conventional structure of 'War and Peace' (40).

How The Last of the Mohicans is regarded

The Last of the Mohicans holds a literary regard score of 70 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

James Fenimore Cooper