C.S. Forester was the pen name of English novelist Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (1899-1966), who wrote naval adventure novels and stories. He is best known for his Horatio Hornblower series as well as his novel The African Queen, the latter of which was adapted to film by legendary director John Huston in 1951. When Forester was living in Washington DC during World War II, he met an intelligence officer named Roald Dahl, who he encouraged to write about his experiences in the Royal Air Force.

C.S. Forester became a published author in 1924 with the novels The Paid Piper and A Pawn Among Kings. His last original published work was Hornblower and the Crisis, published in 1967. Below is a list of C.S. Forester’s books in order of when they were originally released:

Publication Order of Horatio Hornblower Books

The Happy Return / Beat to Quarters (1937)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Ship of the Line (1938)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Flying Colours (1938)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Commodore / Commodore Hornblower (1945)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Lord Hornblower (1946)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (1950)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Lieutenant Hornblower (1952)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Hornblower and the Atropos (1953)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies / Hornblower in the West Indies (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Hornblower During the Crisis / Hornblower and the Crisis (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Chronological Order of Horatio Hornblower Books

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower(1950)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Lieutenant Hornblower(1952)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Hornblower and the Hotspur(1962)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Hornblower During the Crisis / Hornblower and the Crisis(1967)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Hornblower and the Atropos(1953)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Happy Return / Beat to Quarters(1937)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Ship of the Line(1938)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Flying Colours(1938)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Commodore / Commodore Hornblower(1945)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Lord Hornblower(1946)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies / Hornblower in the West Indies(1957)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Horatio Hornblower Collections

Captain Hornblower R.N. (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Horatio Hornblower Non-Fiction Books

The Hornblower Companion (1964)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

The Paid Piper (1924)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
A Pawn Among Kings (1924)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Payment Deferred (1926)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Wonderful Week (1927)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Love Lies Dreaming (1927)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Shadow of the Hawk / The Daughter of the Hawk (1928)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Single-Handed (1929)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Brown on Resolution (1929)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Plain Murder (1930)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Two-and-twenty (1931)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Rifleman Dodd / Death to the French (1932)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Gun (1933)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Peacemaker (1934)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The African Queen (1935)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Pursued (1935)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Marionettes at home (1936)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The General (1936)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Earthly Paradise (1940)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Captain from Connecticut (1941)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Ship (1943)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Sky and the Forest (1948)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Randall and the River Of Time (1950)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Good Shepherd / Greyhound (1955)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Barbary Pirates (1956)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

The Nightmare (1954)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Man in the Yellow Raft (1969)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Gold from Crete (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Children's Books

Poo-Poo and the Dragons (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Napoleon and His Court (1924)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Josephine, Napoleon's Empress (1925)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Victor Emmanuel II and the Union of Italy (1927)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Louis XIV: King of France and Navarre (1928)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Lord Nelson / Nelson (1929)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Voyage of the Annie Marble (1929)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Adventures of John Wetherell (1954)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Naval War of 1812 / The Age of Fighting Sail (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Age of Fighting Sail (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Hunting the Bismarck / Sink the Bismarck / The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Long Before Forty (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Fatal Fascination: A Choice of Crime (With: Christopher Sykes,Eric Linklater,Nigel Balchin) (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Anthologies

Stories for the Dead of Night(1957)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
65 Great Tales Of Horror(1981)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Mysterious Sea Stories(1987)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Fifty Best Mysteries(1993)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
High Seas: Stories of Battle and Adventure from the Age of Sail(2002)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

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Order of Books » Authors » Order of C.S. Forester Books

3 Responses to “Order of C.S. Forester Books”

  1. TipOfTheSpear: 9 years ago

    The Hornblower book The Happy Return is published in the US under the title Beat to Quarters.

    Reply

  2. TG Wald: 10 years ago

    Publication order is basically useless when some one is trying to read books in story sequence

    Reply

    • Brandon: 10 years ago

      Understandable, but oftentimes the chronological order is not the correct order to read the series in. I’ll have the chronological order up for this series shortly.

      Reply

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