C.S. Forester Books

It is difficult to put this series of novels down. I anxiously go from one novel in the series to the next and each one seems to be better than the last.
In this novel Captain Hornblower spends a great deal of time ashore so in addition to some life at sea and some great sea battles there is also a shore adventure that is also exciting.

This installment in the Hornblower series begins with Hornblower captured by the French. Subsequently he escapes and most of the remainder is about his chandestine travels through Napoleonic France. For an action novel of this kind (1800s sailing), characters are adequately developed and the action and suspense are adequate. Perhaps the most satisfying content is the historical portrait of life France at the time.

Flying Colors is the most introspective of the Hornblower novels. For those who want to understand who Hornblower really is, this book is probably the most revealing in the Hornblower series. Unlike the other stories which contain lots of naval action at sea, this book occurs mostly on the land of Spain and France, and the rivers of France. As a result, those who like the Hornblower novels for their battles and action will find this book to be one of the least satisfying in the series.

We all know ourselves best when we face problems. After the many successes in his career, Captain Hornblower ended up in Ship of the Line fighting an impossible battle between his ship, the Sutherland, and four French vessels. Taking horrible casualties, Hornblower struck his colors and surrendered at the end of that book. Flying Colors opens with Hornblower in a Spanish prison, with the expectation that he will be tried and executed for having flown French colors as camouflage to aid an attack. His wife, Maria, is pregnant in England. Hornblower also yearns for Lady Barbara Leighton, the wife of his admiral, whom readers met in Beat to Quarters and saw again in the beginning of Ship of the Line. Hornblower is in despair as he visits the dying and imprisoned sailors who are in the same garrison.

Many troubling questions go through Hornblower's mind. How well will he face death before a firing squad? Will his weak body betray him?

His first lieutenant, William Bush, is also to be tried. At the end of Ship of the Line, Bush lost the lower part of one leg. Will Bush survive the injury and trial?

What will happen to his wife and unborn child after he is dead?

Can he resist sweet temptation, when it is offered?

Can he escape death by firing squad?

Even if he escapes, how can he hope to be exonerated in a court martial for losing the Sutherland? Captains aren't supposed to surrender their vessels, no matter how badly damaged.

If he escapes the court martial, how will he handle being in love with Lady Barbara while being an unhappily married man with a new baby?

Will he ever have a chance to command a vessel again?

Anyone who has ever known self-doubt will find Hornblower's trauma realistic and refreshing. He becomes more like an ordinary person with normal feelings in this book. As a result, I found Hornblower to be much more appealing here than when his brilliant intellect guided him to smooth success in the earlier books.

Eventually, Hornblower finds himself wanting in many of these regards . . . but moves on. Ultimately, he faces new satisfactions and disappointments that indicate to him that his idealistic, perfectionist view of the world is a flawed one. Everyone else is merely human as well. Hornblower is deeply disappointed.

Forester raises an interesting point in the novel. There are real heroes in the book. These people are true to themselves and have total integrity. Public adulation will never be theirs, however. On the other hand, the world needs heroes . . . and new ones will be created, whether or not they deserve the honor. The possibility of remaining a real hero is improved by not having to deal with the issues that can tempt one away from heroism and integrity. So Bush is shown to be a real hero, while Hornblower is simply a self-doubting actor who is extraordinarily capable of creating great results.

The book does a magnificent job of using the title theme throughout. Having struck his colors on the Sutherland, Hornblower now flies his colors again in this book in every sense of that phrase. Watch for the subtleties of how this is done as you read the book.

If you know French, you will enjoy the challenge of imagining how Hornblower manufactures phrases from his limited command of the language to accomplish what needs to be done. As I read the book, I mentally made the necessary translations.

The book is also interesting for displaying the consequences for the French of being under Napoleon's rule. Hornblower excoriates the Corsican tyrant in the earlier novels, but here we see that others are being squashed underneath authority's boot as well. Many of the social observations about the French people in 1811 are very nicely done in this book.

What is more important: Being fearless or overcoming your weaknesses? What can you do today to overcome your weaknesses and help others to do the same?

May you enjoy the peace that comes with living a life of integrity!

I really wanted to like this book, but I think there's a reason Forester never did anything with it (he wrote it in 1930 or 1931 and it was published only after his death in 1966). There's just not that much here that will appeal to any but the most diehard Forester fan. The first six chapters--his life from age two to about twelve--are fairly tedious, though one can learn the peculiarities of English schools of the early 20th century. At about chapter 14, it gets interesting, as Forester recounts his early work as a new writer who knows precious little about writing and has to learn the hard way, even while starving.

