The Spy

by James Fenimore Cooper

First published 1821

Amazon

3.6(1,513)

During the American Revolution, the Wharton family tries to preserve its home in the contested Neutral Ground of Westchester County, where British and American patrols, raiders and informers make ordinary loyalties dangerous. Harvey Birch, an itinerant peddler widely suspected of serving the British, repeatedly crosses the paths of the Whartons and the officers who occupy their world, while the family itself is divided by political allegiance and personal attachment.

Birch’s reputation conceals a far more complicated service to the patriot cause, turning the novel into a story of intelligence work, secrecy and sacrifice rather than simple battlefield heroism. George Washington appears behind Birch’s hidden mission, and the devastated countryside shows how revolution and civil conflict unsettle households as thoroughly as armies.