The Wing-and-Wing

by James Fenimore Cooper

First published 1842

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3.4(77)

In 1799, the French privateer captain Raoul Yvard sails the swift lugger Feu-Follet through the western Mediterranean while British warships try to trap him along the Italian coast. His attachment to the devout Ghita Caraccioli gives the pursuit an intimate stake, because their love is strained by politics, nationality and profound differences in religious belief.

The novel places privateering inside the War of the Second Coalition, when revolutionary France, Britain and the Italian states were fighting for control of the Mediterranean. Cooper uses disguise, coastal navigation and repeated escapes to show the precarious life of a commander who depends on speed and nerve rather than naval strength, while turmoil around Naples gives the romance a darker political edge.