The most interesting part, by far, is what has been tacked onto the end of the original autobiographical study, the 'Personal Notes' about the writing of the Hornblower series that Forester did publish in his lifetime as part of 'The Hornblower Companion.' This is truly fascinating stuff, and here you see the mature writer doing so much more with many of the same ideas he had expressed three decades earlier (and then hid in a drawer). So--if you already have 'The Hornblower Companion,' you probably don't need 'Long Before Forty.'

Postscript: I have since read the biography of CS Forester by his son John Forester, and I'm persuaded that most of what CSF wrote in both 'Long Before Forty' and 'The Hornblower Companion' is spurious. What remains of interest is how a successful hack writer like Forester would attempt to control his image by manufacturing his past.

'Long Before Forty' is C. S. Forester's superbly written and wonderfully compelling autobiography. The first hundred pages deal with his growing up in England, his schoolboy adventures, and the beginnings of the thought process that would lead to his magnificent literary career. Next, Forester details his heartbreak and triumph as a budding writer. The third act of this wonderful work deals with the step-by-step, nuts-and-bolts way in which Forester constructed many of his most famous works, including the fantastic Hornblower series. This is a book for anyone who loves the author's thrilling novels and short stories, as well as for anyone who wishes to learn more about what it takes to write and not give up!

In his autobiography, Long Before Forty, C.S. Forester chronicles his life and details how he wrote his Hornblower series. This is a captivating book for anyone who has read the Horatio Hornblower books as well as anyone who is interested in the mysterious workings of the human mind. A unique and timeless book.

This is the next Hornblower chronologically, it was not the next one written. Now that the series is completed it makes sense to read it as Hornblower's career progresses in the Royal Navy.

The whole series is a pleasure to read full of action and adventure; with enough time for a little romance.

Get acquainted with one of the most popular characters in modern literature.

After reading this you will be back for more. And that is a wonderful thing.

Napoleon is securely in exile, and Admiral Hornblower is in charge of the Royal Navy in the Caribbean. It is the end of the pirate age and in the midst of the rebellions of the Spanish colonies. It's a series of short stories without a larger theme, but they're well-written and worth reading.

This final book of Hornblower's advertures is structured into 5 relatively self-contained episodes concerning his final posting before retirement at half-pay. The final story contains a really good joke, too. A young marine bandmember faces court martial for refusal to play exactly as the music is written. Hornblower and Lady Barbara take an active interest in his case. The joke here is that the musician who bucks the system in order to maintain his sense of dignity plays the cornet. He literally is a HORN BLOWER!

This, the last in C. S. Forester's Hornblower series, is very unlike the novels which proceeded it. This book is segmented into five stand-alone short stories, the first four of which could be read in any order. The fifth story needs to be last as it relates Admiral Hornblower's retirement from active duty and return to Britain with his wife, Barbara, whom we first met in "Ship of the Line." The Napoleonic wars are over, Bonaparte is in prison for the second time, in St. Helena, and our aging (46) hero is in the twilight of his career. He is effectively waging a police action defending British interests in the Caribbean and fighting stateless piracy (the terrorism of that age). In the first story Hornblower discovers through stealth that a French ship in New Orleans has taken on six hundred muskets and bales of French uniforms. When he learns the the captain plans on racing to St. Helena, freeing Bonaparte, and restoring the French Empire, we are off to the last naval engagement of the Napoleonic wars. In the second story Hornblower engages a large topsail schooner, the Estrella del Sur, in a desperate race to prevent her cargo of slaves from reaching it's destination, Havana. Flying Spanish colors, she takes refuge in San Juan. Hornblower's plans to capture this much faster ship pits his daring and ingenuity against his opponent's two knots superiority in speed. The third story takes place entirely on land, on the island of Jamaica. Hornblower and his secretary, Mr. Spendlove, are captured and held for ransom by pirates. The pirates' impregnable lair is on a ledge on the face of a high cliff. The conclusion involves a weapon we see here for the first time, a ship mortar, which fires bombs with a timed fuse. The fourth story has a more historical setting, Bolivar's defeat of royalist forces in Venezuela's fight for independence from Spain. Readers familiar with Lord Cochrane's campaigns in Chile and Peru will see his persona recreated in Mr. Charles Ramsbottom. He is the wealthy son of a Bradford wool merchant, and arrives in Kingston harbor in his private yacht, a decommissioned brig. Eventually we discover that he is what was then called a "Liberal," come to the assistance of the revolutionary, Bolivar.

