The Deerslayer The Deerslayer The Deerslayer, or The First War-path (1841) was the last of James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales" to be written. Its 1740-1745 time period makes it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the hero of the Leatherstocking tales, Natty Bumppo. The novel's setting on Otsego Lake in central, upstate New York, is the same as that of "The Pioneers", the first of the "Leatherstocking Tales" to be published (1823). "The Deerslayer" is considered to be the prequel to the rest of the series. Fenimore Cooper begins his work by relating the astonishing advance of civilization in
The Canterbury Tales that the greatest contribution of "The Canterbury Tales" to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, the Pearl Poet, and Julian of Norwich—also wrote major literary works in English. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was seminal in this evolution of literary preference. While Chaucer clearly states the addressees of many of his poems, the intended audience of "The Canterbury Tales" is more difficult to determine.