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  • Published: 30 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141971346
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 192

The Pursued




A compulsively readable and previously lost crime novel from the author of Hornblower, never before published

Marjorie had never seen a dead body until she got home one tranquil summer evening and found her sister Dot lying on the kitchen floor in a pretty dress, with her head in the oven. She looked peaceful, as if she was asleep. Their mother suspects, however, that Dot's death was far from natural. What's more, she knows who the killer is - and she is determined to make him suffer. So slowly and meticulously, she plots her revenge. After all, who would suspect a neatly dressed, grey-haired widow of anything? And what could possibly go wrong?

The Pursued, C. S. Forester's dark, twisted tale of murder, lust and retribution, was written in 1935, but its typescript manuscript was lost. More than seven decades later, it has now been rediscovered and is published for the first time. It is a novel years ahead of its time; rewriting the traditions of crime fiction to create a gripping psychological portrayal of obsession, jealousy, torment and the grim underside of suburban London life.

  • Published: 30 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141971346
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 192

About the author

C. S. Forester

C. S. Forester was born in Cairo in 1899, where his father was stationed as a government official. He studied medicine at Guy's Hospital and, after leaving Guy's without a degree, he turned to writing as a career.

His first success was Payment Deferred, a novel written at the age of twenty-four and later dramatized and filmed with Charles Laughton in the leading role. In 1932 Forester was offered a Hollywood contract, and from then until 1939 he spent thirteen weeks of every year in America.

On the outbreak of war he entered the Ministry of Information and later he sailed with the Royal Navy to collect the material for The Ship. He made a voyage to the Bering Sea to gather material for a similar book on the United States Navy, and it was during this trip that he was stricken with arteriosclerosis, a disease which left him crippled. However, he continued to write and in the Hornblower novels created the most renowned sailor in contemporary fiction. He died in 1966.

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Praise for The Pursued

C. S. Forester is a splendid storyteller

Guardian

I recommend Forester to every literate I know

Ernest Hemingway

Forester has a great eye and a subtle understanding of the dangerous passions lurking just beneath the surface of everyday life. A riveting read.

Sarah Waters