Lionel Lincoln

by James Fenimore Cooper

First published 1825

Amazon

2.8(29)

Lionel Lincoln, an American-born officer in British service, returns to Boston in 1775 as relations between the colonies and Crown collapse into war. His family connections and divided identity place him between military duty and the city’s political crisis, while secrets surrounding his past complicate his attachment to the people he encounters there.

The novel moves through occupied Boston and the opening campaigns of the Revolution, including the fighting around Bunker Hill. Cooper uses Lionel’s position inside the British army to show the conflict before national identities have hardened completely, when neighbours and relatives can find themselves on opposing sides and private histories are inseparable from public rebellion.