THE CAPTAIN FROM CONNECTICUT C. S. ForesterLittle, Brown ($2.50).
The Captain from Connecticut, which recently appeared in abbreviated form in the Saturday Evening Post, contains a larger percentage of trash than Forester's Captain Horatio Hornblower and To the Indies, which contained almost none. But it is the best tall-drink reading of the season so far.
Forester takes his first American hero from a heroic era of U.S. sea powerthe days of Perry, John Paul Jones and Old Ironsides. Captain Josiah Peabody, commander of the U.S. frigate Delaware in the War of 1812, rather strongly suggests Gary Cooper.
In a superbly composed opening sequence, he...