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Hornblower Saga: Chronological Order #2
Lieutenant Hornblower
His cool judgement under fire shows that young Hornblower is maturing as he repeatedly defeats the Spanish warships
306 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1952
433 people are currently reading
3094 people want to read
About the author
C.S. Forester
233 books960 followersCecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 577 reviews
July 18, 2023
The second of the Horatio Hornblower series the young British naval officer now promoted to Lieutenant, has him in the West Indies fighting Spanish soldiers and sailors from their Dominican Republic colony. Across the border in Haiti now revolting against the French not liking being slaves. Set in the early 1800's during the seemingly endless Napoleonic Wars. Complications arise when Captain Whiting of the H.M.S. Renown goes insane causing all hands on ship a little consternation , soon his increasing erratic behavior turns the tumultuous situation into you can imagine more confusion. Something must be done before disaster occurs yet mutiny is a hanging offense ...the crew is hesitant. Later Mr. Horatio Hornblower shows the navy what a leader he is overcoming great difficulties capturing the enemies fort through bravery and brains, while the rest procrastinate. Well he had some help, especially Lieutenant Bush technically his superior officer. However wars come to a sudden conclusion , unemployment rears its head as does starvation, people need
nourishment, which tells Hornblower one man is not very important to the uncaring government, he was just another sailor easily replaced. Respectable gambling is unknown back then yet customs have a habit to change greatly , now
his vice and only occupation, still the former seaman's cards have not been kind lately.Nevertheless the conflict resumes and strange as it is to us he is delighted better to die in the service of your country than starve to death. The book is for anyone interested in history , as close as we will ever get to the genuine article the actual conditions they lived , those who have a romantic heart, thrill to the wind blowing gently on sails and climbing the masts of tall ships as they skin the surface of a distant, strange sea exploring or fighting for survival as giant waves pound against their vessel in a treacherous world still the brave persevere and the crewmen catch the cool ocean spray, to be alive how glorious...
nourishment, which tells Hornblower one man is not very important to the uncaring government, he was just another sailor easily replaced. Respectable gambling is unknown back then yet customs have a habit to change greatly , now
his vice and only occupation, still the former seaman's cards have not been kind lately.Nevertheless the conflict resumes and strange as it is to us he is delighted better to die in the service of your country than starve to death. The book is for anyone interested in history , as close as we will ever get to the genuine article the actual conditions they lived , those who have a romantic heart, thrill to the wind blowing gently on sails and climbing the masts of tall ships as they skin the surface of a distant, strange sea exploring or fighting for survival as giant waves pound against their vessel in a treacherous world still the brave persevere and the crewmen catch the cool ocean spray, to be alive how glorious...
June 18, 2019
Lieutenant Hornblower is probably my favourite of the saga, although, like all books, it is not without its flaws. Nevertheless, it has much for the enthusiast to admire. It was Forester’s seventh Hornblower book, and he was hitting his stride. The nautical detail is excellent, and at its heart is a gripping adventure. The narrative is set on ship of the line which has been sent to clear out a nest of Spanish privateers operating in the Caribbean. This story is well constructed, with enough triumphs and disasters to satisfy. In addition, there is a second plot line charting the conflict between a paranoid captain and his officers. At the resolution of the novel a final section is added, set several months in the future, back in Britain during the Peace of Amiens (1802).
What I admire most in the book is the change in narrator. For the rest of the series we see the world through Hornblower’s eyes, but for this book (and only this book) our perspective moves to that of Lieutenant Bush. Bush, who is solid and reliable, but a little lacking in imagination is meeting Hornblower for the first time. He will go on to become his loyal sidekick. As a writer, I admire the audacity of what Forester has done, and as a reader I appreciate how well he pulls it off. But then he goes on to use this different perspective to tease the reader. Without giving any spoilers, the book contains a death at which Hornblower is likely to have been present, but Bush was not. It is a mystery that is never resolved, and hangs in the air like a shadow across the growing relationship between the two men.
I do have two problems with the book, however, neither of which are huge. One is a persistent issue with Forester villains, which cuts across all his work, naval or otherwise. They are always rather two dimensional, with no redeeming features, which makes them less plausible, and ultimately less terrible. If I was editing this book, I would want to see some back story to explain their personality, or a moment of relief, letting some light contrast the shade. Even Hitler liked dogs and children.
