Summary
Although unfinished at the time of C. S. Forester's death, Hornblower During the Crisis delivers a full measure of action at sea-the hallmark of this incomparably exciting series of historical adventures. On the threshold of securing his first post as captain, Hornblower finds himself forced by the exigencies of war to fight alongside a man whom he has unintentionally helped to court-martial. And for the first time Hornblower assents to engaging in espionage in his efforts to bring victory and glory to England in the Napoleonic Wars. This extant fragment of Forester's final Hornblower novel is followed by the author's notes regarding the novel's conclusion. Also included in this volume are two stories-"Hornblower's Temptation" and "The Last Encounter"-that depict the great sea dog Hornblower in his youth and old age, respectively.
Born Cecil Louis Troughton Smith on August 27, 1899, in Cairo, Egypt, where his father was a government official, C. S. Forester grew up mainly in England. He was educated at Dulwich College, studying medicine briefly before decidint to become a writer. Forester moved to the United States before the start of World War II, and lived in Berkeley, California, until his death in 1966.
Although Forester was a journalist, a novelist and a Hollywood scriptwriter, he is probably best known for his historical fiction, particularly the series of novels that feature Horatio Hornblower. The eleven-book series begins with Mr. Midshipmen Hornblower, in which the seventeen-year old Hornblower joins the British navy in 1793, just as the Napoleonic Wars are about to begin. Hornblower's continuing adventures, as well as his advancement to the highest ranks of the navy, are chronicled in further books, including Beat to Quarters, Flying Colours, Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower, The Happy Return, and A Ship of the Line, for which Forester recived the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1939.
Several of Forester's novels were made into films, most notably Payment Deferred (his first novel published in 1926), Eagle Squadron, The Commandos (the movie title was The Commandos Strike at Dawn), Captain Horatio Hornblower, Sink the Bismarck!, and The African Queen, starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.
Forester's nonfiction includes The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812, as well as biographies of Lord Nelson, Napoleon, Josephine, and King Louis XIV. He also wrote an autobiography, Long Before Forty.
(Bowker Author Biography)
