Lord Nelson

by C.S. Forester

The celebrated author of the Hornblower series presents the biography of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, the victor of the naval battle of Trafalgar.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Literature, Nautical

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Reviews

[Phoenix Perpetuale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars

I read Lord Nelson by C. S. Forester on the Kindle app on my mobile. That was quite handy as I always had a book.
It is pretty strange how I started this reading. And my interest was aroused after I read about Lady Hamilton. The books were very similar in their classification. I sympathised with Emma and wanted to know more details about their affair. However, here I can see the gender differences applied during their lifetime. There were plenty of examples of how professional growth affected Nelson's health. He developed a disability, yet; a strong spirit did not let him keep pity; very few personal letters or speeches, and the information that I was so interested in seemed to be a little bit on the gossip site, and professional life was a tremendous pressure to perform —battle after battle, sea combat. The period is closely linked to the Napoleonic time.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A scholarly book for scholars. Without an intricate knowledge of the history of the British Navy things can be a bit confusing. While I am basically conversant with the Battle of Jutland, I had never heard of the Battle of the Saints. Both of these are constantly referred to, along with numerous people involved with the Navy for the last 4oo years. Cornwallis, I know that one, Byng, not so much. After reading The Age of Fighting Sail I was expecting a much easier read. Forester had only been published author for three years when this one came out, and it shows.

Still, much can be learned about Nelson. Clearly a remarkable and complicated man. Somewhat prickly, and a hypochondriac, which is a strange thing to say about man who kept on fighting despite being blinded in one eye, losing an arm, getting a nearly fatal head wound, and suffering from chronic malaria. He was successful by being audacious, and ignoring orders when it convenienced him. He greatly benefitted from his argumentativeness, as he was often sent off by himself with limited orders, most likely just to get him out of the way of Admirals who didn't want to be bothered by an underling with strong opinions and friends in high places. Along the way he changed the history of the world.

Side note: It's a great benefit to his story that his most famous victory came while his flagship was the "Victory." Imagine if we reveled in Lord Nelson's victory while sailing the "Carcass", or the ship still on active duty with the British Navy and is visited by thousands every year was the "Elephant."

[Lester Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord Nelson by C. S. Forester
When I was in Seminary (high School) we were allowed to take the bus to Portland to do research in the Multnomah City Library. I almost always came home with a C. S. Forester book about Horatio Hornblower. There were eleven books in the series from Midshipman to Lord Hornblower. For all I knew these were fictions about a Swashbuckling hero of the Royal Navy. I probably stopped reading novels because of these books, because they were so captivating, I could not put them down. Forester had other famous books (The Age of Fighting Sail, The Ship, The Sinking of the Bismarck, The good Shepherd, The African Queen; most of which were made into films). What I did not know was that C. S, Forester had written a biography of Lord Nelson. So now I know where Horatio Hornblower originated, although the biography was written years later. Only Hornblower was an unadulterated hero, sans blemish. Horatio Nelson was not with peccadillos. Loyal to the Monarchy (the only one that survived into the 21st Century), he sometime meted out justice that we would now find excessive, although he was fiercely loyal to he dedicated crew. He married young, but the marriage was never a hot love affair. He liked the women he dealt with in his campaigns but only Emma stole his heart and nearly caused his ruin. Nevertheless, he was a brilliant naval tactician, and late in his life, with missing arm, blind eye and ravaged by illness and injury, he nevertheless brilliantly organized the Mediterranean arm of the British fleet, not only to subdue the Napoleonic Navy, but in the end permanently defeat it at Trafalgar. He died in the battle, but it secured him a permanent place of honor in British Naval history. Many of the exploits of Hornblower were a masked homage to the actual exploits of Nelson.

[Newell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed Overview of the life of one of Great Britain's most storied heroes. Notice I did not use the word "greatest", Nelson was a greatly flawed hero. The book is well written, as is all of C.S. Forester's books, but I was disappointed in the mid to late career character flaws that are detailed in this account. One expects heros to always be heroic, but at the end of the day, they are just human as well. Other reviewers have described the writing, but I have to note the quality of research done by Mr Forester. This is at the level of a Michener history, but much more readable. Recommended for it's historical information and significance on the world stage.

[Matthias]

Gelesen wurde die Ausgabe "Lord Nelson - Englands Held - Napoleons Alptraum" von G/Geschichte. Da dieses Magazin nicht in der Datenbank vorhanden ist, wurde dieses Buch verwendet.

Dem Magazin gebe ich 2,5/5 Sterne, da sehr interessante Artikel, die allerdings wirr zusammengesetzt worden sind. Auch befassen sich nur ca. die Hälfte der Artikel direkt mit Nelson. Der Rest beinhaltet Themen zur Schifffahrt, Napoleon, das Ende der Segelschiffe und weiteren Charakteren aus Nelsons Epoche.

[Richard R Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interest just Nguyen background of personnel character.

I did not enjoy the personality of Nelson over Hornblower but did find his p art in hi s Tory fascinating an d worth the read.

[shari lee]

A long and difficult raise to game justified

While this biography takes time to produce the raise of a quite brilliant mind frought with personal moral difficincy it clearly defined a brilliant military genious.

[Yoshina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this one, but as a matter of fact there's nothing to be ecstatic about here, even for a Forester/ Hornblower groupie. No highs, no lows, just an ordinary biography somewhat short. In retrospect I should instead have read one of the classic biographies.

[Andy Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was about two thirds of the way through the book when it occurred to me why Forester named his sailor hero Horatio, it was because of his profound respect for all that Nelson typified as an English sailor, Captain and Admiral.

[Robert G. Snite · Rating 3 out of 5]

For history buffs.

Even an extraordinary talent such as C.S. Forested cannot make pure factual history easy. The book is by no means a "beach read" . BTW, I am a big Forester.

[robert kotch · Rating 5 out of 5]

GOOD ACCOUNT OF EARLY BRITISH NAVY HISTORY.

[Frank Ray Washburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

C.S.Forested a great historical book.

[Dayo Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, I don't read many biographies, but this was worth it. He did things his way.

[Michael E Shaughnessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional

The author's style makes you feel like you were on Nelson's ship! If you like history in this time period, then You might like this story . TV

[Nadya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very readable biography that really hots it's stride once it reaches Nelson's more active postings. Written in 1929, part of the fun is watching Forester snark on the French and wonder what Nelson would have done at one WWI naval battle or the other.