The second issue flows from the way that the series was constructed. Although this is the second book chronologically, it is actually the seventh one written. It was published in 1952, nearly twenty years after The Happy Return (called Beat to Quarters in the US), which was produced as a standalone novel. Forester wrote the second half of the series first, and can now be seen to be trying to reverse-engineer the story that precedes The Happy Return. This is a tall order. He needs Hornblower to befriend Bush, get promoted (twice), unwisely marry, have two children, and be senior enough to be in command of a frigate, all in a modest few years. The result is the curious final section of the book that has no real relevance to what has gone before, except when you realise that it is all about setting up what is to come.
But don’t let those two last points put you off – Lieutenant Hornblower is still a cracking book which handsomely rewards anyone’s time in reading it.
What I admire most in the book is the change in narrator. For the rest of the series we see the world through Hornblower’s eyes, but for this book (and only this book) our perspective moves to that of Lieutenant Bush. Bush, who is solid and reliable, but a little lacking in imagination is meeting Hornblower for the first time. He will go on to become his loyal sidekick. As a writer, I admire the audacity of what Forester has done, and as a reader I appreciate how well he pulls it off. But then he goes on to use this different perspective to tease the reader. Without giving any spoilers, the book contains a death at which Hornblower is likely to have been present, but Bush was not. It is a mystery that is never resolved, and hangs in the air like a shadow across the growing relationship between the two men.
I do have two problems with the book, however, neither of which are huge. One is a persistent issue with Forester villains, which cuts across all his work, naval or otherwise. They are always rather two dimensional, with no redeeming features, which makes them less plausible, and ultimately less terrible. If I was editing this book, I would want to see some back story to explain their personality, or a moment of relief, letting some light contrast the shade. Even Hitler liked dogs and children.
The second issue flows from the way that the series was constructed. Although this is the second book chronologically, it is actually the seventh one written. It was published in 1952, nearly twenty years after The Happy Return (called Beat to Quarters in the US), which was produced as a standalone novel. Forester wrote the second half of the series first, and can now be seen to be trying to reverse-engineer the story that precedes The Happy Return. This is a tall order. He needs Hornblower to befriend Bush, get promoted (twice), unwisely marry, have two children, and be senior enough to be in command of a frigate, all in a modest few years. The result is the curious final section of the book that has no real relevance to what has gone before, except when you realise that it is all about setting up what is to come.
But don’t let those two last points put you off – Lieutenant Hornblower is still a cracking book which handsomely rewards anyone’s time in reading it.
April 26, 2016
Get your horn blown in this book of complete seaman insanity! (Yes, I do plan on riding the seamen jokes long after they're played out!)
Our hero Horatio Hornblower is put in a tough position with his wardroom messmates. The captain of the HMS Renown has gone off his rocker and thinks his officers are plotting against him. They're not...well, not at first. They're pushed into it when things come to a head and it becomes apparent the captain's erratic behavior is endangering the ship. The lieutenants gather for a meeting to talk over the situation in a meeting that could be construed as mutinous. And that's when things take a surprising twist.
Lieutenant Hornblower is a different kind of Hornblower book in that its narrated by Bush, Hornblower's bestbud. This shift in the usual POV was probably done for a couple reasons. One, Bush leads a pivotal attack and two, Hornblower is caught in a tough situation affecting his financial and married life, which would be easier to show through someone else's eyes rather than hearing it from the source. An Englishman of that period (circa 1800) would never be so indelicate as to discuss such intimate details.
While this is the second book in the series, it's actually the seventh book Forester wrote about Hornblower's career in the navy. The series originally started with Hornblower having already obtained the rank of captain. After Forester took the series to its natural resolution, he went back and did a bunch of prequels to fill in the details of his hero's early days.
I bring this up only because the writing is affected by it. This book is more nuanced than those preceding it. Forester's plotting and character development improved as he went along. The first half of the series flows and feels old-shoe comfortable, while the latter half feels stilted and utilitarian. The whole thing, especially this book, is quite enjoyable, so that's just a minimal word-to-the-wise.
