As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate disclosure.

Home / Authors / C. S. Forester

Author

C. S. Forester

1899–1966

12 fiction

C. S. Forester is a defining author of naval adventure fiction, especially for readers interested in command, courage and duty at sea.

C. S. Forester was born in Cairo in 1899 and grew up in London. He began medical training but abandoned it to pursue writing, supporting himself through journalism, biography, crime fiction and historical novels. His early output showed a strong interest in the pressures placed on individuals by institutions and command. That concern became central to the naval fiction for which he is best remembered.

Forester created Horatio Hornblower in The Happy Return, published in 1937, and then followed the character from inexperienced midshipman to senior officer across the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon. The series combines ship handling, gunnery and strategy with Hornblower’s anxiety, self-discipline and fear of failure. Forester also wrote The African Queen, Rifleman Dodd and other military and maritime novels, and he worked in the United States during the Second World War in support of British information efforts. He died in 1966. His influence can be seen throughout later naval historical fiction, particularly in novels that balance technical accuracy with the psychological burden of command.

Periods and events

Ancient Rome753 BCE–476 CE Battle of Trafalgar1805-10-21 Bourbon Restoration in France1814–1830 CE French Invasion of Russia / Patriotic War of 18121812 CE Napoleonic Era1792–1815 CE Peace of Amiens1802–1803 CE Peninsular War1807–1814 CE Post-Napoleonic France1814–1848 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by C. S. Forester (1 series)

Hornblower Saga in Order

by C. S. Forester 12 books 4.3(138,286)

The Horatio Hornblower novels follow a Royal Navy officer from his first service as a midshipman during the French Revolutionary Wars to senior command after the defeat of Napoleon. The books combine shipboard life, naval combat, intelligence work, diplomacy and the practical burdens of command with Hornblower’s private…

Discover more

Similar authors

Recommended from shared genres and periods.