The General (novel)
Encyclopedia
Forester is best known for his famous series of Horatio Hornblower
novels which he began in 1937; few of his other works are well-known: The General (1936) and The African Queen
(1935) are exceptions and remain popular.
The General follows the career of Herbert Curzon from the time that he joins the army as a subaltern
through his experiences in the Second Boer War
to the happy day when he is given a regiment of his own to command. Curzon is unexceptional in every way, an officer like any other officer, and it is the very ordinariness of Forester's character that serves to give the novel power.
As the Great War begins, Curzon takes his part as a major of an unfashionable cavalry regiment. He is given a temporary promotion to battalion command and then quickly a brigade command. At the battle of Ypres
, he manages to keep his head about him and, upon the death of his brigadier, becomes a general. Curzon returns to England while his unit is in Belgium, and is promoted again through odd intrigues. He is promoted again and again, eventually being placed in command of a hundred thousand men, and orders attacks that condemn many of them to pointless mutilation and inevitable death amongst the shells and the gas and the machine guns.
Yet Curzon—General Sir Herbert Curzon by this time—is not a brutal man or an uncaring one: simply a brave and honest but stubborn and unimaginative leader. For Forester, the tale of Herbert Curzon's almost inevitable rise to high command, the senseless slaughters he directs, and his eventual retirement to the life of an aged cripple in a wheelchair, is not about Curzon himself—it is about the attitudes and mores of the British Army and of British society more generally, the attitudes that (in Forester's view) led to the appalling casualties and the horrors of the First World War.
For Forester, to understand Herbert Curzon's simple courage and determination to do his duty is to understand how men like Curzon, who were not by nature evil, were led to order the cream of their country's manhood to sacrifice themselves in the pointless bloody slaughter of the Somme or Verdun
or Gallipoli
.
The General has been widely praised as being an excellent and very realistic account of the mindset of the British Officer Corps in times of war, and as such many veterans are surprised to learn that the author himself never actually served in the armed forces. In fact, a persistent yet unsubstantiated rumor states that Adolf Hitler
was so impressed with the novel that he made it required reading for his top field commanders and general staff in the hopes that it would allow prominent German officers to be able to understand how their British counterparts thought. This rumor is referred to as fact by Forester in a foreword to a later edition of the novel.
Horatio Hornblower
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Royal Navy officer who is the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester. He was later the subject of films and television programs.The original Hornblower tales began with the 1937 novel The Happy Return Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Royal Navy...
novels which he began in 1937; few of his other works are well-known: The General (1936) and The African Queen
The African Queen (novel)
The African Queen is a 1935 novel written by C. S. Forester, which was adapted to the 1951 film with the same name.-Plot summary:The story opens in mid-1914. Rose Sayer, a 33-year-old English woman, is the companion and housekeeper of her brother Samuel, an Anglican missionary in Central Africa...
(1935) are exceptions and remain popular.
The General follows the career of Herbert Curzon from the time that he joins the army as a subaltern
Subaltern (rank)
A subaltern is a chiefly British military term for a junior officer. Literally meaning "subordinate," subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant. In the British Army the senior subaltern rank was...
through his experiences in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
to the happy day when he is given a regiment of his own to command. Curzon is unexceptional in every way, an officer like any other officer, and it is the very ordinariness of Forester's character that serves to give the novel power.
As the Great War begins, Curzon takes his part as a major of an unfashionable cavalry regiment. He is given a temporary promotion to battalion command and then quickly a brigade command. At the battle of Ypres
Battle of Ypres
There were five Battles of Ypres during World War I:*First Battle of Ypres *Second Battle of Ypres...
, he manages to keep his head about him and, upon the death of his brigadier, becomes a general. Curzon returns to England while his unit is in Belgium, and is promoted again through odd intrigues. He is promoted again and again, eventually being placed in command of a hundred thousand men, and orders attacks that condemn many of them to pointless mutilation and inevitable death amongst the shells and the gas and the machine guns.
Yet Curzon—General Sir Herbert Curzon by this time—is not a brutal man or an uncaring one: simply a brave and honest but stubborn and unimaginative leader. For Forester, the tale of Herbert Curzon's almost inevitable rise to high command, the senseless slaughters he directs, and his eventual retirement to the life of an aged cripple in a wheelchair, is not about Curzon himself—it is about the attitudes and mores of the British Army and of British society more generally, the attitudes that (in Forester's view) led to the appalling casualties and the horrors of the First World War.
For Forester, to understand Herbert Curzon's simple courage and determination to do his duty is to understand how men like Curzon, who were not by nature evil, were led to order the cream of their country's manhood to sacrifice themselves in the pointless bloody slaughter of the Somme or Verdun
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February – 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France...
or Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
.
The General has been widely praised as being an excellent and very realistic account of the mindset of the British Officer Corps in times of war, and as such many veterans are surprised to learn that the author himself never actually served in the armed forces. In fact, a persistent yet unsubstantiated rumor states that Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was so impressed with the novel that he made it required reading for his top field commanders and general staff in the hopes that it would allow prominent German officers to be able to understand how their British counterparts thought. This rumor is referred to as fact by Forester in a foreword to a later edition of the novel.