The Happy Return [Mass Market Paperback]

C. S. Forester (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Penguin; 6th THUS edition (January 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002LTLLL0
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,485,042 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!