Tales for Fifteen

Rare and revealing, Tales for Fifteen captures James Fenimore Cooper at a moment of uncertainty, when he was still searching for a literary voice and briefly tried his hand at moral fiction for young women under the pseudonym Jane Morgan. First published in 1823, these two unfinished tales, Imagination and Heart, show Cooper adapting the sentimental mode to an American setting before abandoning the project and returning to the work that would make his name. The stories move from anxious waiting and the comfort of loyal friendship to the pressures of courtship, honesty, and loss. Julia Warren's longed-for letter arrives through Charles Weston's steady kindness, turning a tense vigil into a moment of joy. Charlotte Henley, by contrast, resists Mr. Delafield's earnest advances, then faces a devastating confession from the dying George Morton, whose hidden love is finally answered too late. Through these intimate scenes, the book explores patience, fidelity, self-command, and the difference between true feeling and shallow romantic fantasy. This edition also preserves the original frame of authorship and preface, underscoring the work's historical intrigue and its place in Cooper's development. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.