History YMMV / TheLeatherstockingTales

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Although Cooper's writings may not be to the tastes of many modern readers, they were very progressive for the time, pioneered an all in all very positive portrayal of Native Americans and earned Cooper a lot of hate e. g. from politicians who then set in motion the displacement of Indians from their ancestral homes. The problem for him is that his literary style, romanticism, fell out of fashion and that for many people today Cooper's noble savages aren't noble enough.

* SequelDeplacement: Or rather "Prequel Deplacement" in that ''The Last of the Mohicans'' is the most famous of the Leatherstocking Tales, but is a prequel to its first story ''The Pioneers.''

* CommonKnowledge: Due to the number of adaptations of ''The Last of the Mohicans'' often casting older actors, Chingachgook is frequently believed to be older than he actually was. As he was seventy in his debut story ''The Pioneers'', set in 1793, and ''The Last of the Mohicans'' was set in 1757, he was actually thirty-four, the same age as Leatherstocking, who is not Chingachgook's adoptive son.

* CommonKnowledge: Due to the number of adaptations of ''The Last of the Mohicans'', Chingachgook is frequently believed to be older than he actually was. As he was seventy in his debut story ''The Pioneers'', set in 1793, and ''The Last of the Mohicans'' was set in 1757, he was actually thirty-four.

* AcceptableTargets: The French in ''The Last of the Mohicans''. This is mostly due to the ProtagonistCenteredMorality of many novels, and certainly did not stop Cooper from making friends and winning a large audience in France.

* ValuesDissonance: Comes up a ''lot''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Cooper for a time planned to write a Leatherstocking novel set during the American Revolution, which would have made it six in all. The Massachusetts-based novel ''Lionel Lincoln'' was the first of the intended series ''Legends of the Thirteen Republics'', which would have reflected the role of each of the original colonies in the American Revolution. ''Lionel Lincoln'''s poor critical and commercial reception prevented the other twelve from ever being written.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: Most of Cooper's novels are set in America, on sea, or both. ''The Spy'' is set in Westchester County, where he lived for a time. With the exception of ''The Prairie'', the Leatherstocking Tales are set in places where he had actually been, notably Lake Otsego and other parts of New York. Templeton in ''The Pioneers'' is a [[TakeThat satirically sharpened]] expy for Cooperstown (where Cooper grew up and later settled down), and its founder Marmaduke Temple is partly based on the author's father. In ''The Deerslayer'' Cooper is effectively describing his backyard, which makes Mark Twain's uninformed critique of the Cooper's descriptions (Twain apparently never even visited the place) unintentionally funny.

* SnarkBait: See Mark Twain's [[Literature/FenimoreCoopersLiteraryOffences essay]] on Cooper's writing style.

* AdaptationalContextChange: As Colonel Munro from ''The Last of the Mohicans'' really existed, it was a ForegoneConclusion that he should die of heart failure before 1757, the year the novel is set in, is out. However, in the novel his death is attributed not to the exhaustions of the campaign, but to his grief over the death of his (fictional) daughter Cora.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Cooper was the first American author to achieve not just recognition, but also bestselling commercial success in Europe. He was lionized while he lived in France - ''The Prairie'' was written in Paris - and influenced not just a number of French, German and British writers who would write (proto-)Westerns modeled on the Leatherstocking Tales, but also for instance Balzac's novel ''Les Chouans'' and Alexandre Dumas père's ''Les Mohicans de Paris''. And Cooper occupies a to American eyes astonishing amount of room in the Soviet and later Russian English Literature syllabus. In Germany he was hugely influential as well and is second only to Creator/KarlMay in terms of literature dealing with Native Americans, to the point that many of the tropes, cliches and misconceptions of Cooper's work are "common knowledge" about Native Americans ''to this day'' in Germany.

