Flying Colours [Large Print] [Hardcover]

C. S. Forester (Author)

Book Description

Series: [Ulverscroft large print series. fiction] | Publication Date: March 1973

Third Hornblower book written; volume 8 in Hornblower Saga. Forced to surrender his ship, the Sutherland, after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner awaiting transport to Paris and a trial on trumped up charges. After escaping with his first lieutenant Bush, and his coxswain Brown, they find refuge in France. Later, the three again make their way down the Loire river and upon reaching the sea find a means to escape to England where Hornblower's honors and income grow to more than he ever expected.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

C. S. Forester was born in Cairo in 1899, where his father was stationed as a government official. He studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, and after leaving Guy's without a degree he turned to writing as a career. On the outbreak of war he entered the Ministry of Information and later he sailed with the Royal Navy to collect material for The Ship. He made a voyage to the Bering Sea to gather material for a similar book on the United States Navy, and it was during this trip that he was stricken with arteriosclerosis, a disease which left him crippled. However, he continued to write and in the Hornblower novels created the most renowned sailor in contemporary fiction. He died in 1966. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From AudioFile

This great sea story, one of the famous Hornblower series set during the Napoleonic Wars, begins with a long stretch on land as Hornblower and his lieutenant are carried overland to Paris for execution. Their escape and further adventures have captivated readers for sixty years. Chivers has an uncanny knack for picking the perfect reader for their selections, and here Christian Rodska upholds the tradition by sliding in and out of character with effortless ease. His French accents are good, and his high, sometimes querulous British voice lends a sort of historical authenticity to his reading. The pacing is rapid, the suspense pervasive, the story both human and grand. D.R.W. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd; Large Print edition edition (March 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0854561773
• ISBN-13: 978-0854561773
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,887,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Back Bay's editions of the Hornblower novels are numbered according to the chronology of Hornblower's life and career, not according to the sequence in which they were written. The series is comprised of the following titles:


Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
Lieutenant Hornblower
Hornblower and the Hotspur
Hornblower During the Crisis
Hornblower and the Atropos
Beat to Quarters
Ship of the Line
Flying Colours
Commodore Hornblower
Lord Hornblower
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfectionist Judges Himself Harshly, December 29, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Flying Colours (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

Flying Colours 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 colours and surrendered at the end of that book. Flying Colours opens with Hornblower in a Spanish prison, with the expectation that he will be tried and executed for having flown French colours 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 colours on the Sutherland, Hornblower now flies his colours 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 manufacturers 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...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Daring Escape For Hornblower, March 24, 2000

By 

Cody Carlson (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flying Colours (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

'Flying Colours' is undoubtedly one of the best books in the Hornblower saga. The novel begins with Hornblower a prisoner of the French and soon to stand trial in Paris for piracy. As he and his trusty first mate liuetenant Bush are transported through France they sieze a chance to escape and a thrilling adventure follows. This is the seventh book in the Hornblower saga, picking up right where 'Ship of the Line' left off and setting the stage for 'Lord Hornblower,' arguably the best in the series. Wonderful!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the best Hornblower book, March 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Flying Colours (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

My favorite of the Hornblower series. Both a good look at the character development of Hornblower and Bush, and a great sea yarn. As with many other reviewers of this series, I have been through it several times. First read Hornblower as the 3-volume single book "Captain Horatio Hornblower" in high school. It includes Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line and Flying Colours, and I suggest that new readers start with these 3 and then go back to Midshipman Hornblower and read the rest of the series in chronological order. These are great books for action and sea lore, but also interesting for the introspection into the psychology of warrors and conduct in battle.