C.S. Forester Books

This was my first Hornblower book after a recommendation from a friend. Could not put this book down especially after the mutiny.
The details of life in the English navy in the 18th century and then in London are richly told with details such as the "press gang" that goes out rounding up sailors for His Majesty's ships, the slim pickings of naval officers during the dreaded peacetime, the caste system of well healed officers playing whist to keep themselves in food and housing.
I found it a fascinating book and it increased my knowledge of naval history.
A spellbinding book from a military and social perspective.

Lieutenant Hornblower occurs second in the series by internal chronology, though it was the seventh-written book. Unlike every other book in the series, this one is related from the point of view of Lieutenant William Bush. This alternate point of view allows Hornblower to be presented as a legitimately heroic figure, though it does deprive the reader of the internal thought process of the series' protagonist. The text provides solid background on Hornblower's early career as a lieutenant. Written as a novel, it paces well and has an authentic texture. Indeed, the small-scale combat action is so gripping that in many ways the book eclipses volumes in the series which deal with Hornblower's later career.

Plot Summary (with spoilers):
The novel takes place from May 1800 to March 1803 aboard a cruise of HMS Renown, a 74-gun frigate. The ship's captain, Sawyer, is dangerously paranoid and believes the lieutenants and warrant officers are plotting mutiny against him. To circumvent their putative desire, Sawyer panders to the crew, encouraging them to be lazy and insolent, and issues additional rations of grog. The situation becomes untenable as Renown reaches its cruising grounds near Haiti. Even so, nobody will take the decision action of attempting to remove Sawyer from command.

Fortunately, Sawyer falls down a hatchway and receives a serious injury. There is intrigue surrounding his fall, but no actual witnesses to the accident. Upon Sawyer's physical recovery it is evident his mind is gone--he sobs hysterically and cringes away from everyone. Buckland, the senior lieutenant, takes ostensible command. The unimaginative Buckland botches the ship's primary mission, but disaster is averted when Hornblower proposes an audacious recovery.

From that point forward, it is Hornblower who guides the ship as he influences Buckland subtly but correctly. Indeed, the theme of Hornblower leading his superior officers is a dominant thread in the narrative. The ship carries out other duties with great success until Hornblower is placed aboard a prize--whereupon Renown is almost seized by prisoners. Hornblower once again comes to the rescue and recaptures the ship. The novel ends with Hornblower losing his job because of the Peace of Amiens. He takes up lodging in a public house, makes a meager living by playing whist, develops his friendship with Bush, and meets the young Marie Mason.

Forester's key book on the times...the made-for-tv series episode parallels this book very closely. And I am very picky when it comes to sea books. Definitely at the same level as the Bolitho series!

This is the sixth Hornblower book I've read, although it's only the second in terms of the chronology of Hornblower's naval career. And I must say, it's one of the better books. CS Forester could be a compelling writer, but some of the Hornblower novels feel a little disjointed. Not this one.

Lieutenant Hornblower is written from the point of view of Lieutenant Bush, whom Hornblower meets in this book. The result is that Hornblower is a more interesting character. It also, unlike some of the other books in the series, primarily covers a single plotline dealing with Hornblower's last mission as a lieutenant, so it hangs together very well. The result is a book that I had trouble putting down until I had read the whole thing. I wholeheartedly recommend this installment of the Hornblower series.

C.S. Forester created a superb naval drama that gave me an inside look at the life of a sailor serving in the Royal Navy on the wooden war ship Renown. With Hornblower, and his companion Bush dealing with their befuddled Captain and fighting off the attacks by the Spanish this book kept me reading page after page. I believe this is one of the best books in the Hornblower series and I would encourage anyone with an eye for historical novels to check this series out.

I thought this book was great. If your a fan of Forester, or just like naval stories, read it!

This is a fine novel by CS Forester, the author of the magnificent Hornblower series of novels. It tells the story of a fictional American naval sea captain during the War of 1812, one Captain Josiah Peabody--an American charged with the mission of breaking the British blocade of the fledgling United States and wreaking havoc with the British sea lanes. This, he understands, will give America leverage against Britain and perhaps help motivate it to make peace.

As Forester explains, America had failed to prepare adequately for the possibility of war, had not built up much of a Navy, and paid a thousandfold for this folly. Although Peabody is a fictional character, real life American captains like him did exist, and in fact the American Navy won glory against England in the War of 1812 in numerous ship actions that pitted a plucky but weak United States against the world's most powerful sea power.

