Happy Return [Hardcover]

C. S. Forester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1951

Horatio Hornblower sails the south American waters and comes face to face with a mad messianic revolutionary in a story that ripples with risk and gripping adventure. And throughout his escapades, Hornblower remains gallant, resourceful and courageous, the embodiment of all that is most vivid in a great naval tradition.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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

Reader Christian Rodska sounds much like the late Roddy McDowell--the same expressive precision, the same British accent, the same skill with narrative flow. Without fully acting out each part, Rodska differentiates the characters, and through his handling of the prose, one can hear the creaking of the ship's rigging and the screams of dying men. This is a Horatio Hornblower sea story set in Napoleonic times, one of the best: The Captain attempts to help a mad Central American revolutionary to overthrow the Spanish dominions. D.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Michael Joseph Ltd; Greenwich ed edition (December 1951)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718104692
• ISBN-13: 978-0718104696
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,148,598 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful listen!, February 6, 2000

By 

JediJaina (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Happy Return (Audio Cassette)

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the adventures of Hornblower and the way he was able to capture the Natividad, a much larger ship. Ioan Gruffudd knows how to use his acting abilities to portray the emotions of the characters such as Hornblower, Bush, and Lady Barbara. I honestly could not tell that it was his voice doing the characters which makes for a very entertaining listen.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Treasure Tapes, August 29, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Happy Return (Audio Cassette)

This is one of the excellent audio tapes by Ioan Gruffudd. As the actor who played the part of Hornblower, he is the perfect person to do the reading. On top of that, he reads extremely well with a delightful cut-glass British accent. In this title as a bonus, you can listen to him speak with superb French and Spanish accents. How he rolls his r's! I only wish it were anabridged!