Flying Colours. Including A Ship Of The Line -
C. S. Forester
1938 - Michael Joseph Ltd. in conjunction with The Book Society Ltd., London - First Edition
One finely bound volume containing two classic Hornblower novels, in which Captain Horatio Hornblower commands his first ship of the line, HMS Sutherland. A Ship Of The Line and Flying Colours, are the second and third books in the Horatio Hornblower series. This is the first publication of Flying Colours which was released shortly afterwards as a stand alone title, making this the true first edition.
A Ship of the Line - May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems ‘the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List’. Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train ‘poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers’, and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms for both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships.
Flying Colours - Forced to surrender the Sutherland after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress. Within days he and his first lieutenant, Bush, who was crippled in the last fight, are to be taken to Paris to be tried on trumped-up charges of violating the laws of war, and most probably executed as part of Napoleon's attempt to rally the war-weary empire behind him. Even if Hornblower escapes this fate and somehow finds his way back to England, he will face court-martial for his surrender of a British ship. As fears for his life and his reputation compete in his mind with worries about his pregnant wife and his possibly widowed lover, the indomitable captain impatiently awaits the chance to make his next move. ‘I find Hornblower admirable, vastly entertaining’ - Sir Winston Churchill.
‘I recommend Forester to every literate I know’ - Ernest Hemingway.
‘Hornblower is Hamlet in command of a battleship’ - New York Times.
C.S. Forester (1899-1966) was awarded the 1938 James Tait Black memorial prize for both the Hornblower novels ‘A Ship of the Line’ and ‘Flying Colours’. The prize was founded in memory of a partner in the publishing house of A. & C. Black Ltd., and is one of the oldest and most prestigious book awards in Britain.
Thick octavo (binding size 19x13.2cm) pp. [2] 304; [2] 5-284 [6]. Handsomely bound in three-quarter scarlet morocco over matching cloth boards, spine with twin black morocco gilt lettered labels and gilt nautical motifs. Condition: Fine in fine binding. Ref: 112140 Price: HK$ 5,000
A Ship of the Line - May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems ‘the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List’. Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train ‘poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers’, and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms for both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships.
Flying Colours - Forced to surrender the Sutherland after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress. Within days he and his first lieutenant, Bush, who was crippled in the last fight, are to be taken to Paris to be tried on trumped-up charges of violating the laws of war, and most probably executed as part of Napoleon's attempt to rally the war-weary empire behind him. Even if Hornblower escapes this fate and somehow finds his way back to England, he will face court-martial for his surrender of a British ship. As fears for his life and his reputation compete in his mind with worries about his pregnant wife and his possibly widowed lover, the indomitable captain impatiently awaits the chance to make his next move. ‘I find Hornblower admirable, vastly entertaining’ - Sir Winston Churchill.
‘I recommend Forester to every literate I know’ - Ernest Hemingway.
‘Hornblower is Hamlet in command of a battleship’ - New York Times.
C.S. Forester (1899-1966) was awarded the 1938 James Tait Black memorial prize for both the Hornblower novels ‘A Ship of the Line’ and ‘Flying Colours’. The prize was founded in memory of a partner in the publishing house of A. & C. Black Ltd., and is one of the oldest and most prestigious book awards in Britain.
Thick octavo (binding size 19x13.2cm) pp. [2] 304; [2] 5-284 [6]. Handsomely bound in three-quarter scarlet morocco over matching cloth boards, spine with twin black morocco gilt lettered labels and gilt nautical motifs. Condition: Fine in fine binding. Ref: 112140 Price: HK$ 5,000