The story is very well-told, and Forester's insightful portrayal of Captain Peabody is a fine examination of the American character as it is often perceived by Britons. As always, Forester spins a great sea yarn, with all of the technical details perfect (I'm taking other people's word for this, but I know it is true!) and you can practically smell the salt water and hear the waves.

An enjoyable yarn that ranks with the very best stories of naval adventure.

Cecil Scott Forester is, of course, best known as the creator of the Horatio Hornblower adventures in the era of fighting sail. The majority of the heroes of C.S. Forester's books, not just Hornblower, were British fighting men.

However, he also wrote several stories, of which this was the first, with Americans as the central figure. So "The Captain from Connecticut," Josiah Peabody of the U.S. Frigate Delaware, is by no means alone in being an American: however, he is the only hero of a Forester book who actually has to fight the Royal Navy.

The book is set during the war of 1812: the first challenge which faces Peabody and the Delaware is to escape the Royal Navy's blockade of Long Island in terrible weather. Then Peabody has to deal with pirates, a traitor very close to home, and a British squadron which outnumbers him three to one and is commanded by a very dangerous opponent.

Peabody also encounters, and nearly accidentally attacks, a Royalist French governor appointed by Louis XVIII after Napoleon's first downfall. The governor has a ticklish sense of French honour and neutrality, and is accompanied by his attractive sister and beautiful daughter.

Although this isn't quite up to the standard of the best of Forester's Hornblower books, it is an entertaining and exciting story of war at sea in the era of sail, which holds your attention right up to the surprise ending and the twist on the last page.

This is a good piece of writing. Too bad Forester only wrote this and the Hornblower series for he was great in this genre. A good book to read in the dreary days of winter. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I respectfully disagree with the other reviewers who say this is just as good or even better than Forester's Hornblower novels. It's pretty clear Forester was having an off year in his writing. First, the research is atypically flawed: The American captain Peabody knows Long Island Sound well because he served in the "Coastguard Service," something that did not exist at the time (there was a Revenue service, but a "Coast Guard"--two words, not one in British style--didn't exist until 1915). Second, the writing is just clunkier than in the Hornblower novels; at one point Forester uses "fathoms" as a unit of distance rather than depth. Third, Peabody is mildly interesting as a character but is a long way from being as fascinating as Hornblower was even in his first appearance. Whereas Hornblower is constantly in turmoil over his shortcomings, Peabody is a rather predictable fatalist (and the many and annoying references to Providence underscore Forester's own personal disdain for religion).

Still, I found the novel entertaining and worth a read. Just don't expect 'an American Hornblower.'

I know that this N&A edition is priced high but I payed the $25.95 here at Amazon and I was not disappointed. The General is one of the best war books I've ever read. It tells the tale of Herbert Curzon as he rises through the ranks to being a general in the British military. It's brilliant in revealing the world, social and political, of WWI Britain. One admires "old-school" Curzon and those like him and yet one is also shocked at the inadequacy of "old-school" tactics and their results. This book is gritty and polished, much like the British officers it illustrates. The war bits are very good though tragic. I had read The African Queen and disliked it. This is the second book of Forester's that I've read and I thought it was brilliant.

This is one of C.S. Forester's first novels about war, published in 1936 and hence pre-dating Hornblower.

Like almost all the novels which Forester wrote before he created the Hornblower books, this is brilliant, far less well known today than it deserves, and consequently quite rare. The author H.G. Wells described "The General" as "a magnificent piece of work."

Some of Forester's other books, particularly those describing battles against opponents of whom he strongly disapproved of such as Hitler's nazis or indeed Napoleon, can come over as patriotic to the point of jingoism or chauvinism. This story does not come into that category and it would not be far from the truth to call it one of the first great anti-war novels.

If you collect books about war, and you are fortunate enough to find a copy of "The General" for sale at a remotely reasonable price, buy it at once.

This novel describes the military career of a fictional first world war general. It begins and ends between the wars, with a sharp pen-picture of the retired general Curzon sitting in a bathchair on Bournemouth Promenade, having lost his leg during the great war and never managed to learn to walk properly with an artificial one.

