大草原 (1827)

The Prairie: A Tale is an 1827 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 man". Chronologically The Prairie is the fifth and final installment of the Leatherstocking Tales, though it was published before The Pathfinder (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841). It depicts Natty in the final year of his life, still proving helpful to people in distress on the American frontier. The book frequently references characters and events from the two books previously published in the Leatherstocking Tales as well as the two which Cooper would not write for more than ten years. Continuity with The Last of the Mohicans is indicated by the appearance of the grandson of Duncan and Alice Heyward, as well as the noble Pawnee chief Hard Heart, whose name is English for the French nickname for the Delaware, le Coeur-dur.

Characters

The trapper – The story's main protagonist. Never mentioned by name, we infer by references to other books that this is Natty Bumppo in his 87th (or 83rd) and final year. He is the wise, cunning mind that keeps the white settlers alive through repeated, dangerous situations. Captain Duncan Middleton's grandparents were his close friends.

Ishmael Bush – Rugged immigrant. Frequently described as dirty, lazy and coarse. Often referred to as a "squatter" because he lays claim to land without purchasing it from the government or the Indians. He is running from the law because he has aided in kidnapping Inez, Middleton's young wife.

Esther Bush – Ishmael's hard, careworn wife, mother of his 14 children (seven sons and seven daughters). Sometimes a woman of action, sometimes a woman of quiet complaints.

Ellen Wade – The niece of Esther's deceased first husband (husband's sister's daughter) who lives with them as their ward since she was orphaned. Ishmael intends to marry her to his eldest son Asa, but she is in love with Paul Hover.

Abiram White – Esther Bush's brother. Kidnapper of Inez de Certavallos-Middleton before story begins. Murders his nephew Asa Bush, but isn't discovered until nearly the end of the book. The book's most base character.

Inez de Certavallos-Middleton – The beautiful, petite bride of Captain Duncan Uncas Middleton, daughter of a wealthy landowner in Louisiana. A devout Catholic, determined to convert her husband to her faith.

Captain Duncan Uncas Middleton – Grandson of Major Duncan Heyward and Alice Munro-Heyward of The Last of the Mohicans, who rescues his bride from Abiram White and sees to the proper burial of Natty Bumppo at the end of the narrative.

Paul Hover – The country-wise, impetuous bee-hunter, who is betrothed to Ellen Wade. Nearly every comment he makes references bees in some fashion.

Dr. Obed Bat Latinized as Battius – a physician-naturalist. He had joined himself to the Bush caravan as family physician, but he took the opportunity of going into the wilderness to make forays into the surrounding country to gather specimens of flora and fauna. Like the character of David the psalmodist in The Last of the Mohicans he both provides comic relief and a foil by which Cooper may compare the relative merits of Natty Bumppo's frontier practicality with theoretical knowledge. Obed and David are also similar to Hetty Hutter in The Deerslayer as people held in awe and unmolested by the Native Americans because of their mystical qualities as medicine men. When Obed learns of Inez and her circumstances, he joins her husband's party to rescue her. His speech is frequently didactic, often reciting a fictitious genus and species for each animal or plant he encounters.

Asinus – Dr. Battius's trusty donkey, whose bray proves to be a life-saving measure for the doctor and his friends in the face of stampeding bison and hostile Native Americans.

Hector – Natty's wise old hunting dog, who dies before Natty but is preserved through primitive taxidermy as a comfort to the dying frontiersman. His plaintive whine is the precursor of danger in the narrative. Middleton's dogs are related to Hector - descendants from a puppy that Natty sent as a gift to Middleton's grandfather years ago.

Mahtoree – A brave and crafty Teton Sioux chief, who wants Ellen and Inez for his fourth and fifth wives. He is killed by Hard Heart.

Hard Heart – A brave, handsome, and trustworthy Pawnee warrior, who helps Natty and Middleton escape from their enemies and manages an amazing escape from certain death at the hands of the Tetons. He leads the final battle against the Tetons, killing Mahtoree and taking his scalp for a prize. He becomes the husband of Tachechana, Mahtoree's beautiful widow, and protector and benefactor of her aged father, Le Balafré, and Natty Bumppo, who comes to love him like a son. His name links him to Natty's admired Delawares, whose nickname in French is le Coeur-dur, "hard heart." The trapper (Natty) is drawn to Hard Heart as a noble warrior in the likeness of his dear friend Uncas, The Last of the Mohicans.

Weucha – A treacherous Teton brave, whom Hard Heart dramatically kills with his own tomahawk.

Le Balafré – French for "the scarred one", so named by the French Canadian traders and soldiers, he is the very aged Teton father-in-law of Mahtoree, father of Tachechana, who as a character corresponds to Tamenund in The Last of the Mohicans.

Tachechana – Youngest wife of Mahtoree.