The Spy

by James Fenimore Cooper, Wayne Franklin (Introduction), Wayne Franklin (Noted by)

Overview

A historical adventure reminiscent of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley romances, Cooper’s novel centers on Harvey Birch, a common man wrongly suspected of being a spy for the British.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101221655
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/1997
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	588 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) grew up at Otsego Hall, his father’s manorial estate near Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Educated at Yale, he spent five years at sea, as a foremast hand and then as a midshipman in the navy. At thirty he was suddenly plunged into a literary career when his wife challenged his claim that he could write a better book that the English novel he was reading to her. The result was Precaution (1820), a novel of manners. His second book, The Spy (1821), was an immediate success, and with The Pioneers (1823) he began his series of Leatherstocking Tales. By 1826 when The Last of the Mohicans appeared, his standing as a major novelist was clearly established. From 1826 to 1833 Cooper and his family lived and traveled in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Two of his most successful works, The Prairie and The Red Rover, were published in 1827. He returned to Otsego Hall in 1834, and after a series of relatively unsuccessful books of essays, travel sketches, and history, he returned to fiction – and to Leatherstocking – with The Pathfinder (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841). In his last decade he faced declining popularity brought on in part by his waspish attacks on critics and political opponents. Just before his death in 1851 an edition of his works led to a reappraisal of his fiction and somewhat restored his reputation as the first of American writers.

Date of Birth:

September 15, 1789

Date of Death:

September 14, 1851

Place of Birth:

Burlington, New Jersey

Place of Death:

Cooperstown, New York

Education:

Yale University (expelled in 1805)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Historical Introduction	xiii
	To James Aitchison [1821]	1
	Preface [1821]	2
	Preface to the Second Edition [1822]	6
	To James Aitchison [1822]	8
	Preface to the Third Edition [1822]	9
	Introduction [1831]	12
	Introduction [1849]	17
	The Spy	22
	Explanatory Notes	425
	Textual Commentary	435
	Textual Notes	458
	Emendations	460
	Rejected Readings	546
	Word-Division	550