* SnarkBait: Mark Twain's [[Literature/FenimoreCoopersLiteraryOffences essay]] on Cooper's writing style.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Cooper was the first American author to achieve not just recognition, but also bestselling commercial success in Europe. He was lionized while he lived in France - ''The Prairie'' was written in Paris - and influenced not just a number of French, German and British writers who would write (proto-)Westerns modeled on the Leatherstocking Tales, but also for instance Balzac's novel ''Les Chouans'' and Alexandre Dumas père's ''Les Mohicans de Paris''. And Cooper occupies a to American eyes astonishing amount of room in the Soviet and later Russian English Literature syllabus.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Cooper for a time planned to write a Leatherstocking novel set during the American Revolution, which would have made it six in all.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: Most of Cooper's novels are set in America, on sea, or both. ''The Spy'' is set in Westchester County, where he lived for a time. With the exception of ''The Prairie'', the Leatherstocking Tales are set in places where he had actually been, notably Lake Otsego and other parts of New York. Templeton in ''The Pioneers'' is a [[TakeThat satirically sharpened]] expy for Cooperstown (where Cooper grew up and later settled down), and its founder Marmaduke Temple is partly based on the author's father. In ''The Deerhunter'' Cooper is effectively describing his backyard, which makes Mark Twain's uninformed critique of the Cooper's descriptions (Twain apparently never even visited the place) unintentionally funny.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: Most of Cooper's novels are set in America, on sea, or both. With the exception of ''The Prairie'', the Leatherstocking Tales are set in places where he had actually been, notably Lake Otsego and other parts of New York. For instance, Templeton in ''The Pioneers'' is a [[TakeThat satirically sharpened]] expy for Cooperstown (the town founded by his father and also where he grew up and later settled down. In ''The Deerhunter'' Cooper is effectively describing his backyard, which makes Mark Twain's uninformed critique of the Cooper's descriptions (Twain apparently never even visited the place) unintentionally funny.

* AcceptableTargets: The French in ''The Last of the Mohicans'', even though Cooper had many French friends. This is mostly due to the ProtagonistCenteredMorality of many novels.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: Most of Cooper's novels are set in America, on sea, or both. With the exception of ''The Prairie'', the Leatherstocking Tales are set in places where he had actually been, notably Lake Otsego and other parts of New York. For instance, Templeton in ''The Pioneers'' is a [[TakeThat satirically sharpened]] expy for Cooperstown (the town founded by his father and also where he grew up and later settled down.

* AcceptableTargets: The French.
* FairForItsDay: The book is highly controversial in the Native community for popularizing the concept of "{{noble savage}}s" who were loyal to the English and Americans versus "ignoble savages" who weren't (in the book, Magua was a drunk). On the other hand, it did popularize the romantic notion of Indians as [[MagicalNativeAmerican culturally superior]] and better adapted to the natural environment. The 1992 film skirts this by showing Indians on an equal footing with whites at a time when they were just fighting to keep their land. That and hiring Creator/RussellMeans to play Chingachgook (he was well-known for activism on behalf of Native Americans) made the film much more well-received in the Native community.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Cooper was the first American author to achieve not just recognition, but also bestselling commercial success in Europe. He was lionized while he lived in France - ''The Last of the Mohicans'' was written in Paris - and influenced not just a number of French, German and British writers who would write (proto-)Westerns modeled on the Leatherstocking Tales, but also for instance Balzac's novel ''Les Chouans'' and Alexandre Dumas père's ''Les Mohicans de Paris''. And Cooper occupies a to American eyes astonishing amount of room in the Soviet and later Russian English Literature syllabus.

* FairForItsDay: The book is highly controversial in the Native community for popularizing the concept of "{{noble savage}}s" who were loyal to the English and Americans versus "ignoble savages" who weren't (in the book, Magua was a drunk). On the other hand, it did popularize the romantic notion of Indians as [[MagicalNativeAmerican culturally superior]] and better adapted to the natural environment. The 1992 film skirts this by showing Indians on an equal footing with whites at a time when they were just fighting to keep their land. That and hiring RussellMeans to play Chingachgook (he was well-known for activism on behalf of Native Americans) made the film much more well-received in the Native community.

* FairForItsDay: Surprisingly so, given the time period.

* ValuesDissonance Comes up a ''lot''.

* CompleteMonster: Magua in ''Literature/TheLastOfTheMohicans''.

* ValuesDissonance Comes up a ''lot''.

* SnarkBait: Mark Twain's [[FurtherLiteraryCrimesOfCooper essay]] on Cooper's writing style.

* CompleteMonster: Magua in ''LastOfTheMohicans Mohicans''.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Cooper was the first American author to achieve not just recognition, but also bestselling commercial success in Europe. He was lionized while he lived in France - ''TheLastOfTheMohicans'' was written in Paris - and influenced not just a number of French, German and British writers who would write (proto-)Westerns modeled on the Leatherstocking Tales, but also for instance Balzac's novel ''Les Chouans'' and Alexandre Dumas père's ''Les Mohicans de Paris''. And Cooper occupies a to American eyes astonishing amount of room in the Soviet and later Russian English Literature syllabus.