James Fenimore Cooper was a prolifi c and popular American writer of the fi rst half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Wing-and-Wing; Or, Le Feu-Follet is a 1842 sea novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The novel includes a thematic interest in religiousity and faith. The novel also introduces metacriticism into Cooper’s sea fi ction, as does The Sea Lions, unlike earlier novels which typically also focused on nautical and nationalist themes.