Order of C.S. Forester Books
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
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
| African Queen | (1980) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
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
| U 97 | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
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 | (1968) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
Publication Order of Anthologies
+ Click to View all Anthologies
If You Like C.S. Forester Books, You’ll Love…
Shop Worldwide: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca
The Hornblower book The Happy Return is published in the US under the title Beat to Quarters.
Publication order is basically useless when some one is trying to read books in story sequence
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.