C. S. Forester hasn't lost his knack for a tale: "There was something just over the horizon of his mind, some stirring of an idea. And within a second the idea was up over the horizon, vague at present, like a hazy landfall, but as certain and as reassuring as any landfall. He could not help glancing over at the Estrella, sizing up the tactical situation, seeking further inspiration there, testing what he already had in mind."

I found this book to be excrable. It was inconsistent, badly designed, and really a let down, after the other 10 books which were (mostly) surperb.

Spoilers ahead: One of Hornblowers firmly established character traits was his beating himself up over those he perceived as having "failed," his dead wife Maria, his dead lover Marie, his dead best friend Bush. And his sad remembrances of his two dead children. He thought of all those "ghosts" often.

In this book, he's facing death in a hurricane. Through the days of this storm, he gives not a single thought to any of these people, or even to his one living son, who will in all likelihood, be left an orphan.

All he can think about is how jealous he is that his wife was once married. HELLO? HE (Hornblower) WAS ALSO MARRIED, and had children, no less. But, his biggest thought is how happy he is when she callously says she never loved her (dead) husband.

This overjoys HH who now feels "healed." Very disturbing. Very lame.

While I never enjoyed HH's exploits and infidelities, I did relate to his love of those people he'd lost. This last book he was so self-absorbed, even the cool pirate battle couldn't redeem it for me.

Honestly, I'm sorry I read it and in the future, will stop with Book 10. Trust me on this.

The African Queen - C.S. Forrester. Weak. Good, but weak. The movie may have won an academy award but the book comes up short. More of a novella, or screenplay than a book. The author could have doubled the text and it may well have been a good book. I appreciate the drama of the two people pulled from separate worlds that are changed dramatically by unfolding events and raise themselves to previously unimagined feats of character and bravery. Still, it was a wasted effort, two little to hang it all on and a pointless ending.

I will not reveal the ending; I will say only that it does not end with the German captain of the Louisa marrying the protagonists just as the ship impales itself on the overturned African Queen's torpedoes. C. S. Forester's ending requires less suspension of disbelief, less "deus ex machina." Throughout the voyage of refugees Rose Sayer and Mr. Allnutt down the Ulanga and Bora Rivers in German Central Africa at the outbreak of war, the reader is treated to C. S. Forester's literal, high resolution realism. Forester would not have felt the need to depart from that realism to enhance the final drama. Forester reveals the characters of protagonists Rosie and Allnutt as successive adversities beset them on their voyage. Their steam launch, The African Queen, is their vessel in both senses of the word: if course it is their boat, but it also represents a container in which the protagonists' spirits are blended in a purposeful collaboration. it is a touching human drama, and the realism is such that the reader's ears ring unceasingly with the high-pitched whine of mosquitoes.

If I love a movie, I will often read the book with the expectation that it will be better.
In this case I think the movie is better than the book. Not that it is a bad book, I found it enjoyable enough. I just think that Bogey's and Hepburn's interpretation of the characters is what really brought this story to life.

Throughout most of the book, I found myself thinking, "This is one case where I like the movie better." Although the plot for the first 3/4 of the book is the same as the movie's, the characterization is a bit different. For example, the movie portrays Rose as a determind, principled, yet prim woman who slowly learns to love; in the book, she comes across as a bit immature, supposedly the result of being repressed by men her entire life, and is so thrilled with the freedom earned by her brother's recent death that she decides to kamikaze a German boat. Personally, I found the movie's Rose more realistic and likeable; the book's Rose felt too much like a poster child of feminist propoganda.

In general, most of the novel is a bit heavy-handed is describing the character's motives, characters, and thought processes, and leaves very little to the imagination. Subtlety, apparently, is not Forester's strong point.

The only thing keeping me from giving this book a lower rating is the ending. Forester truly redeems himself in my eyes with the ending, which is far darker and more realistic than the movie's. The ending calls into question everythng that you assumed that Forester was trying to tell you -- all the notions of heroism, patriotism, and true love. The last line is probably one of my favorite of all last lines,


(Spoiler space)



forcing you to ask yourself: Are Charlie and Rose truly soulmates, or has an extreme situation simply brought them together and instigated passion? While in the movie it is clear that Charlie and Rose truly love another, the book suggests that their "love" may simply be due to the arousal that arises during a near-death situation. For me, this very human, bittersweet ending enabled me to forgive Forester for his earlier heavy-handed treatment of the characters.

