C.S. Forester

Cecil Scott Forester , of its true name Cécil Lewis Troughton Smith, is a British writer born in 1899 with the Cairo and died in 1966.

Life

His/her father was a British civil servant posted in Egypt. He returns to the the United Kingdom after the separation of his parents. He lives then very modestly with his mother.

After short studies of medicine, he studies the literature to become writer and journalist.

Work

In 1937, it publishes the first novel of what will become the saga of Hornblower, Retour to good port ( The happy return ), it is a great success. The novels which follow see Hornblower rising in the naval hierarchy, but in 1950, Forester publishes the candidate Hornblower , who describes the whole beginnings of his hero in the navy. The popularity of Horatio Hornblower, at the same time a hero and a " anti-héros" , never contradicted itself, and is competed with only by that of the duet Jack Aubrey - Stephen Maturin in the series of the maritime novels of Patrick O' Brian. The two figures of sailor are besides close to the same historical character, Thomas Cochrane, count de Dundonald and admiral of the British fleet. Brian Perett wrote true Hornblower, Vie and time of the admiral James Gordon (ISBN 1557509689), where he proposes another source of inspiration. Forester itself, in its Hornblower Companion (Guide of the saga), does not quote any historical figure like source of inspiration. In parallel, he writes scenarios and continues also his career of journalist. He will be war alleurs correspondent during the civil war in Spain and Czechoslovakia after the invasion Nazi.

In 1940, to take part in the design of propaganda anti-nazi and pro-British, it settles in California where it will remain until his death in 1966.

Several of its novels were translated into French by Louis Guilloux.

List works

the series of Hornblower

The Happy Return , 1937
has Ship off the Line , 1938
Flying Colors , 1938
The Commodore , 1945
Lord Hornblower , 1946
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower , 1950
Lieutenant Hornblower , 1952
Hornblower and the Atropos , 1953
Hornblower in the West Indies , 1958
Hornblower and the Hotspur , 1962
Hornblower and the Crisis , 1967

Other novels

The African Queen (1935) (Adventure, war)
General The (1936) General
Death to the French with the French
The Gun gun

Payment Deferred (1926) suspended (Detective novel)

Lime pit Murder (1930) pure and simple (Detective novel)

Brown one Resolution (1929)

The Ship (1943) ship

Sink the Bismarck! (1959) Bismarck!

Adaptations

Several of its novels were adapted to the cinema, in particular:

the Odyssey of African Queen (" " The African Queen 1951) realized by John Huston, with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

Capitaine without fear ( Captain Horatio Hornblower ) is a film américano - British carried out by Raoul Walsh in 1951.

the televised series Hornblower turned between 1998 and 2003 for ITV and A&E with Ioan Gruffudd in the role of Hornblower, is freely adapted Mr. the candidate Horatio Hornblower and Lieutenant Hornblower . It follows the career of the hero éponyme between his appearance like Aspirant in the Candidate Hornblower and its promotion to the row of captain at the end of Hornblower and Hotspur .