The Red Rover

Name: The Red Rover
Rating: 3.48 (409 reviews)

by James Fenimore Cooper

First published 1828

Amazon

3.4(409)

In Newport in 1759, the young seaman James Wilder becomes entangled with an elusive pirate known as the Red Rover and accepts a place aboard a vessel whose true command and purpose remain uncertain. Wilder’s companions include the veteran sailor Dick Fid and the free Black seaman Scipio Africanus, whose loyalty becomes crucial as deception and danger follow the ships into the Atlantic.

Cooper uses shifting identities, mutiny, storm and naval pursuit to create a sea adventure in which formal rank is repeatedly tested by practical seamanship. The colonial setting precedes the American Revolution but looks toward it through hostility to imperial authority and through revelations that transform a pirate legend into a story about allegiance, rebellion and national memory.