I was shocked to learn how bad this book really is. The title is so beloved by many as the Bogart/Hepburn classic, and one would expect the book to not only match the Hollywood translation but to dwarf it with typical literary superiority. Not so. The basic plot itself is brilliant enough in its simplicity: two unlikely characters (the archetypical Cockney grease monkey and the chaste maiden) have an adventurous float down an untamed river on a cocked-up mission to sink a German gunship. Ok so far. What Forester does with this promising seed is ridiculous and leaves the reader wondering whether this was all just a vehicle for Forester to deliver a little saucy "maiden-missionary-loses-her-virginity" stuff mixed in with his clearly evident views that missionaries are idiots. Forester's story is outrageous on all levels. From the timely and chance first meeting between Rose and Allnut, to the mere minutes that it took for Rose to hatch her ignorant plot to sink a German warship, to Allnut's agreement to participate, to the absurd success of the journey, to the ridiculous "Cockney ingenuity" with which Allnut fashions a propeller out of a coconut or some such stunt, Forester lays a number of eggs. The creme de la creme is Rose's glorious fall from grace. This whole angle of the book borders on soft porn, at least by 1930's standards. Are we to believe that this apparently devout missionary woman has maintained her purity for all these years just to give it all to this unbathed louse? Forester clearly delighted in this stuff: at one point, he actually describes Rose's 'chests' as literally levitating with her newfound vigor and energy - having replaced her former existence of Christian bondage with a new life of unbridled jungle boogie. Come on. Last criticism, with a SPOILER ALERT: the movie's ending is much better than the novel's. Whereas the movie made the boat (the very namesake of the book) into one of the main characters that ultimately sunk the German gunboat, Forester sinks the Afican Queen early and unceremoniously, and then takes the reader through an irrelevant account of Belgian naval manuevers and German military justice. Anyway, I've written enough: stick to the movie.

An insightful view of the war viewed from both sides and various aspects (not just naval engagements). A welcome addition to any history student's library. Well worth the small price.

It does not surprise that so many historical observations have been submitted for the Age of Fighting Sail, C.S. Forester's excellent narrative surrounding the War of 1812.

Yet, even so, one grasps immediately from 'Old Ironsides,' USS Constitution, gracing the cover through the entire telling of the tale, the secret love of the author for the sea and the tall sailing ships.

Details mass themselves in tightly written chapters like unrelenting waves against the hull of an ocean-going vessel.

Almost incidentally one submits with the writer to the neccessities of outlining and reporting the developments, execution and conclusions of this second major confrontation between the Master of the Seas and her estranged child, come back to haunt her once more.

Impressment was the flashpoint of this conflict, though other issues led up to the explosion that began as an aside from the main occupation of England, France's delinquent, Monsieur Bonaparte.

Though President Madison finally relents on his initial adamant stand against England's practice of high seas slavery, wearily succombing to pressures as the war wages on, his original objection resonates with the Americans and gives them the purpose to lash out once again at anyone opposed to freedom, perhaps especially of the seas.

The author neatly knits the disparate tableaux of land and sea warfare into a tapestry that nearly brings the reader to long for an earlier more seemingly gallant era, unentangled by modern technology. But Mr. Forester, then wisely, once capturing his audience, shoves them face first into the realities of battle, and cold, and snow and ice that repel the brittle romantic conjectures that so easily shatter gainst the incessant waves of reality.

Storyteller first and foremost, Mr. Forester ladles out ample historical mounds of jots and tittles to keep the reader entranced. All the while, dispassionately dissecting the fears and ambitions of all, painting his own canvas in his own time.

Those interested in the drydocks of historical record will be satiated. But they shall receive their enlightenment with the unnerving sense that the decks below their feet are none the less moving. And one who could not accept the simple black and white of documentation, had instead sailed out of harbor for the broad, blue and widening sea.

TL Farley,
author,
When Now Becomes Too Late,
Distant Reaches

When Now Becomes Too Late
{ Prophecy : The Rapture in Brief, Inside The Twinkle ! }

Distant Reaches
{ True Life Adventure in Ireland, Boston and on the North Atlantic }

This was a very intriguing book about the U.S./British naval battles in the war of 1812. The author, C.S. Forester, takes you into very good detail on the tactics and movements each side uses for almost every specific battle between the two countries on the water. It was exciting to see the United States Navy begin to defeat the Royal Navy when they reigned over the waters for decades and decdes before, especially when the US government and citizens wouldn't buy into at first, thinking their ships were much bigger and that it was only a fluke. I found this book incredible for the quality of detail and unbaised account of the war on the waters. It really brings you into the battle and gets you excited instead of making it seem like you're reading history from a textbook. I also liked how he jumped from battle to battle, but made it easy to put in order. I would read C.S. Forester's books any day.

