New Releases by James Fenimore Cooper

The Heidenmauer; or, The Benedictines – A Story of the Rhine is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1832. The novel is a socio-political novel set in 16th century Bavaria that focuses on the competition between various socio-political classes and the tension caused by the Reformation.The Heidenmauer is Cooper's second novel in what one critic would call his European Trilogy, following The Bravo and preceding The Headsman. Like the other novels set in Europe, The Heidenmauer is intent on showing the darker side of European institutions in favor of an American perspective.[From the English Wikipedia][1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heidenmauer

Described in the introduction as a manuscript sent to the author in Geneva, Switzerland, by a Viscount Householder in gratitude for the author's having saved the Viscount's beautiful wife from accidental death, this novel uses the framework of a south-polar voyage to two unknown countries, Leaphigh [markedly similar in its institutions to England] and Leaplow [singularly like the United States in its principles and practices], to satirize the social, political, and judicial systems of the two Western countries. The "voyage" appears to have been imaginary, the product of the manuscript writer's delirium during an illness in Paris, but the points made are indelible ones. The first-person narrative device [in the voice of John Goldencalf, Viscount of Householder] adds verisimilitude to the account.

It is an old remark, that the life of any man, could the incidents be faithfully told, would possess interest and instruction for the general reader. The conviction of the perfect truth of this saying, has induced the writer to commit to paper, the vicissitudes, escapes, and opinions of one of his old shipmates, as a sure means of giving the public some just notions of the career of a common sailor.

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 - September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century.