Rifleman Dodd (Great War Stories) [Hardcover]

C. S. Forester (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 151 pages
• Publisher: Nautical & Aviation Pub Co of Amer (February 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933852762
• ISBN-13: 978-0933852761
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,370 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

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate partisan, March 4, 2002

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rifleman Dodd (Great War Stories) (Hardcover)

This is a classic tale of one man's fight against the enemy. I was pleased to see that it was reprinted. A British rifleman has been cut off behind enemy lines by the French advance into Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars. The British Army was pushed back to a last line of defense. The rifleman continues to do what he can to stop the French advance, with no hope for personal recognition or rewards (no banners, no bands), and a slim chance of survival. Highly trained to do his duty, he takes to the woods, scouts the enemy, and carries out hit and run raiding.

The novel is a study of one man's commitment to duty taking precedence over his own personal survival. It shows how one man with ability, courage, and initiative can make a difference to the outcome of a war. Rifleman Dodd is placed at the turning of the tide.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I am so Pleased this has been Reissued, August 17, 2005

By 

Gregory Paul Adkins "Stickler" (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rifleman Dodd (Great War Stories) (Hardcover)

For years I have heard of this book, but it was unavailable. It is a worthy addition to your library.

This work is notable from three points of view. First, as others have noted it is a military story about partisan warfare, spirit and dedication. Dodd is a model soldier, a wonderful example.

Next, it is a painless primer on the Peninsular War. What was it like? Not too nice. (Sharps's Gold also deals with this war.)

Finally, it is a standalone book by Forester, the writer of the Hornblower series. Those of us who love Hornblower learn more about the author and the art of writing by seeing such a different work.

A good book for the military professional. An excellent thriller for teenaged boys. An interesting sidelight for the Hornblower fan.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cornwell's inspiration, January 6, 2004

By 

Carl Hoffman (Cleveland Heights,, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rifleman Dodd (Great War Stories) (Hardcover)

Just thought I'd add that Bernard Cornwell cites this book as his favorite Forester and the inspiration for his Sharpe novels, also about a British Rifleman, mainly in Spain 1809-1815. As a matter of fact, Dodd appears as a minor character under Sharpe's command in, I think, SHARPE'S RIFLES.

It's been at least a decade since I last read this book, so I don't recall all the details. But my memory is that Dodd is just a shade TOO heroic. On the other hand, he's an excellent illustration of Forester's recurring theme of the way overlooked individuals can change the course of history. (My personal favorites on this theme by Forester: THE GUN and BROWN ON RESOLUTION, aka SINGLE-HANDED.) I also think it's important to remember the novel tells a parallel story too: the saga of French Sgt. Godinot and his platoon, who are killed off one-by-one during their encounters with Dodd and Portuguese guerrillas. Their hair-raising experiences as members of an occupying army in a land swarming with ferocious irregulars gave me pause about the American efforts in Vietnam when I first read RIFLEMAN DODD back in the 1960s (and causes similar thoughts about our current occupation in Iraq; sure hope I'm wrong about that).

Forester's style depends a lot on understatement, and it pays off in the final pages. Having returned at last to his unit at the end, Dodd gazes at guerrilla campfires in the hills, and Forester deadpans that in one of them the guerrillas are burning Sgt. Godinot to death. There's also a paragraph that gives a poignant flash of the rifleman's later life, describing him as a "querulous, bald-headed old boozer" sitting by the stove in drunken old age, who can never quite tell his adventures in a coherent way. It's very touching, and that paragraph by itself is almost worth the price.

RIFLEMAN DODD is a great, understated adventure book.