Then the story goes back to Curzon's first battle as a subaltern in 1899 during the Boer war, and follows him through to the climax of the book at the battle of St Quentin on March 21st 1918 when the last desperate German offensive nearly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Forester appears to have set out to do three things; to entertain, inform, and explain. He entertains with an engaging story; he informs by describing the ghastly conditions and waste of life which was the first world war in the trenches; and he tries to explain one possible answer to the question of how British commanders could possibly have given the orders which sent hundreds of thousands of young men to their deaths.

One of the most memorable passages in the book describes the debate as generals and senior staff officers of an army corps prepared a report of why the attack they had just organised had failed and how to succeed next time. "In some ways it was like the debate of a group of savages as to how to extract a screw from a piece of wood. Accustomed only to nails, they had made one effort to pull out the screw by main force, and now that it had failed they were devising methods of applying more force still ... they could hardly be blamed for not guessing that by rotating the screw it would come out after the exertion of far less effort".

But that does not mean that Forester is simply repeating the popular caricature of First World War generals as dangerous idiots. Although he is critical of the mistakes of the generals who wasted so many lives, his criticism is far more sophisticated than the old "Lions led by donkeys" cliche.

Although Curzon, the central figure of this book, is old fashioned and conventional, he is intelligent enough to change his mind when confronted with clear evidence of the need to do so, and decisive enough to enforce that change of mind on others when many men would freeze in panic. Had he been as stupid as some reviewers make out, Curzon would not have survived the first few months of World War 1, let alone been rapidly promoted.

He is intelligent enough to realise that his men need to eat and to make sure that they are fed properly, and to make use of officers who understand newfangled things like engineering, railways, or how many men it takes to carry a gas canister. He is ruthless enough to sack staff officers who are not up to the job even when one of them is his wife's cousin.

Within minutes of arriving at the front and seeing what artillery and machine-guns can do, Curzon abandons his pre-war attitude of deliberately evading training on how to dig trenches, and instead orders his men to dig for their lives, demanding compliance from junior officers who are afraid that the men might get dirt on their uniforms. "God damn it, man!" he explodes, "Get your men digging, and don't ask damn fool questions."

In the first round of battles in the Great War, heroic efforts from Curzon in the face of greatly superior german numbers prevent the British from being flanked and probably defeated at the First Battle of Ypres. Having fought with distinction up to this point, he is promoted to much more senior positions. But then things start to go wrong.

Forester makes a great many good points about the need to use the tactics which will win the current battle rather than the last war: indeed, that even the tactics which won earlier battles of the current war should be dropped if they are out of date. But that is not the only message he is trying to put over.

The main theme of "The General" is a World War One version of the Peter Principle. The very qualities which make Curzon successful on the battlefield up to and including the command of a brigade have disastrous consequences for England when he is a Lieutenant-General commanding an army corps, and when both he and all the other senior officers of the army are still displaying the characteristics which colonels and brigadiers need to hold their regiments in the line.

Forester states quite explicitly in the book that the very strengths of the World War One generals, not just their weaknesses, were part of the problem. I quote - "It might have been ... more advantageous to England if the British Army had not been quite so full of men of high rank who were so ready for responsibility, so unflinchingly devoted to their duty, so unmoved in the face of difficulties, of such unfaltering courage."

This book is an unforgettable classic.

This was one of the best books that I've read in a couple of years. C.S. Forester is a superb author. This book depicts the tragedy and waste of human life through the actions and amibition of a British General, who, in his own mind, maintains he is doing the right thing for king and country. Highly recommended.

While most of the authors novels were set during the time of Napoleon, some were set at later times including the well known novel, "The African Queen," and this lesser known novel, "The General," both of which were set during World War I. It has often been said that generals plan tactics based on the last war. Napoleon had developed tactics based on an artillery barrage followed by an attack by infantry and cavalry. The British Army was still trying to use those tactics at the start of World War I, ignoring the change in armaments which included the introduction of machine guns.

Herbert Curzon is an officer from the old school, entering World War I in command of a lancer regiment, expecting to charge the enemy on horseback. Command of machine guns had been relegated to a lieutenant "who did not sit a horse very well," and most officers did not study the tactics of their use. They did not expect to fight on foot, and did not carry entrenching tools. The machine guns quickly became the most critical part of the battle, and men had to dig in the best they could in the muddy ground.

The British were slow to learn new tactics, and still adhered to the tactics developed by Napoleon well into the war. Curzon is given promotions, partly because he survives and impresses the War Office with his reputation for holding his positions, and partly because he marries the daughter of a Duke who has a position in the government. He rapidly rises to Lieutenant General and Corps commander. The novel ends when he is badly wounded trying to rally his men against a German offensive which is breaking the British lines.

