Precaution

Precaution is the fi rst novel written by American author James Fenimore Cooper. It was written in imitation of contemporary English domestic novels like those of Jane Austen and Amelia Opie. In the customary practice of the day Cooper was reading aloud to his wife one evening from a current English novel, but found the story dull. Throwing it aside, he declared, “I could write a better book than that myself.”