C.S. Forester Books

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C.S. Forester was a renowned English novelist that died in 1966 at the age of 66. He was known primarily for his work on the Horatio Hornblower series. Forester was born in 1899 in Cairo to Sarah Medhurst Troughton and George Foster Smith.

Order of Horatio Hornblower Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Happy Return / Beat to Quarters 1937 Description / Buy
2 Ship of the Line 1938 Description / Buy
3 Flying Colours 1938 Description / Buy
4 The Commodore / Commodore Hornblower 1945 Description / Buy
5 Lord Hornblower 1946 Description / Buy
6 Mr. Midshipman Hornblower 1950 Description / Buy
7 Lieutenant Hornblower 1952 Description / Buy
8 Hornblower and the Atropos 1953 Description / Buy
9 Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies / Hornblower in the West Indies 1957 Description / Buy
10 Hornblower and the Hotspur 1962 Description / Buy
11 Hornblower During the Crisis / Hornblower and the Crisis 1967 Description / Buy

Chronological Order of Horatio Hornblower Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Mr. Midshipman Hornblower 1950 Description / Buy
2 Lieutenant Hornblower 1952 Description / Buy
3 Hornblower and the Hotspur 1962 Description / Buy
4 Hornblower During the Crisis / Hornblower and the Crisis 1967 Description / Buy
5 Hornblower and the Atropos 1953 Description / Buy
6 The Happy Return / Beat to Quarters 1937 Description / Buy
7 Ship of the Line 1938 Description / Buy
8 Flying Colours 1938 Description / Buy
9 The Commodore / Commodore Hornblower 1945 Description / Buy
10 Lord Hornblower 1946 Description / Buy
11 Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies / Hornblower in the West Indies 1957 Description / Buy

Order of Horatio Hornblower Collections

# Read Title Published Details
1 Captain Hornblower R.N. 1965 Description / Buy

Order of Horatio Hornblower Non-Fiction

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Hornblower Companion (Short Story) 1964 Description / Buy

Order of C.S. Forester Standalone Novels

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Paid Piper 1924 Description / Buy
2 A Pawn Among Kings 1924 Description / Buy
3 Payment Deferred 1926 Description / Buy
4 The Wonderful Week 1927 Description / Buy
5 Love Lies Dreaming 1927 Description / Buy
6 The Shadow of the Hawk / The Daughter of the Hawk 1928 Description / Buy
7 Single-Handed 1929 Description / Buy
8 Brown on Resolution 1929 Description / Buy
9 Plain Murder 1930 Description / Buy
10 Two-and-twenty (Short Story) 1931 Description / Buy
11 Rifleman Dodd / Death to the French 1932 Description / Buy
12 The Gun 1933 Description / Buy
13 The Peacemaker 1934 Description / Buy
14 The African Queen 1935 Description / Buy
15 The Pursued 1935 Description / Buy
16 Marionettes at home 1936 Description / Buy
17 The General 1936 Description / Buy
18 The Earthly Paradise 1940 Description / Buy
19 The Captain from Connecticut 1941 Description / Buy
20 The Ship 1943 Description / Buy
21 The Sky and the Forest 1948 Description / Buy
22 Randall and the River Of Time 1950 Description / Buy
23 The Good Shepherd / Greyhound 1955 Description / Buy
24 The Barbary Pirates 1956 Description / Buy

Order of C.S. Forester Short Stories/Novellas

# Read Title Published Details
1 African Queen (Short Story) 1980 Description / Buy

Order of C.S. Forester Short Story Collections

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Nightmare 1954 Description / Buy
2 Man in the Yellow Raft 1969 Description / Buy
3 Gold from Crete 1970 Description / Buy

Order of C.S. Forester Children's Books

# Read Title Published Details
1 Poo-Poo and the Dragons (Short Story) 1968 Description / Buy

Order of C.S. Forester Plays

# Read Title Published Details
1 U 97 2020 Description / Buy

Order of C.S. Forester Non-Fiction

# Read Title Published Details
1 Napoleon and His Court 1924 Description / Buy
2 Josephine, Napoleon's Empress 1925 Description / Buy
3 Victor Emmanuel II and the Union of Italy 1927 Description / Buy
4 Louis XIV: King of France and Navarre 1928 Description / Buy
5 Lord Nelson / Nelson 1929 Description / Buy
6 The Voyage of the Annie Marble 1929 Description / Buy
7 The Adventures of John Wetherell 1954 Description / Buy
8 The Naval War of 1812 / The Age of Fighting Sail 1957 Description / Buy
9 The Age of Fighting Sail 1957 Description / Buy
10 Hunting the Bismarck / Sink the Bismarck / The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck (Short Story) 1958 Description / Buy
11 Long Before Forty 1967 Description / Buy
12 Fatal Fascination: A Choice of Crime ( With: Christopher Sykes, Eric Linklater, Nigel Balchin) 1968 Description / Buy

