C.S. Forester and the Hornblower Saga [Paperback]

Sanford Sternlicht (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press; Rev Sub edition (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815606214
• ISBN-13: 978-0815606215
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,416,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent, well-written source of info on C S Forester, January 3, 2000

By 

"howdyx3" - See all my reviews

This review is from: C.S. Forester and the Hornblower Saga (Paperback)

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.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a bit breathless but a necessary read for Forester fans, December 21, 2005

By 

Nicholas Dujmovic (Vienna, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: C.S. Forester and the Hornblower Saga (Paperback)

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.