Literary heritage of an American author and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, astonishes with variety of genre. He was the creator of the most diverse works – from aphorisms and witty remarks a couple of sentences long to a thousand-page autobiography; from a brief newspaper report to great books of travel notes; from a hilarious story to a serious philosophic discussion; from anecdotes to novels, considered to be national epos – factual accounts, social and political essays, fiction and fantasy. He wrote poems, plays, but first of all was the master of prose. This book is a famous essay about the laws of a romantic novel. Fenimore Cooper is considered to be a classic of American literature; however, Twain’s analysis finds some flaws in his works. The author points out incongruity of plot, shortcomings of style, unrealistic abilities and behaviour of Cooper’s heroes.