C.S. Forester Anthologies

# Read Title Published Details
1 Stories for the Dead of Night 1957 Description / Buy
2 65 Great Tales Of Horror 1981 Description / Buy
3 Mysterious Sea Stories 1987 Description / Buy
4 Fifty Best Mysteries 1993 Description / Buy
5 High Seas: Stories of Battle and Adventure from the Age of Sail 2002 Description / Buy
+ Click to View all Anthologies
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Forester was the youngest of five children. George, his father, taught at a school that was designed to introduce the English Education system to the sons of upper-class Egyptians.

When his parents’ marriage dissolved, Forester went to London with his mother and siblings. As a child, the author read voraciously. He was also fascinated by naval battles.

Forester was just one boy among many that attended the Officers’ Training Corps. But any hopes he had of doing his part to protect his country during the First World War went down the drain when a heart condition prevented him from joining the army.

While his friends fought and died in the war, Forester took a month-long camping trip during which he finally accepted his rejection. A former student at Alleyn’s School and Dulwich College, the author tried to pursue a career in medicine.

But his time at Guy’s Hospital showed him that he did not have the talent for the field. He never got his degree. The author spent the Second World War writing propaganda for the British Ministry of Information.

Officially, his writing career began in 1921 when he adopted Cecil Scott Forester as a pen name. It only took him two weeks to complete his first novel. His fervor for writing was such that he was churning out six thousand words every single day.

But the author’s manuscript was soundly rejected. Rather than giving up, he wrote a second novel. This time around, he tried to improve the quality of his work by cutting his production rate. But Forester admitted, later on, that his second novel was just as bad as the first. Though, the manuscript eventually became the third book he published.

The first book he published was the third manuscript he wrote. While he waited for the book to come out, the publisher paid Forester to write a Napoleon biography.

He agreed because the 25 pounds they gave him as an advance was the first money he had ever earned from his words. He wrote another biography later on but it did not make him quite as much money as he would have liked.

In the years that followed, he survived by writing novels, articles, and biographies. The Hornblower books were his most successful series. When he first introduced Horatio Hornblower to his readers, the character had a relatively high rank. To satisfy the craving that his audience had for more Hornblower stories, the author spent several sequels explaining Horatio’s past and the events that had allowed him to climb through the ranks.

C.S. Forester Awards

Forester received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1938).

C.S. Forester Books into Movies

‘The African Queen’ became a 1951 film called ‘The African Queen’. It starred Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn.

‘The Pride and the Passion’, a 1957 war film starring Sophia Loren and Cary Grant was based on ‘The Gun’.

‘Sink the Bismarck’ is a 1958 British War Film starring Dana Wynter and Kenneth Moore. It was based on ‘The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck’.

‘Greyhound’ is a 2020 War Film starring Tom Hanks. It was based on ‘The Good Shepherd’.

ITV aired a historical fiction war series based on the Hornblower books. It started in 1998 and ended in 2003.

Best C.S. Forester Books

The author knew Roald Dahl. He encouraged Dahl to incorporate his RAF experiences into his books. Forester’s best books include:

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower: Before he became a famed midshipman, Horatio Hornblower was just a 17-year-old boy that had to fight in a duel he would have preferred to avoid. This book chronicles his adventures, the lives he saved, and the galleys he fought against as he slowly became a man that soldiers would gladly follow into battle.

Lieutenant Hornblower: Napoleon and Spain were still at war. For all his triumphs at sea, Horatio’s journey was far from over. He fought many battles against internal and external enemies to distinguish himself. But now, he must carry the responsibilities that his first independent command will bring.

When Does The Next C.S. Forester book come out?

C.S. Forester doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is U 97 and was released on July, 2nd 2020. It is the newest book in the C.S. Forester Plays.

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