This history's main virtues are that it is well written, truly a delightful narrative, and that it provides Forester's brutally objective perspective as an Englishman criticizing Britain for its superiority complex regarding naval warfare and the absolute shock that registered with the British when American ships starting beating the Royal Navy in single-ship engagements. Forester skilfully weaves in the implications for British manning of her ships, gunnery training, and the harsh naval justice system and shows how later reforms owed their origins to the upstart Americans.

The work's principal flaw has been noted by others and deals with things outside the narrative: the lack of diagrams of naval engagements and detailed maps. The current publisher, Chapman Billies, should have sprung for a decent graphic artist, which would have made visualizing the battles significantly easier. As it is, Forester's text assumes too much retained knowledge on the part of the reader. Overall, this is worth your time for those interested in this period and in 'fighting sail.'

Forester's sober, but generally fast-moving, account of the Anglo-American naval war of 1812 has had a mixed reception from historians over the nearly fifty years since its first publication. Looking at bibliographies and suggested readings in several volumes, I noted that one ignores it, while another grants that, "as to be expected from the creator of Hornblower," it is enjoyable reading.

(Actually, it is rather far from the Hornblower narratives, which are in surprisingly large part about the inner life of the shy, sensitive, Gibbon-reading hero, who happens to be, to his own constant surprise, a resourceful and highly-effective naval warrior. Forester does describe Hornblower's naval engagements at a level of detail not found in the history, which is not much longer than one of the novels.)

It has also been described as "potted Mahan," which under-emphasizes every subsequent historian's debt to the Admiral to suggest that Forester was especially susceptible. Another writer -- with whom I am in agreement -- points out that "The Age of Fighting Sail" is one of the few accounts of the naval war to emphasize that it was closely related to the war on land, and not some set of uniquely nautical events. (Which is what Mahan argued about naval wars in general; why complain that Forester had learned it better than others?).

At least a few have noted that Forester made some points, not by laborious argument with elaborate documentation, but, even more effectively, by quoting relevant passages from the Duke of Wellington's correspondence -- a contemporary authority of some considerable weight, but not often mentioned in this context. Whether or not his advice to get out of the war had a decisive influence in London, it is a telling example of the impression the conflict made on a hard-headed strategist. Especially when American privateers had complicated life for British diplomats, with embarrassing illustrations that Britain did not exactly rule the waves unchallenged, even after Napoleon was gone.

Forester gives a good idea of the shock value of a series of American victories in single-ship encounters, which the Royal Navy had long counted on winning as a matter of course. The accounts of some of the individual engagements are actually quite clear -- if you have read other, properly illustrated versions. Which brings us to a problem which is probably not Forester's fault.

A series of publishers have not, I fear, ever given the book the proper treatment. In 1956 it needed, and it still needs, a good bibliography, a very detailed index, usable maps, and diagrams of the naval engagements. In effect, it has fallen somewhere between, on one side, the academic history or text-book, either of which would have its load of "apparatus," and, on the other, the purely popular book, with lots of illustrations (good or bad). And it has received neither.

So I have to agree to some extent with those who refer to Theodore Roosevelt's 1882 account of "The Naval War of 1812," which has the kind of documentation and diagrams Forester's account doesn't. Of course, it also has Roosevelt's personal war with nineteenth-century historiography, both British (competent, but heavy with bias) and American (often not even competent). For those seriously interested, it had a very nice paperback edition from Da Capo Press, in 1999. Just keep in mind that it now over a century out of date. (By the way, Forester seems to me to have read Roosevelt with care; so much for just re-writing Mahan.)

Another Da Capo reprint, from 1995, John R. Elting's "Amateurs, To Arms! A Military History of the War of 1812" (originally 1991) attempts to integrate naval and land strategy, primarily from the Army's viewpoint. It has a much more up-to-date bibliography than Roosevelt, obviously. Elting too has to spend time clearing away patriotic myths; this time Canadian as well.

One thing that Forester does not deal with is the causes of the war. A long tradition of American historiography has looked to domestic reasons, including land-hungry westerners with designs on Canada. Bradford Perkins' "Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805-1812," detailing the animosities and frictions, gives the impression that the real question is not why a war took place, but why it happened then, after being avoided for so long.

Oh yes. I can hardly imagine trying to digest Forester's prose in an audio format, although I'm sure that, properly read, it sounds great.

Mr. Parker is a good writer in his own right and spent a lot of time building the Bio. It's a good read, but... (and there's always a "but") some of his conclusions as to parts of the Hornblower saga, that were left untold by Forester,just seem "plain wrong" and out of character for Horatio, as well as other characters.

