Reviews for The Red Rover

The average rating for The Red Rover based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-07-07 00:00:00 Carol Riseing James Fenimore Cooper best known today for The Last of the Mohicans and four other dramatic Leatherstocking Tales was the first American novelist with a best-selling book at home and abroad, The Spy in 1821 (very good), he popularized the literature across the seas, Europeans loved them, their action- packed adventures excited readers (a great contrast from the dull , stuffy domestic works) which many famous authors praised. This book one of his numerous stories set on the ocean which Mr. Cooper practically invented, after all he was a former midshipman in the American Navy....To begin The Red Rover is a notorious pirate raiding mostly defenseless ships off the eastern coast of North America and the Caribbean Sea in the last year of the French and Indian War, 1759, his craft and he become synonymous. A ship arrives in Newport , Rhode Island floating in the small town's harbor the privateer, the master and fellow crew say she is a slaver not very welcome here this is New England which doesn't like slavery. Obviously another name is given for the vessel and the men are unusually good in the city causing no problems...sailors are they? Nevertheless this will make some people suspicious...why such calm behavior are the seamen hiding something...three friends seeking berths, by way of different circumstances eventually get onboard the sinister buccaneer's ship, a free black man named Scipio Africanus, admittedly taken from a famous ancient Roman general, his pal Dick Fid a white man very unusual for the era, last and most important the leader at 22, Harry Wilder a secret agent for the British Crown. But a slight detour when the Red Rover gets him Wilder a job as captain of another vessel, the ill-fated Royal Caroline, mysteriously the old master had a freak"accident" disabling the victim ...I mean the unfortunate. Take cargo Harry and a few women passengers to the Carolinas from Newport, an easy assignment well- paid too ; however for any novelist ...nothing happens you will not receive any monetary reward and your career very short. Well I can say he meets a pretty woman Gertrude, romance on the high seas during a hurricane not the last experienced by the young captain, shocking secrets revealed, still that's for the end of the narrative, mutiny is not a stranger either these aren't the cream of the crop, just your ordinary cutthroats..The survivors are saved by the discreditable, if you read these type before not a surprise, The Red Rover and the British Navy has sent a warship to capture or kill him ...canon fire knows no differences between the innocent or the guilty. A battle of carnage between the vessels gives the winner some triumph for the living, Mr. Cooper's love for the sea and knowledge of how the tall ships sailed enhances enjoyment. Living in a large seaport of San Diego I've seen quite a few yet their aesthetic sight, will never grow old...

Review # 2 was written on 2019-05-07 00:00:00 Elford Dawkins This is not exactly what I expected. I wished for something more like Raphael Sabatini stories. A pirate story, the adventure on the sea. Instead it's more like those old-school romance on the sea. And by romance I don't meant a love story. I'm a bit disappointed. The Red Rover looks like a decent character and I have a feeling that I don't know him at all. I like Wilder and his story is pretty okay but I would like something more. I wish it was a sea adventure with lots of action and all those fascinating pirate things. I needed this book for some reading challenge and I generally enjoyed it, but my hopes were much higher.