The novel illustrates the muddle that occurred during the war. Officers had little experience trying to handle the orders necessary for the movement of half a million men, and there was an insufficient number of experienced officers. Reserves were in the wrong place, roads became clogged preventing movement, officers had a fixation on large assaults across torn up ground that their own artillery had rendered impassible. It rained, turning land into swamps where the artillery had destroyed the drainage systems. Changes to tactics were very slow. Observations were by balloons and airplanes instead of cavalry patrols. Tanks were introduced, but too few, and not readily accepted by the generals.

Hundreds of thousands of men were lost for little purpose. It is truly amazing that the government did not totally collapse, but they did not have the news media of our present day; and they had almost hysterical patriotism, with young women publicly shaming men who would not volunteer to go to the front.

The novel ends halfway through the war, when Curzon is badly wounded.

The novel was published in 1936. The forward indicates that it was used as a military manual in some countries.

Forester's main character, Gen Curzon, is from the old school, where one does not question orders, nor does one make waves. That being said, from a military leadership perspective, if one has a method, even if it doesnt work, it will continued to be used time and time again. Curzon's character is a representation of the level of British generalship in WWI. Unyielding, unimaginative, and willing to toe the line at all costs, with the blood and treasure of England.
The story has a humor woven throughout the narrative. It looks at Curzon's social climbing, his promotions (through no fault of his own, and his old school belief system. If it werent for the tradgedy of the hundred of thousands of lives which were expended based on the unimaginative battle techniques, it would be a very humorous story. Unfortunately, the death toll of WWI is a sobering reminder, thanks to Forester, of the repercussions of Generalship as displayed by Curzon.
HIghly recommended. An excellent insight into the class structure of the British Army of WWI.

I first decided to watch A&E's Horatio Hornblower because I had caught a glimpse of Ioan Gruffudd, and thought he was very handsome. But, as I watched, I got caught up in the movie, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. Then, when I learned there was a behind-the-scenes book availiable, I knew I had to have it. I tried all the local bookstores (and some not so local, too) with no luck. Then I tried Amazon, and I finally got my book. It is a great book, with loads of candid pictures and still frames from the filming of the series. I enjoyed learning how all the battle scenes were filmed, about the use of scale models, and all the hard work put into the filming of Horatio Hornblower. I would definately reccommend this book to anyone who liked the series. It is a wonderful, informative, and captivating look at the behind-the-scenes action of the best miniseries I have ever seen, Horatio Hornblower.

To all,

Mr. Gruffudd's performance in this movie was absolutely spectacular. I don't think that it is possible to give an amount of stars on this movie. All the actors were great, including stand out acting by Robert Lidnsey and Jamie Bamber. I think this is defintely a book everyone should read, and a movie for all to enjoy.

I'm Out,

Val

Whoever found Ioan Gruffudd for the role of Hornblower should be rewarded 10 times over and then some. This book is chock full of fantatic pictures and great insite into the making of this exciting series. I laugh out loud at some of the humor laced throughout this book. The pictures are worth owning this book for on their own, is a must own for any fan of Hornblowaaahhhhh!

If you are a Hornblower fan you must have this book! First, the photographs are amazing including captures from the hit A & M mini series to back stage candids, technical details and beautiful portraits of the stars. Second, the written commentary if fantastic. The writer goes into details of the complexities of filming in a foreign place, supplying food, costumes, transportation and everything else. It also talks about the Grand Turk, the ship they filmed the mini series on. It was interesting to read about how the crew from the film had to work with the crew that actually operated the ship, the movie sailing cast and the makeup and wardrobe people, all on what seems to be a pretty small ship. This book is very well done, and really should be owned by any true Horatio Hornblower fan.

I love this book. Aside from the tons of great pictures of the cast, it gives a lot of background on all the characters - including the boat that they used to for filming.

There are brief synopsis' on all the movies as well as a brief rundown of the characters we meet in each movie.

Wonderful interviews, beautiful pictures, and indepth characterization from the actor's perspective.

This is a great book for any Hornblower fan!

This is a great book and definately one of the best Hornblower books ever. All the ingredients for a great adventure story. Exotic locations, a mad dictator, romance, hardship, friendhsip and the big ship to ship dual with the Natividad is one of the best action scenes I've ever read (and I read a lot of Action/Adventure).

The whole Hornblower series is brilliant and I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys good rattling yarns.