The most glaring mistake is his explaining the death of Captain Sawyer... I won't give it away here, but must say I was disappointed in Mr Parker's explanation. That's why I gave it "3 stars".

This "biography" is an okay retelling but strays a bit too much from Forester's books.

This book really fleshes out Forester's stories and makes some of them them easier to follow. Maybe it's because I'm a hopeless landlubber, but I couldn't follow the narrative of some of the action, particularly the coastal engagements. One of the strengths of this book is that it includes some invaluable diagrams that explain where everything was.

For instance, the attack on the fort in Lieutenant Hornblower. The diagram shows where Bush, Hornblower and the marines made their attacks. Another diagram depicts the coastline, the batteries and enemy ships. Best of all, there's a schematic of the Renown showing were Sawyer did his header, and the paths each of the lieutenants took when they made their escape. I think the best use of this book is to refer to it while reading the novels for the clarity it provides.

Personally, I was very satisfied with the explanation of Sawyer's fate. It made perfect sense, and there was a feeling of closure that Wellard got to finish him off. Well done!

Does that detract from Hornblower's moral stature? Not at all. We shouldn't judge people by modern-day standards. Caesar and Alexander committed what we would now judge to be atrocities. Hornblower's career and life were at stake, he did what was best for the service, and everyone in the court of inquiry knew it. If you liked the Hornblower books, this book is well worth reading.

This fictional biography is so detailed and believable, it drives the reader to start googling to find out if the characters and events are actually true. After reading the entire Hornblower series, the craving for more was finally satisfied with this encompassing encyclopedia of the Hornblower saga. All the missing events, characters and pieces are put together and laid to rest.

If you are fan of the Hornblower series, as you must be to consider buying this book you may find it slow and filled with a lot of dry information that really isn't in the style of Forester's writing. I did not expect this to be another Hornblower book, but for me, it just went on and on with details that had little to do with the important storylines in the series. It purports to solve a major mystery in one book, but does so in the easiest and most uncreative way.

This early novel by the creator of Horatio Hornblower is a little gem of suspense. Nicely done, in a spare style, this moves along a nice clip. Hitchcock might have done a good film of this - attention filmmakers - it's not too late. Of course it would work best as a period piece, set like the novel between the wars. No spoilers here - just a nod to a terrific writer near the beginning of his illustrious career. Ignore the naysayers - you'll like it.

This was the first succestfull novel by C.S. Foresterand I believe the only mystery that he wrote which is unfortunate! It is well structured with many plot twists and a classic ending!

As to the style of this work, one is reminded of H.G. Wells. William Marble is surrounded by debt. His circumstances cause him to be short with his son and his daughter. Out of the blue, his nephew, Jim Medland, recently orphaned, arrives from Australia. He is a graduate of Melbourne University and is in funds.

On the day following the visit Mr. Marble wants Annie Marble, his wife, to fire the washerwoman because he does not want a strange person hanging laundry in his garden. He instructs his wife to pay the grocer. Mr. Marble becomes fascinated with a library book called CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.

William Marble seeks to involve a bookmaker, a customer of the bank employing him, in a currency scheme since the franc is rising in value. He wants to buy his house with the proceeds. When Mr. Marble tells his family he has made a lot of money, (speculating in francs), his wife does not believe him. Marble resigns from the bank because the bookmaker is pretty free with reports as to how he gained his riches. Marble purchases the freehold at his address, 53 Malcolm Road.

When new furniture is delivered the neighbors are baffled. A French dress maker hastens to compliment the Marbles on their new dazzling Empire-style furniture. When Marble's son discovers that his father is having an affair with the dressmaker, he goes off on his motorcyle and becomes involved in a fatal crash. Later Marble is compelled to pay for the dressmaker's trip to France. The ending of the book is a surprise.

C. S. Forester was one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th Century. His Horatio Hornblower novels are the best works in their genre. All of the Forester novels are easy to read and well crafted. Unfortunately, the time Forester spent writing Payment Deferred would have been better spent on another Hornblower novel. This is a mediocre work by a great author. It is only of interest to those of us who want to read everything written by C. S. Forester.

Payment deferred is a superbly written crime novel. The main charachter is well developed and the dark plot leads to the excellent final twist. Truely a milestone in crime fiction this book was unfortunatly overshadowed by Agatha Christie's 'Murder of Roger Ackroyd ' published the same year. In my opinion this book is second only to ' The general ' as forester's best work and shows that Hornblower is only a small part of the man's literary achievments.

