The Gun is a novel by C.S. Forester about an imaginary series of incidents involving a single eighteen-pounder cannon during the Peninsular War (1807–1814). The book was first published in 1933 and has as its background the brutal war of liberation of Spanish and Portuguese forces (regular and partisans) and their British allies against the occupying armies of Napoleonic France. As the story begins, the titular huge bronze cannon is abandoned by the remnants of a regular Spanish army retreating after their defeat in the Battle of Espinosa. The local people wish to employ it in their resistance against the French, but are eventually forced to hide it away beneath a pile of stone to prevent its capture.
Adaptations (1)
The Gun was adapted into a 1957 film.
The Pride and the Passion1957 · film · 132 min · dir. Stanley Kramer · IMDb ↗IMDb5.720%During the Napoleonic Wars, when the French have occupied Spain, some Spanish guerrilla soldiers are going to move a big cannon across Spain in order to help the British defeat the French. A British officer is there to accompany the Spanish and along the way, he falls in love with the leader's girl.