I can't believe that there are not more reviews here for these books, since they are among the best popular novels ever written. I first read them in my dim and far away past, lead to them by my love of historical novels. I believe these three were written in the late 1930s while England was under the shadow of the Nazi march to dominance. Naturally tales of the war against Napoleon would resonate, but the books have lasted because of the quality of the plotting and the characters. Forester excelled at setting up unsolvable problems for Hornblower with clever solutions that keep suspense high and satisfy the intellectual needs of the reader. The interplay of the characters is excellent. When I was reading these books, my father told me that some of the stories appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, and that he remembered people talking about them all over town. These are great books if you like history and a good plot. I doubt they will ever go completely out of fashion. (Note: These books are much better than the video series about Hornblower. While interesting, that series has some laughable period details and has elevated Hornblower to almost superhuman status. It's the Hollywood version. Compare that to the production value and details in the movie Master and Commander and you will see what I mean.)

Captain Horatio Hornblower is a collection of three short novels originally published in 1937 and 1938 as "Beat To Quarters", "Ship of the Line" and "Flying Colours". All are set during the Napoleonic wars roughly between 1807 and 1811. The great success of these stories led Forester to write a number of Hornblower prequels and sequels, all of which are still read widely. It also spawned a long list of successors, some of which are excellent although none fully measure up to Forester in my opinion.

Beat To Quarters introduces Hornblower taking HMS Lydia into the Pacific Ocean to insight a rebellion against the Spanish. The story takes a number of twists including Hornblower finding his ally is a madman, a change in the political situation and the introduction of Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional sister of the Duke of Wellington.

Ship of the Line finds Hornblower commanding HMS Sutherland for a cruise in the Mediterranean. Hornblower not only must face the French but he must deal with a superior officer who would like to see him fail.

Flying Colours begins where Ship of the Line ends. Hornblower is a prisoner in France and must find a way to escape.

I thought that I knew these stories fairly well having seen the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower staring Gregory Peck. However the novel is quite different in several areas. Perhaps what surprised me the most was the level of violence, sex and swearing that was included in the novel. I hadn't expected the violence to be as graphic, the sex to be as obvious or the swearing to be present at all. The novel has a gritty realism that was not matched in the genre until the 70s.

Captain Horatio Hornblower was written when Forester was in his thirties and before he had thoroughly polished his craft. While it might have a few rough edges it is a tremendously powerful, action-filled novel. The shy, self-doubting, self-deprecating but outwardly implacable Hornblower is one of the great characters of adventure stories. If one were restricted to reading only one novel of "wooden ships and iron men" then that novel should be Captain Horatio Hornblower.

I first read this book back in 1975. I read the entire series (in order), and couldn't wait to get my hands on the next one. It took tremendous fortitude not to read one in hand while searching for the next in line. C. S. Forrester also wrote a book named "The Captan from Conneticutt" which is equally good reading fun. Five stars??? I think not!!! I rate the entire series of Hornblower books seven stars!!!

"Captain Horatio Hormblower" was first published as "The Happy Return" in 1937. It was then renamed "Beat to Quarters." These books, unfortunately, stop on the return to England. But "Beat to Quarters" is available on Amazon.com. There are more reviews there.

Forester warns you in the first line of this book not to expect a happy ending: it opens with the words "Leading Seaman Albert Brown lay dying on Resolution."

About the only similarities with the author's Hornblower books is that both are very well written and both include a masterly depiction of war at sea.

The book tells the story of the life of Albert Brown from conception to the single handed battle he fights against the German armoured cruiser "Zeithen" at the start of tbe First World War. The book has also been published under the title "Single Handed."

"Brown on Resolution" is a story about heroism and duty, on the part of Albert Brown himself and the mother who throws away what could have been a comfortable middle class life to raise him. It also has a deeply ironic message about the difference between success and glory: Brown strikes a great blow for his country, but in circumstances which mean that neither he nor anyone back home ever knows it. The last sentence of the book is even more moving than the first: I won't quote it in full to avoid spoiling the tale but it includes the words "No one would ever know".

This book inspired the film "Forever England" which was one of the first to star Sir John Mills. Both book and film came out between the first and second world wars. Interestingly, even all those years ago the film industry could take the idea of a tragic ending but not the idea that nobody knows what the hero has done, so they slightly modified the final scene. If you want to know how, you'll have to read the book and watch the film.

