Brown on Resolution

by C.S. Forester

Book Overview

WWI: For all his young life Albert Brown had known that he was to join the Navy, and the beginning of the First World War finds him a Leading Seaman. Alone on the barren island of Resolution in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0330021664
• Release Date: May 1987
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant and tragic tale

Forester warns you in the first line of this book not to expect a happy ending: it opens with the words "Leading Seaman Albert Brown lay dying on Resolution." About the only similarities with the author's Hornblower books is that both are very well written and both include a masterly depiction of war at sea. The book tells the story of the life of Albert Brown from conception to the single handed battle he fights against the German armoured cruiser "Zeithen" at the start of tbe First World War. The book has also been published under the title "Single Handed." "Brown on Resolution" is a story about heroism and duty, on the part of Albert Brown himself and the mother who throws away what could have been a comfortable middle class life to raise him. It also has a deeply ironic message about the difference between success and glory: Brown strikes a great blow for his country, but in circumstances which mean that neither he nor anyone back home ever knows it. The last sentence of the book is even more moving than the first: I won't quote it in full to avoid spoiling the tale but it includes the words "No one would ever know". This book inspired the film "Forever England" which was one of the first to star Sir John Mills. Both book and film came out between the first and second world wars. Interestingly, even all those years ago the film industry could take the idea of a tragic ending but not the idea that nobody knows what the hero has done, so they slightly modified the final scene. If you want to know how, you'll have to read the book and watch the film. It also inspired the later film "Sailor of the King" which was made after WWII; but this time the film industry meddled much more extensively with the story and included a happy ending. If you are into sea stories or tales of heroism, and you ever see a copy of this book in a bookshop or a library, grab it at once. I originally read an ancient copy in the school library when I was about 12, then bought a copy of the paperback which I found for sale in a cafe when it was reprinted 30 years ago, and those are almost the only copies of this book that I've ever seen. If you want to read a more upbeat C.S. Forester story of war at sea in the 20th Century, there are three which I can particularly recommend. These are "The Good Shepherd" which is about a convoy escort mission during the battle of the Atlantic; "The man in the yellow raft" about action in a US destroyer during the Pacific war; and best of all "The Ship" which is an absolutely brilliant account of a light cruiser in action while defending a Malta convoy against greatly superior forces.

surprisingly gripping, taut tale of naval service & duty

CS Forester wrote much besides his celebrated Hornblower series, and much of that hasn't held up well. But this is a surprising find, a novel of pointed coincidences set during World War I and written before World War II, that explores the meaning of duty. Neither overwritten or stilted like some of his lesser works, this tale shows terrific story-telling talent on the part of a very young Forester. At this point I have read every maritime-related work of fiction CSF published, and in quality this ranks among the top--even better, I think, than most of the Hornblower novels. Highly recommended--should be read by all high school boys.

Brown on Resolution is C. S. Forester's Best Book

While I saw the film version of this book during the 1950s, I only realized that the movie was derived from one of C. S. Forester's early works when I discovered a tattered paperback using the American edition title of "Singlehanded" on a remainder table. For $.25 I was able to read a masterpiece now almost forgotten, and all the more amazing because of how young Forester was when he wrote it -- 27.The story of a brief affair yielding an illegitimate son seemed an odd tale for Forester at any age, but as with most of his other books the writing itself was so good that I held on for the first half of the book. It turned out that there was a relation between the naval officer father mostly in the nearly forgotten background and the destiny of the son, who joins the Royal Navy and serves as a common sailor. As World War I starts, his ship is destroyed in the Pacific Ocean by a German cruiser and he is one of three survivors picked up by the victors. The cruiser retires into a Galapagos haven for repairs, the young sailor escapes with a rifle, and manages to hold up repairs long enough for the Naval officer father's task force to catch the German, with the father and son never knowing of each other's existence.This is one of the few true irony novels ever written, formed in the literary round, and possessed of truly superb craftsmanship at every level. Any serious reader should have a copy on their shelves.

Read it Once and Remember it Vividly

I read it when I was about 16. Its images stuck with me for over a quarter century. It is a tale about doing duty, doing duty whatever the personal costs. It deals with a upbringing in Victorian England by a single mother of her son. She is determined she will make a career for himself in the Royal Navy. The son is the product of an affair with the German Naval Liaison Officer stationed in London before WWI. She resolves to learn everything about the navy she can and raise her son to serve. And serve he does, until it takes him to a deserted Galapogas Island in WWI where he does deadly battle as a single man with a German Cruiser repairing in the waters after a naval action.No happy endings, just haunting images that stay with you. For me this is one of CS Forester's best novels. Read it if you can find a rare old edition in the second-hand bookstore.

Absolute Resolve

Forester's novel set in the first world war War is about the absolute resolve of a mother and her son. The mother that her son will become a naval hero, the son that he will do his duty. Duty over all. No matter what the concequences. Single handedly he contrives the destruction of a German cruiser. The novel is intense, the descriptions exacting. But no happy ending. Made into the 1953 movie "Sailor of the King" with a happier ending and a less detailed plot.