- Hardcover: 232 pages
- Publisher: Chatham (2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1861761783
- ISBN-13: 978-1861761781
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.2 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 458 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,350,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nelson bio an insight into Forester's Hornblower, Mar 3 2006
By Nicholas Dujmovic - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lord Nelson (Paperback)
CS Forester's biography of Nelson was originally published in 1929, the same year he published two other books (his very good novel 'Brown on Resolution' and his so-so travelogue on the Loire, 'The Voyage of the Annie Marble.') So it's not surprising that this seems a slapdash affair. Though readable enough, Forester's histories and biographies are never quite strong, and all lack scholarly rigor. For this, he relied solely on Nelson's letters and general secondary sources. It also ends quite abruptly, with Nelson's death at Trafalgar--no conclusion, no retrospective, no summing up. He's shot, he falls, he dies.However, the reader or Forester scholar looking into his famous fictional creation, Horatio Hornblower, will find much of great interest in this work, which predates the first of the HH novels by seven years. From the first name to the tendency toward sea sickness, there's much to see of the imagined naval hero in the real one.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Material to Slowly Peruse for Fans of Forester or the Napoleonic Era, Mar 5 2010
By Eric Snyder - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lord Nelson (Paperback)
CS Forester's biography of Nelson has some flaws but, overall, is both entertaining and revealing reading for those interested in the period and the personality.Chief among what might be called its flaws are the demands placed on the reader's attention. It is not written in an overly simple style, in other words--there are some long sentences and formal phrasing, etc. These are probably a result of the author's enthusiasm for his material and writing in general, though. Still, all is clear if, ocassionally, an extra moment is taken to digest what is written.
A second flaw are the sometimes suspect conclusions the author makes. In the author's opinion, people are often clueless about things you would not expect them to be clueless about. Enemies of England also, according to the author, spend more time cowering and as incompetents than you might realistically expect. These biases seem to be the result of a desire to prevent Nelson and the English Navy from having to share the spotlight with other characters or traditions. Little needs to be said about them if they are so quickly, erroneously and superficially understood, in other words.
With all that said, the author's biases are clear enough to be easily dispensed with by readers with minimal maturity. Such readers can go on to appreciate the mastery the author displays in combining knowledge of politics, military history and psychological insight. All of these are interwoven in an entertaining, compelling way as you might expect from the creator of Hornblower.
To sum up, if you want a book to slowly read out of interest in Forester or British naval history or, even, Nelson, this is a good one. You can share in the writer's zest for his material, certainly. If you don't already have an interest, though, this book is probably too much effort. Published in 1929 about a life lived over a hundred years before, the subject matter of the book can seem too distant, even irrelevant, which is not helped by its somewhat formal style.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