It also inspired the later film "Sailor of the King" which was made after WWII; but this time the film industry meddled much more extensively with the story and included a happy ending.

If you are into sea stories or tales of heroism, and you ever see a copy of this book in a bookshop or a library, grab it at once. I originally read an ancient copy in the school library when I was about 12, then bought a copy of the paperback which I found for sale in a cafe when it was reprinted 30 years ago, and those are almost the only copies of this book that I've ever seen.

If you want to read a more upbeat C.S. Forester story of war at sea in the 20th Century, there are three which I can particularly recommend. These are "The Good Shepherd" which is about a convoy escort mission during the battle of the Atlantic; "The man in the yellow raft" about action in a US destroyer during the Pacific war; and best of all "The Ship" which is an absolutely brilliant account of a light cruiser in action while defending a Malta convoy against greatly superior forces.

I read it when I was about 16. Its images stuck with me for over a quarter century. It is a tale about doing duty, doing duty whatever the personal costs. It deals with a upbringing in Victorian England by a single mother of her son. She is determined she will make a career for himself in the Royal Navy. The son is the product of an affair with the German Naval Liaison Officer stationed in London before WWI.

She resolves to learn everything about the navy she can and raise her son to serve. And serve he does, until it takes him to a deserted Galapogas Island in WWI where he does deadly battle as a single man with a German Cruiser repairing in the waters after a naval action.

No happy endings, just haunting images that stay with you. For me this is one of CS Forester's best novels. Read it if you can find a rare old edition in the second-hand bookstore.

Forester's novel set in the first world war War is about the absolute resolve of a mother and her son. The mother that her son will become a naval hero, the son that he will do his duty. Duty over all. No matter what the concequences. Single handedly he contrives the destruction of a German cruiser. The novel is intense, the descriptions exacting. But no happy ending. Made into the 1953 movie "Sailor of the King" with a happier ending and a less detailed plot.

CS Forester wrote much besides his celebrated Hornblower series, and much of that hasn't held up well. But this is a surprising find, a novel of pointed coincidences set during World War I and written before World War II, that explores the meaning of duty. Neither overwritten or stilted like some of his lesser works, this tale shows terrific story-telling talent on the part of a very young Forester. At this point I have read every maritime-related work of fiction CSF published, and in quality this ranks among the top--even better, I think, than most of the Hornblower novels. Highly recommended--should be read by all high school boys.

While I saw the film version of this book during the 1950s, I only realized that the movie was derived from one of C. S. Forester's early works when I discovered a tattered paperback using the American edition title of "Singlehanded" on a remainder table. For $.25 I was able to read a masterpiece now almost forgotten, and all the more amazing because of how young Forester was when he wrote it -- 27.

The story of a brief affair yielding an illegitimate son seemed an odd tale for Forester at any age, but as with most of his other books the writing itself was so good that I held on for the first half of the book. It turned out that there was a relation between the naval officer father mostly in the nearly forgotten background and the destiny of the son, who joins the Royal Navy and serves as a common sailor. As World War I starts, his ship is destroyed in the Pacific Ocean by a German cruiser and he is one of three survivors picked up by the victors. The cruiser retires into a Galapagos haven for repairs, the young sailor escapes with a rifle, and manages to hold up repairs long enough for the Naval officer father's task force to catch the German, with the father and son never knowing of each other's existence.

This is one of the few true irony novels ever written, formed in the literary round, and possessed of truly superb craftsmanship at every level. Any serious reader should have a copy on their shelves.

The first two of these novels are in chronologic order, but the third one in this volume is of a much later time, in Hornblowers life. While Forester wrote them in the the order published in this volume, there were two other novels, which he later wrote, which fills in the large time in Hornblower's career that is skipped between the second and third novel

I just finished reading _Mr. Midshipman Hornblower_. I also watched the A & E 4 part series based on the book. *LOVED IT! * But, then I also love Cornwell's _Sharpe_ series, and he says he wrote that because there were no more _Hornblower_ books. I also love Trek & see alot of similarity in the way Hornblower perceives duty to how Picard does, and how Kirk charges ahead where angels fear to tread as Hornblower does. I have also read Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/ Maturin and Weber's Honor Harrington-- both Hornblower and Sharpe are better soldiers and characters. There is little humanity to those officers, little questioning of duty or rightness of action. I look forward to reading _Lt. Hornblower_ and the next "New Frontier" Trek novels, by Peter David, another Hornblower-like captain. If you are interested in the _Hornblower_ series start with this book.

