Book description
The Young Hornblower - a truly formidable force in His
Majesty's Service
The seventeen-year-old Hornblower became notorious as soon as he
stepped on board ship - as the midshipman who was seasick in Spithead.
But he was soon to gain his sea legs.
Amid battle, action and adventure he proves himself time and time
again - courageous in danger, resourceful in moments of difficulty and
decisive in times of trouble. The reader stands right beside him as he
prepares to fight his first duel, feels the heat as he battles to
control a blazing ship and shares his horror as he experiences for the
first time the panic of the Plague.
This omnibus edition contains:
Mr Midshipman Hornblower Lieutenant Hornblower
Hornblower and the 'Hotspur'
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.
His first success was Payment Deferred, a novel written at the age
of twenty-four and later dramatized and filmed with Charles Laughton
in the leading role. In 1932 Forester was offered a Hollywood
contract, and from then until 1939 he spent thirteen weeks of every
year in America.
On the outbreak of war he entered the Ministry of Information and
later he sailed with the Royal Navy to collect the 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.