Our hero Horatio Hornblower is put in a tough position with his wardroom messmates. The captain of the HMS Renown has gone off his rocker and thinks his officers are plotting against him. They're not...well, not at first. They're pushed into it when things come to a head and it becomes apparent the captain's erratic behavior is endangering the ship. The lieutenants gather for a meeting to talk over the situation in a meeting that could be construed as mutinous. And that's when things take a surprising twist.
Lieutenant Hornblower is a different kind of Hornblower book in that its narrated by Bush, Hornblower's bestbud. This shift in the usual POV was probably done for a couple reasons. One, Bush leads a pivotal attack and two, Hornblower is caught in a tough situation affecting his financial and married life, which would be easier to show through someone else's eyes rather than hearing it from the source. An Englishman of that period (circa 1800) would never be so indelicate as to discuss such intimate details.
While this is the second book in the series, it's actually the seventh book Forester wrote about Hornblower's career in the navy. The series originally started with Hornblower having already obtained the rank of captain. After Forester took the series to its natural resolution, he went back and did a bunch of prequels to fill in the details of his hero's early days.
I bring this up only because the writing is affected by it. This book is more nuanced than those preceding it. Forester's plotting and character development improved as he went along. The first half of the series flows and feels old-shoe comfortable, while the latter half feels stilted and utilitarian. The whole thing, especially this book, is quite enjoyable, so that's just a minimal word-to-the-wise.
April 12, 2015
Excellent! I've never read any of this series before & this one is the second chronologically, but the sixth published. Not the place to start, but my library doesn't have the first chronologically. My edition is an audio by Chivers Audiobooks read by Christian Rodska. Very well read!
I wanted to read these because I really liked David Weber's Honor Harrington series & everyone, including the author, agree that it is a direct homage to the Hornblower series. I've also heard it's similar in some ways to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series which I like plus a lot of good things about it over the years. Somehow I never got around to reading it, though.
I'm always a little worried when I read a classic. So many have a great story, but the writing turns me off. Not in this case, although I'm surprised. There were times the description was very intricate & didn't really move the story forward, yet it was always interesting. For instance, there was a problem with a cannon touch hole & I was treated to an excruciatingly detailed description of how it was fixed. It worked. It helped build the tension & certainly fit into the story, although I'm still not positive how Forester managed to pull that off. From most other authors, it would have seemed like pure filler.
The story itself was very engaging & could have stopped at several points leaving me fulfilled &/or wanting more. Forester took it a lot further along than I would have guessed or wanted (if asked) but again it worked well much to my amazement. I guess a truly good author can break a lot of rules & keep me engaged.
I'm definitely going to get others in this series & listen to them.
I wanted to read these because I really liked David Weber's Honor Harrington series & everyone, including the author, agree that it is a direct homage to the Hornblower series. I've also heard it's similar in some ways to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series which I like plus a lot of good things about it over the years. Somehow I never got around to reading it, though.
I'm always a little worried when I read a classic. So many have a great story, but the writing turns me off. Not in this case, although I'm surprised. There were times the description was very intricate & didn't really move the story forward, yet it was always interesting. For instance, there was a problem with a cannon touch hole & I was treated to an excruciatingly detailed description of how it was fixed. It worked. It helped build the tension & certainly fit into the story, although I'm still not positive how Forester managed to pull that off. From most other authors, it would have seemed like pure filler.
The story itself was very engaging & could have stopped at several points leaving me fulfilled &/or wanting more. Forester took it a lot further along than I would have guessed or wanted (if asked) but again it worked well much to my amazement. I guess a truly good author can break a lot of rules & keep me engaged.
I'm definitely going to get others in this series & listen to them.
April 21, 2025
The second Hornblower novel is well-written and highly entertaining. Besides, it is a very informative read from the historical perspective. And this is one of the reasons why I find this saga fascinating.
August 14, 2014
This book picks up a short span after the first book. Now, Hornblower is the junior Lieutenant on the HMS Renown, a ship of the line. This book is a very marked departure from the start of the Hornblower series. And that is a very good thing.