Horatio is self-analytical whilst being completely honourable; an 'old-fashioned' hero. CSF succeeds in developing the character as he weaves in the turmoil of HH's profession and -- somewhat ragged -- personal fortunes. A wonderful read!

Just as the Hornblower novels were not written in chronological order, this combination is #1, 2 and, I think, 5 (Not counting the short story "Hornblower's Temptation" in book "H..during the Crisis"). Same with "Indomitable Hornblower" 3 novels in one cover, but not in sequence. Not knocking the Novels, but the concept seems odd

This is one of the excellent audio tapes by Ioan Gruffudd. As the actor who played the part of Hornblower, he is the perfect person to do the reading. On top of that, he reads extremely well with a delightful cut-glass British accent. In this title as a bonus, you can listen to him speak with superb French and Spanish accents. How he rolls his r's! I only wish it were anabridged!

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the adventures of Hornblower and the way he was able to capture the Natividad, a much larger ship. Ioan Gruffudd knows how to use his acting abilities to portray the emotions of the characters such as Hornblower, Bush, and Lady Barbara. I honestly could not tell that it was his voice doing the characters which makes for a very entertaining listen.

What makes this book especially interesting is that it is told from the viewpoint of a brutal cannibal. Early in this novel, Loa, the god-king of an obscure Congolese tribe, gets irritated with his first wife because she is nagging at him. Since meat is scarce, he ponders whether he should have her killed so he could eat her. When I read this, my first thought was that Forester was writing an adolescent adventure novel, and that he knew nothing about actual Africans. This first impression proved to be quite wrong. Though Loa's society is degenerate, there actually were, and perhaps are, such societies, and Forester portrays Loa's with sympathetic, though grim, realism. And as the reader discovers, Loa's cruelty is naïve and unsophisticated; he learns and applies real evil from his white captors. For someone who loved Burroughs's Tarzan novels as a kid, it was a real treat to find this realistic account of Africa at the point when Africans first encountered white "civilization." This is a great book not only from the both the historical and anthropological, perspective, but also from the perspective of adolescent jungle adventure.

I love C.S. Forester's writing. I've read the Hornblower series so many times I've worn out a set or two, loaning them to friends and acquaintances. But I don't pretend the Hornblower series is anything more than a fun, interesting journey through the life of an imaginary man.

The Sky and the Forest is another matter. Forester sets the novel deep in Africa at that crucial moment in history when the stone age metamorphosed overnight. This is no smileybook fantasy about the noble savage raped by intrusions of civilization. Forester's character is a human being living as humans lived in primitive environments and chronicals crucial, devastating events that change those lives when one culture succumbs to another. Forester might have chosen pre-Columbian America, pre-Coronadoan New Mexico, pre-Pizzaroan Peru, pre-Roman England or Gaul, or any of a thousand other places and times.

This is a timeless novel about the human condition and shared human flaws by an author capable of doing them justice. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

I bought this book 'blind' from Amazon. I had no knowledge of its contents and only my respect for C.S.Forester's writing to guide me. I had hoped it would be an explanation of naval warfare at the time of the Napoleonic wars. In fact it turned out to be a remarkable account of the Anglo-American conflict of 1812. My initial disapointment was largely offset by the quality of the book.

Forester's style is a rather odd mixture of American usages and occasionaly archaic English, (It reminded me vaguely of Churchill's).I also found his punctuation to be a little odd, though fashions do change in this matter, in spite of Fowler. His writing here is far less 'commercial' than the famed Hornblower series as is befitting a historical study rather than adventure fiction.

Those however are the only moot points of this critique. What is really remarkable is the degree and quality of the research that has gone into this book. Forester borders on the astounding.It is (sadly) rare to find a writer so thoroughly in command of all the aspects of his subject. Every relevant element of this conflict, from the quality of the armaments, the weather, through to the political situation, the journalism of the day and the opinions and abilities of the statesmen and military commanders, is honestly and I believe realisticly evaluated. Whilst he occasionally borders on the pedantic; the work is balanced by the excellent accounts of the sea battles. Readers familiar with 'Hornblower' may find these accounts lack high drama - no-one puts out quarter inch shell fuses with their fingertips -but the precision and exactitude of the details are worthy compensations. This is not fiction, it is a well researched, well written documentary; by an author who is informed, conciencious and intelligent. An excellent book.