Leatherstocking Tales Leatherstocking Tales The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of five novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, set in the eighteenth century era of development in the primarily former Iroquois areas in central New York. Each novel features Natty Bumppo, a frontiersman known to European-American settlers as "Leatherstocking", "The Pathfinder", and "the trapper". Native Americans call him "Deerslayer", ""La Longue Carabine"" ("Long Rifle" in French), and "Hawkeye". The story dates are derived from dates given in the tales and span the period roughly of 1740-1806. They do not necessarily correspond with the actual dates of the historical events described in
The Canterbury Tales Introducing a competition among the tales encourages the reader to compare the tales in all their variety, and allows Chaucer to showcase the breadth of his skill in different genres and literary forms. While the structure of the "Tales" is largely linear, with one story following another, it is also much more than that. In the "General Prologue", Chaucer describes not the tales to be told, but the people who will tell them, making it clear that structure will depend on the characters rather than a general theme or moral. This idea is reinforced when the Miller interrupts to tell