First, the story is NOT told from Hornblower's perspective. Rather, the reader experiences the story and Hornblower's growth via a senior Lieutenant, Mr. Bush. Normally in series of this ilk we follow the same general perspective throughout, e.g., in the Sharpe series, we follow Sharpe. Forester shakes this up by viewing Hornblower from a third party's point of view. The result is fantastic. In the first book Hornblower can come across as a bit of a straight-edge. He tries earnestly to do the right thing. Always. Seen from the eyes of Mr. Bush, Hornblower appears cold, calculating and just a tad manipulative. (It makes me wonder how the main characters in my favorite books appear to the more minor characters? There's a mind bender.)
Next, whereas the first book was more a collection of adventures that collectively added up to the first book in the Hornblower saga, this was very much one story. And unlike the first book it is not light-hearted. The HMS Renown is not a happy ship. Captain James Sawyer is a paranoid schizophrenic. He believes the officers are conspiring against him. Hornblower and the other officers are, ironically, left with no other option than to conspire against him - a capital offense under the articles of war. Throughout the entire book the threat of a court martial and hanging looms over Hornblower. Rest assures, despite the pressure, Hornblower nevertheless manages to distinguish himself.
Again, one of the things that I like about this story thus far is the adversity that Hornblower faces. Unlike some Age of Sail (or Age of Sail in Space) that I've read, bad things happen to him. Nothing comes easy. At the end of the book he winds up on the edge of poverty in London following peace and the Treaty of Amiens. I like that. It makes the whole thing feel more authentic.
Color me impressed. Five starts out of five.
First, the story is NOT told from Hornblower's perspective. Rather, the reader experiences the story and Hornblower's growth via a senior Lieutenant, Mr. Bush. Normally in series of this ilk we follow the same general perspective throughout, e.g., in the Sharpe series, we follow Sharpe. Forester shakes this up by viewing Hornblower from a third party's point of view. The result is fantastic. In the first book Hornblower can come across as a bit of a straight-edge. He tries earnestly to do the right thing. Always. Seen from the eyes of Mr. Bush, Hornblower appears cold, calculating and just a tad manipulative. (It makes me wonder how the main characters in my favorite books appear to the more minor characters? There's a mind bender.)
Next, whereas the first book was more a collection of adventures that collectively added up to the first book in the Hornblower saga, this was very much one story. And unlike the first book it is not light-hearted. The HMS Renown is not a happy ship. Captain James Sawyer is a paranoid schizophrenic. He believes the officers are conspiring against him. Hornblower and the other officers are, ironically, left with no other option than to conspire against him - a capital offense under the articles of war. Throughout the entire book the threat of a court martial and hanging looms over Hornblower. Rest assures, despite the pressure, Hornblower nevertheless manages to distinguish himself.
Again, one of the things that I like about this story thus far is the adversity that Hornblower faces. Unlike some Age of Sail (or Age of Sail in Space) that I've read, bad things happen to him. Nothing comes easy. At the end of the book he winds up on the edge of poverty in London following peace and the Treaty of Amiens. I like that. It makes the whole thing feel more authentic.
Color me impressed. Five starts out of five.
October 14, 2023
This is the second in the continuing saga of Horatio Hornblower’s service in the British Navy. I understand that the series was not written in chronological order and that Forester wrote this book later in his life.
Here is the underlying plot to this portion:
"Every lieutenant could at least dream, even lieutenants like Bush with no imagination at all. Promotion was at least theoretically possible; from the caterpillar stage of lieutenant one might progress to the butterfly stage of captain, sometimes even without a chrysalis period as commander. Lieutenants undoubtedly were promoted on occasions; most of them, as was to be expected, being men who had friends at Court, or in Parliament, or who had been fortunate enough to attract the attention of an admiral and then lucky enough to be under that admiral's command at the moment when a vacancy occurred. Most of the captains on the list owed their promotion to one or other of such causes. But sometimes a lieutenant won his promotion through merit — through a combination of merit and good fortune, at least — and sometimes sheer blind chance brought it about. If a ship distinguished herself superlatively in some historic action the first lieutenant might be promoted (oddly enough, that promotion was considered a compliment to her captain), or if the captain should be killed in the action even a moderate success might result in a step for the senior surviving lieutenant who took his place. On the other hand some brilliant boat-action, some dashing exploit on shore, might win promotion for the lieutenant in command — the senior, of course. The chances were few enough in all conscience, but there were at least chances."
