The Red Rover: A Tale. Volume 2

The Red Rover is the second volume of James Fenimore Cooper’s 1827 sea novel, picking up where the first leaves off. Cooper wrote a number of nautical tales and this one is among his best. The story is set in colonial Newport, Rhode Island in the years just before the American Revolution, and it centers on the figure of the Red Rover himself, a mysterious pirate captain whose true allegiances and identity are kept hidden through most of the book.

The young naval officer Henry Wilder enlists aboard the Rover’s ship under false pretenses, intending to expose him. As the voyage continues, Wilder finds himself drawn into the strange fellowship of the pirate crew and uncertain about who is really the villain in the situation he has stepped into. Cooper handles the shipboard scenes with the technical authority he was famous for, having served as a young officer in the United States Navy himself before turning to writing. The chases, the storms, and the maneuvering between vessels are all rendered in convincing detail.

This second volume contains the climactic sea battles and the long delayed reveals about who the Red Rover really is and why he turned to piracy. Cooper enjoyed playing with national identity in his books, and the Rover’s complicated relationship with both Britain and the colonies sets up themes the Revolution would force everyone to confront. The pacing is slower than modern adventure fiction, with long passages of dialogue and reflection between the action scenes, but readers who settle into the rhythm find a strong, atmospheric story. Cooper’s influence on later sea novelists, from Patrick OBrian to C.S. Forester, runs back through books like this one.