Precaution: A Novel
1820
Published in 1820, 'Precaution' is James Fenimore Cooper's debut novel, marking his entry into fiction. The story revolves around the Moseley family, particularly siblings Clara, Jane, and John, as they navigate social dynamics and relationships with their new neighbors, the Jarvis family. The novel explores themes of social status, marriage prospects, and community interactions, reflecting the social customs of early 19th-century England. Notably, it was written as a wager to prove Cooper could craft a better story than the fashionable romances of the time.
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“It is now somewhat more than a year, since the friends of James Fenimore Cooper, in this city; were planning to give a public dinner to his honor. It was intended as an expression both of the regard they bore him personally, and of the pride they took in the glory his writings had reflected on the American name. We thought of what we should say in his hearing; in what terms, worthy of him and of us, we should speak of the esteem in which we held him, and of the interest we felt in a fame which had already penetrated to the remotest nook of the earth inhabited by civilized man.””
— James Fenimore Cooper