I'm a huge C.S. Forester fan, so you will know where I'm coming from as I write this. If I could give it 4.5 stars, I would, but I shall round up. The only negative aspect of this short novel is the very thing that makes it quite unique; instead of having a compelling charector such as Hornblower, Captain Peabody or Rifleman Dodd, the central charactor is... you guessed it... a gun. I certainly did not find this story as compelling as some of his other works (since it is somewhat difficult for a gun to be compelling), but I did appreciate it as a different approach to the story of war. The story begins and ends with "the gun" and follows the many charactors whose lives revolve around it. If you like either C.S. Forester or War Stories in general, I highly recommend this tale.

One interesting note; I just read this in the first edition published in America (right in the middle of WWII); it was great to have it compared to the Hornblower "Trilogy." Even though I've always become sad when ending the Hornblower series, I am so grateful that Forester returned to write many more than the original "Trilogy." C.S. Forester is dead... Long live C.S. Forester!

I read this one many years ago, and like his other works, Forrester fall flat. The characters come across more like cartoons than people, There are a number of inaccuracies in this one like so many of Forrester's works. The idea of Spanish guerrila troops with an oversized cannon wreaking havoc on a Regular Standing Army smacks of a lame Hollywood movie plot.
If you are a fan of Forrester and like to throw your money away, have at it. If not, pass this one by

Here is a book that is not exactly a novel, not exactly a history, not exactly an adventure tale; in fact, the main character is literally three tons of finely worked brass. I prefer to view the work as an examination of the use of force. Not being particularly well read or skilled in military strategy, I will leave it to other reviewers to judge as to whether it succeeds as an exposition of method but I will say that it was a very interesting read.

The Gun is, of course, the force. Dropped along a mountain road by a retreating army it is picked up by Spanish guerillas fighting against the French occupation of Spain and the later history of the Gun becomes the book. What is startlingly modern about this book is that it demonstrates conclusively that war requires the will to match forces. When one side is allowed to retain an advantage the fighting concludes. For some reason not quite explained, the French have been allowed uncontested possession of a fertile plain in the south of Spain. When guerillas manage to obtain this huge piece of artillery, figure out how to obtain ammunition, as well as how to move the thing, they promptly upset the balance of power by assaulting the hitherto untouchable French fortifications. Their efforts throw both sides into disarray. The Gun provides a focus to the Spanish attack as well as the necessary power to press the advantage. Instructively, the very existence and control of power, i.e. the weapon, is itself the source of further power--the allegiance of other irregulars who are emboldened by their newfound ability to succeed. The means whereby the Gun is brought to bear are thought-provoking and lead one to ponder on the usefulness of modern weaponry given the utter lack of societal will to bring any force to bear on the problems at hand. The will to fight with nuclear and chemical weapons (chemical weapons make a surprising and gruesome appearance in this work) is thankfully gone--but have we risked descending into a perpetual detente only to be nibbled continually at the edges by less-circumspect powers?

Perhaps some readers find the denouement of the book somewhat unsettling. The ending is quite abrupt. But by the time you reach the end you realize that you have been exposed to various styles of leadership--some more successful than others, various kinds of battle--again with varying degrees of success, siegecraft, the use of artillery, etc. Forester is a gifted author--his narrative decisions are purposeful and directed towards an end that seems to be lost on many readers. In my opinion the author's purpose was to use this interesting episode in a very long conflict to invite debate on leadership styles and the very nature of war itself.

I found the book fascinating and it has sparked a desire to read more military history as it is clear that as a country and people we Americans at least are continuing to place ourselves into situations that require an historical context in order to understand the value of the position. Absent a context in history, we risk being diverted from worthly goals by a cost that is misunderstood. Wars are fought for a reason that has not disappeared with the rise of modern technology. We cannot win merely by churning out fantastic weaponry--"The Gun" teaches that it is not enough to merely possess force, once must understand how best to press the advantage thereby created.

The tale of a large cannon that falls into the hands of Spanish Guerilla's during the Napoleonic war. This books provides great insight into the conditions during the Peninsular War. It is not a dry history and not your typical Forester book. It focuses on the cannon's impact on many people instead of one individual like the Hornblower series. I have enjoyed rereading this book several times over the years.

This is a much overlooked novel by the author. Most people are familiar with the Hornblower novels, but the author also wrote other novels set in the same time period including "Rifleman Dodd" and "The Gun."

I first read this novel many years ago, and the plot has stayed in my mind (the sign of a good novel). A large gun is acquired and moved with great difficulty to assault a fortress. Alas, the best made plans of mice and men... The story is in the attempt, rather than its success or failure.