This book is about both Lt. William Bush and Lt. Horatio Hornblower. It is a story of careers and of friendship. It delves into the way the British Navy trained its sailors and officers and the conflict that there was between that training and their underlying humanity.
Bush is senior to Hornblower and both are serving on a ship with a captain whose mental instability is a constant concern. Later in the story, peace breaks out and both Bush and Hornblower find themselves at liberty and with slim prospects for a ship. I appreciated Forester’s ability to convey interesting vignettes of this period while keeping the action and tension foremost.
Not a disappointment.
Here is the underlying plot to this portion:
"Every lieutenant could at least dream, even lieutenants like Bush with no imagination at all. Promotion was at least theoretically possible; from the caterpillar stage of lieutenant one might progress to the butterfly stage of captain, sometimes even without a chrysalis period as commander. Lieutenants undoubtedly were promoted on occasions; most of them, as was to be expected, being men who had friends at Court, or in Parliament, or who had been fortunate enough to attract the attention of an admiral and then lucky enough to be under that admiral's command at the moment when a vacancy occurred. Most of the captains on the list owed their promotion to one or other of such causes. But sometimes a lieutenant won his promotion through merit — through a combination of merit and good fortune, at least — and sometimes sheer blind chance brought it about. If a ship distinguished herself superlatively in some historic action the first lieutenant might be promoted (oddly enough, that promotion was considered a compliment to her captain), or if the captain should be killed in the action even a moderate success might result in a step for the senior surviving lieutenant who took his place. On the other hand some brilliant boat-action, some dashing exploit on shore, might win promotion for the lieutenant in command — the senior, of course. The chances were few enough in all conscience, but there were at least chances."
This book is about both Lt. William Bush and Lt. Horatio Hornblower. It is a story of careers and of friendship. It delves into the way the British Navy trained its sailors and officers and the conflict that there was between that training and their underlying humanity.
Bush is senior to Hornblower and both are serving on a ship with a captain whose mental instability is a constant concern. Later in the story, peace breaks out and both Bush and Hornblower find themselves at liberty and with slim prospects for a ship. I appreciated Forester’s ability to convey interesting vignettes of this period while keeping the action and tension foremost.
Not a disappointment.
June 20, 2016
In the first (chronologically --the order in which the books were actually written is different) book of the Hornblower series, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, readers learn that he was promoted to lieutenant during the Spanish captivity from which he's released at the end of that book. This book picks up about three years later (which brings us to about 1800, since his date of rank is said to be August 1797), when he's the most junior lieutenant aboard the H.M.S. Renown. They're about to set sail from England under sealed orders; but as the reader quickly learns, that's not the scariest part of the situation. That would be the fact that the captain has fallen prey to a state of paranoid mental disturbance --which is steadily getting worse rather than better. The naval regulations of that day give him practically absolute powers on a ship at sea, and don't provide any regular channels for removing him on the basis of insanity. Anyone who's read Herman Wouk's 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny (or, like me, his subsequent play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial: A Drama In Two Acts) will see enough similarity between Capt. Sawyer and Capt. Queeg to suspect that the latter provided a model for the former. But Forester is his own writer, and this isn't a Wouk knock-off; the two authors develop their stories in distinctively different ways.
Some of my basic comments in my review of the first book (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) apply here as well. But this book is much less episodic; it has a continuous linear plot that holds interest throughout. Another significant difference is that Hornblower isn't the viewpoint character here; that lot falls to the ship's third officer, Lt. William Bush. This means we see Hornblower through other eyes than his own, and aren't inside his head at any point --a narrative strategy that not only gives us some distance from the main character and fleshes out another perspective, but allows Forester to shroud a key plot point with deliberate ambiguity and mystery. (You'll learn what I mean if you read the book!) IMO, this was a shrewd move on the author's part. The ethical question(s) subtly raised (or implied) here could provoke a lot of serious discussion; Forester doesn't imply any viewpoint about the matter, leaving it to the readers to formulate their own.
