The General (Great War Stories) [Hardcover]

C S Forester (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0933852274 | ISBN-13: 978-0933852273 | Publication Date: January 1982

Herbert Curzon is a former cavalry officer who earned fortuitous distinction in the Boer War. He knew little then; he learned nothing since. But the army, desperate for officers in the opening months of WW I, hands Curzon, a new division to train.

A few months later his formations dissolve at the Somme, hosed down by German machine guns. Uninstructed, Curzon still thinks himself a leader. When a German offensive threatens his remaining troops, he gallops suicidally into the fighting. He prefers death to self-knowledge.

"THE GENERAL is a superb novel. It blends Forester's preference for military subjects and solid unreflective characters, his irony, his grasp of history and his gift for lean, hypnotic narrative." (The New York Times)

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

7 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 263 pages
• Publisher: Nautical & Aviation Publishing (January 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933852274
• ISBN-13: 978-0933852273
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,714,723 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

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FAN, January 30, 2000

By 

paul kelly (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The General (Great War Stories) (Paperback)

I live in England and read evey CSF book I could find 20 years ago. Whenever I visited the local public library I had several authors I knew would entertain me. Fleming, AJ Cronin, and my favourite, CS Forester. His Hornblower books are exciting, but his other books are just as as well written and enjoyable (probably better, read The African Queen). I did a search on Amazon and found this book....The memories came flooding back.

This book will teach you what it was like to be an upper crust, English gent in 1914. The bumbling ways we the British conducted ourselves in the The Great War. However, it will also tell you about how brave man can be.

If you think Tyson is tough, well the General is tougher.

READ IT. You will not be disappointed...

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERPIECE, March 13, 2002

By 

Brian Libby "Gadfly" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The General (Great War Stories) (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I bless the day many years ago--in college, I think--when I found it in a bookstore quite by accident (for I am not a naval buff and have read none of the Hornblower novels.) It was out of print for many years, and I welcome it back.

This is an anti-war novel written by a military historian who grieves over the way his country fought the Great War. It has parts which are hilariously funny (Curzon's courtship and marriage, the family he marries into, the wedding night (nothing graphic here, of course--Forester is a gentleman); it offers a scathing view of England's class system at work; it is dead right (is there a pun here?) in dealing with trench warfare.

Buy it, savor it, re-read it. If you happen to teach, assign it to your students along with All Quiet on the Western Front. This is a GREAT book!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forester's "anti-war" novel, February 24, 2002

By 

D. Ross "http://directorblue.blogspot.com" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The General (Great War Stories) (Paperback)

Forester is best known for his works of historical fiction with maritime themes. _The African Queen_ and the exceptionally wonderful Hornblower series are his best known works. _The General_ takes a completely different tack on multiple levels.

- On a simple level, _The General_ is Forester's only foray into ground conflict. Herbert Curzon (the title character) is an "old school" cavalry man who is promoted (several times) during World War I and eventually has responsibility for large numbers of land forces: infantry, artillery, etc.

- On a deeper level, I think that this is Forester's "anti-war" tome. His subtle, yet indelible, criticisms of the bloody trench-war tactics wielded by Generals who believed in honor through sacrifice. Millions of young lives were sacrificed in useless and ridiculous frontal assaults that benefited only the casket makers.

Curzon is a mildly interesting character, consumed with his Generalship and taking only brief moments away from the war. During one such break, he meets his wife-to-be, the daughter of a Duke. His in-law peers are none too happy to have their daughter marrying "beneath her".

Without deeply analyzing Curzon's motives - which appear relatively pure - Forester makes it crystal clear that such social climbing had enormous benefits for one's military career. Curzon is portrayed as an honorable man. But he is not very bright, nor skilled tactically or strategically. He is exceptionally dutiful and is filled with a sense of honor at all cost. It is this belief among the British military leadership that leads to the needless deaths of so many.

Curzon learns little during the course of his successful military career. The same tactics are employed over and over again with dismal results.

I rate this book nine out of ten. If you haven't read Hornblower, you _must_ read the entire series first. It is not be missed. If you are already a Forester fan, read the _General_ for a completely different perspective on combat and the nature of conflict.