James Fenimore Cooper

Originally published in 1831, this novel is set in Venice in the bygone days of the Doges. It was inspired by Cooper's travels in Italy. The author has intended to give his countrymen, writes Cooper in his preface, "a picture of the social system of the soi-disant republics of the other hemisphere." Cooper aims to show, William Cullen Bryant said, that all systems which reserve power for the strong, inherently oppress the weak.

The year is 1799. Admiral Caraccioli of Naples is about to be executed from the yard-arm of Lord Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean. Young and in love with Carccioli’s daughter, the spirited French privateer, Raoul Yvard, and his wily sailing master, Ithuel Bolt, harass the British fleet against all odds. Yvard is captured but cunningly escapes, setting up a showdown at sea against the overwhelming forces of the Royal Navy.

Early in October 1832, a travelling-carriage stopped on the summit of that long descent where the road pitches from the elevated plain of Moudon in Switzerland to the level of the lake of Geneva, immediately above the little city of Vevey. The postilion had dismounted to chain a wheel, and the halt enabled those he conducted to catch a glimpse of the lovely scenery of that remarkable view.

[Wuthering Heights]( / Emily Bronte Typhoon / Joseph Conrad Last of the Mohicans / James F. Cooper [The Yearling]( / Marjorie K. Rawlings.

Account of the 1806 solar eclipse in Cooperstown, written in 1831 but not published until 1869.

Notions of the Americans in considered Cooper's first work of non-fiction despite a thin overlay of character and plot. Written in the form of a travel narrative, it addresses the widespread ignorance he encountered in Europe about the people and institutions of the United States. It is an exuberant chant of praise for American representative democracy, encapsulating the utopian vision that compelled Cooper's writing career over three decades. The introduction draws on materials never before published. this edition, distinguished by the seal of the Center for Scholarly Editions, is the first resetting of the text since the initial American edition in 1828.

The central story in this brief political allegory is presented twice, first in expository form by a narrator, then in more dramatic form by a cast of three characters. Set on Seneca Lake in Central New York, it is based partly on a real Indian legend and partly on a fictitious tale which Cooper endowed with some of the qualities of legend. For centuries Seneca Lake has periodically emitted loud explosive sounds, detonations from what the white settlers call "The Lake Gun." This documented phenomenon has never been scientifically explained, but the Indians consider it the voice of the Manitou, their god. Equally mysterious is the author's invention called the "Wandering Jew," a tree trunk that is said to have floated for ages on the lake, moved back and forth by winds and currents. Early in the nineteenth century one Fuller, a traveler in the Finger Lakes region, hears accounts of the "gun" and the "Jew," and sets out to investigate these two wonders of nature. For this purpose he engages a small sailboat owned and operated by an aged mariner, Peter, who is well acquainted with both of these phenomena. Together the two men cruise along the shore of Seneca Lake looking for the "Wandering Jew," which Peter has not seen for the past three years, and listening to tales about the area told by local residents.

It is an old remark, that the life of any man, could the incidents be faithfully told, would possess interest and instruction for the general reader. The conviction of the perfect truth of this saying, has induced the writer to commit to paper, the vicissitudes, escapes, and opinions of one of his old shipmates, as a sure means of giving the public some just notions of the career of a common sailor.