This was a very good book and I enjoyed reading it. This book makes you fell like you where really on one of the battle ships of WW2. It is about england trying to stop the greatest ship of its time the bismarck.

In his brief historical novel about the Bismarck's last days, CS Forester omits most of the usual philosophical reflections that are a hallmark of his most famous novels--the Horatio Hornblower series. Here, the compelling story of the hunt for and sinking of the great German battleship is descriptive rather than analytic, but I don't mean by this that the book is not readable and enjoyable: it is. I started it one evening, thinking I'd get a few pages into it before turning in; I ended up finishing the book in a couple of hours (and I'm no speed reader). Moreover, I'd recently seen the very good 1960 movie 'Sink the Bismarck', which is based on this Forester book--and it still excited me. Not great as strictly history--Forester intended instead to portray events as they probably happened, and the result is persuasive, entertaining, and highly satisfactory.

This story is as it may have happened. Suspenseful even though we already know the historical finish. Very good reading.

Sanford Sternlicht's work on C.S. Forester is not, as the title implies, merely an analysis of CSF's Hornblower novels, though it includes that, but it is a fairly complete and quite useful literary biography of one of the 20th century's most popular writers of fiction. Sternlicht does tend to over-write: CSF wrote of Napoleon as 'an evil, octopus-like ruler' (not even CSF in worst moments would have said that); CSF faced 'pain itself and even death' in the last 24 years of his life, something that will come as a shock to no one born into this fallen world; one of CSF's books 'is entirely cleared for action.' The breathlessness is more suited to a juvenile analysis than a grown-up literary work. To Sternlicht, CSF is a selfless hero himself that can do little wrong. A good antidote to this approach is the quite opposite view of CSF's son John, who in his biography of his father persuasively paints a picture of a dishonest, cheap, and disloyal man.

Sternlicht also stumbles in a few places: the Bismarck was not a pocket battleship (a gaffe surprising for a naval reserve officer who claims to have 'sailed the same seas' as Hornblower--note to Sternlicht: he's fictional, man); the assertions that Hitler liked CSF's novel 'The General' and that Her Majesty's Government wanted to honor Forester perhaps with a CBE or OBE are both unsourced; Sternlicht's view of the collection of stories published under the title 'The Man in the Yellow Raft' as mediocre is simply bizarre; his assessment that CSF wrote good (which must mean reliable) history is, to say the least, debatable.

And yet, for anyone serious about CS Forester as a writer, this book is a necessary read. Unsupportable analysis, gee-whiz overstatements, and a few factual errors aside, Sternlicht has done a good job of research from which others will benefit.

This fascinating and engaging book is the only critical/literary biography about novelist C S Forester (1899-1966) in print. It stands up very well as both a biography and a work of literary criticism. Lovers of the Horatio Hornblower novels, always hungry for more insights into the great captain's life, will find in this book a treasure trove, for a fictional character can only be truly understood when one knows more about the actual source of the character -- C S Forester. But this book covers all of Forester's major works, not just the Hornblower series. Author Sanford Sternlicht spins the tale of Forester's paradoxical and complex life and personality with the engaging touch of the novelist himself, but with the distance necessary for a critical biography. Sternlicht provides compelling and thorough insights into nearly all of Forester's writings [the few exceptions being two plays, a children's book, and some non-Hornblower short fiction], which include his novels (The African Queen, The General, Payment Deferred, the entire Hornblower saga, Hunting the Bismarck, and many more), history (The Age of Fighting Sail, and others), biography (Josephine: Napoleon's Empress, and others), and two travelogues. Forester's appeal and great popularity as a writer of fiction is examined in detail by Mr Sternlicht, who clearly knows his subject matter well. This is a revised edition of the 1981 first edition published by G. K. Hall, one of the TWAYNE'S ENGLISH AUTHOR SERIES books. Having read both editions, I can say without hesitation that the revised edition is a fresh and informative as the first, and that it is indeed a "revised" edition, with considerably more detail provided about Forester's home life (Sternlicht acknowledges new sources of information, including the significant addition of Forester's oldest son, John).

Forester's writing has a tremendous true-to-life, "verismo" quality which transports the reader into the time and place of the novel in hand. He achieved this by having an almost encyclopedic knowledge of those times and places, and by being able to put that knowledge to brilliant use in the some of the most fascinating books I have ever read, books which bear many, many readings and which stand up so well to those readings that one is left wanting even more Forester to read. He was truly a giant of popular culture, not just in America and Britain but worldwide, from the late 1930's to the 1960's. Sanford Sternlicht provides a very welcome door into the life and works of C S Forester, and this new book will be a very welcome addition to your bookshelf.