Flynn World Of Sherlock Holmes

Forester, C. S. (Cecil Scott): Ship of the Line, Boston Little, Brown and Company; Back Bay Books 1999
ISBN: 0316289361 Fine

292 pp.; 21 cm. AS NEW. "May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems 'the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List.' Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train 'poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers,' and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms over both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships of the line. / C. S. Forester (1899-1966) wrote several novels with military and naval themes, including The African Queen, The Barbary Pirates, The General, The Good Shepherd, The Gun, The Last Nine Days of the "Bismarck," and Rifleman Dodd. But Forester is best known as the creator of Horatio Hornblower, a British naval genius of the Napoleonic era, whose exploits and adventures on the high seas Forester chronicled in a series of eleven acclaimed historical novels. Over the years Hornblower has proved to be one of the most beloved and enduring fictional heroes in English literature, his popularity rivaled only by Sherlock Holmes. Born Cecil Louis Troughton Smith in Cairo, Egypt, Forester grew up in London. At the start of World War II he traveled on behalf of the British government to America, where he produced propaganda encouraging the United States to remain on Britain's side. After the War, Forester remained in America and made Berkeley, California, his home. The character of Horatio Hornblower was born after Forester was called to Hollywood to write a pirate film. While the script was being drafted, another studio released Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, based on the same historical incidents about which Forester was writing. Rather than seek another movie project, and to avoid an impending paternity suit, Forester jumped aboard a freighter bound for England. By the end of the voyage he had outlined Beat to the Quarters, which introduced the now legendary character Hornblower, Bush, and Lady Barbara. Forester died in 1966 while working on Hornblower During the Crisis." - Publisher. 13th printing Trade Paperback 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

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