Brown on Resolution Audiobook By C.S. Forester cover art

Brown on Resolution

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Brown on Resolution

By: C.S. Forester
Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
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About this listen

Based on meticulously researched historical fact, "Brown on Resolution" marks C.S. Forester's first novel about the British Navy and his subsequent sea-faring novels

It charts the life and death of Leading Seaman, Albert Brown, beginning with the story of how his mother, Agatha, meets and spends five days with a young Lieutenant Commander (RN) and becomes pregnant with Albert. She doesn't tell the officer and keeps the man's identity a secret from her family and the world in general. Throughout his formative years, she encourages Albert to join the Navy and has high hopes that he too will be an officer. Eventually, Albert enlists as a cadet and at the beginning of WWI is assigned to the Pacific aboard a light cruiser as a gun layer. By this time, he has been promoted to Leading Seaman. When his ship is sunk and he is taken prisoner aboard a German armored cruiser, as the sole survivor he takes it upon himself to single-handedly delay the ship from carrying out repairs so that a larger British heavy cruiser can intercept and destroy the vessel. He attempts this from the inhospitable Galapagos Island of Resolution.

The novel has been the basis of two films. In 1935 a young Sir John Mills played Albert in the first adaptation. 1953 saw the version called "Single Handed" in the UK and "Sailor of the King" in the US. Starring Jeffrey Hunter.

Public Domain (P)2023 Chris MacDonnell
Classics Fiction Genre Fiction War & Military Military Sailing
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CS Forester never fails to entertain. A sea yarn deftly spun. They made a movie based on this book

Great story

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One of the first sea-faring books I read as a teenager was Forester's A Captain From Connecticut, and that led me to the Hornblower series and several other of his works, which I enjoyed through high school.

It has been some years since I have encountered him, and this story surprised me, it was much darker than most of his other tales, and the first several chapters after the introduction were a Victorian romance story. Eventually we get to the naval battles and the seaman's story, but it is a gory and violent one that might easily have had a happier ending had the author wished to provide one.

Without giving too much away, I am troubled by the idea that the protagonist provided, at least implicitly, his parole as a prisoner of war and then violated it. Such things can happen, of course, but should the outcome be treated as unalloyed heroism?

Not Your Typical C.S. Forester Book

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