Forester shows himself to be a real master of characterization here, especially with Hornblower and Bush (who are very distinctive but equally real personalities, with their own virtues and faults), but with other characters as well. He does action scenes well and realistically, with the necessary (but not gratuitous) gore. The psychological and social situation created by a captain's madness, in the claustrophobic confines of a sail-powered warship, is masterfully evoked. Subtle social commentary about the characters' highly class-conscious world adds depth to the story-line, and we're also treated to a Regency novel of manners (with a naval flavor) in places. There's often a high degree of narrative tension and suspense here. Perhaps the main drawback of the book is the author's tendency to assume readers know a great deal more about technical matters (both those of early 19th-century ship handling and the card game whist) than this one does. (Though I could gather that the latter has some similarity to games like Rook, which I've played enough that I could get a tolerable sense of what was going on at the card table.) I could get a broad basic sense of the physical maneuvering of the ship in battle, but that was about it, and I have no real clue about the meaning of some of the nautical vocabulary (though I could deduce definitions of some of the terms). For all that, though, this was still a very satisfying read. I'll definitely be continuing with the series for now, though I don't plan to read all of the (chronologically) later books.
Some of my basic comments in my review of the first book (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) apply here as well. But this book is much less episodic; it has a continuous linear plot that holds interest throughout. Another significant difference is that Hornblower isn't the viewpoint character here; that lot falls to the ship's third officer, Lt. William Bush. This means we see Hornblower through other eyes than his own, and aren't inside his head at any point --a narrative strategy that not only gives us some distance from the main character and fleshes out another perspective, but allows Forester to shroud a key plot point with deliberate ambiguity and mystery. (You'll learn what I mean if you read the book!) IMO, this was a shrewd move on the author's part. The ethical question(s) subtly raised (or implied) here could provoke a lot of serious discussion; Forester doesn't imply any viewpoint about the matter, leaving it to the readers to formulate their own.
Forester shows himself to be a real master of characterization here, especially with Hornblower and Bush (who are very distinctive but equally real personalities, with their own virtues and faults), but with other characters as well. He does action scenes well and realistically, with the necessary (but not gratuitous) gore. The psychological and social situation created by a captain's madness, in the claustrophobic confines of a sail-powered warship, is masterfully evoked. Subtle social commentary about the characters' highly class-conscious world adds depth to the story-line, and we're also treated to a Regency novel of manners (with a naval flavor) in places. There's often a high degree of narrative tension and suspense here. Perhaps the main drawback of the book is the author's tendency to assume readers know a great deal more about technical matters (both those of early 19th-century ship handling and the card game whist) than this one does. (Though I could gather that the latter has some similarity to games like Rook, which I've played enough that I could get a tolerable sense of what was going on at the card table.) I could get a broad basic sense of the physical maneuvering of the ship in battle, but that was about it, and I have no real clue about the meaning of some of the nautical vocabulary (though I could deduce definitions of some of the terms). For all that, though, this was still a very satisfying read. I'll definitely be continuing with the series for now, though I don't plan to read all of the (chronologically) later books.
November 1, 2020
These books have become a good change in pace from what I normally read. It takes me a couple of chapters to get back into the nautical language !!! but when I do, the fun begins. He is so humble it is funny. And he is so kind. I love that.
November 22, 2009
All the editions seem to think they're short books on tape tied to the TV movies...oh well.
This exceptional series continues with Lieutenant Hornblower and his move to another ship as 5th Lieutenant. The Captain being a paranoid schizophrenic doesn't help a lot.
After adventure, danger, death....intrigue Hornblower gains promotion to Commander, unfortunatly the promotion isn't confirmed before peace "breaks out". Hornblower must pay back the difference in his Lieutenant's pay and the Commander's pay he'd started to receive, before he reverts back to that level. Once he's ashore with no ship (ain't peace awful?) he's reduced to making a living through card playing (wist).
But "happily" the peace doesn't hold (irony huh) and he's called back to navy confirmed as a Commander of a sloop of war.
Of course, he also met his soon to be "first wife" while he was on shore...
This exceptional series continues with Lieutenant Hornblower and his move to another ship as 5th Lieutenant. The Captain being a paranoid schizophrenic doesn't help a lot.
After adventure, danger, death....intrigue Hornblower gains promotion to Commander, unfortunatly the promotion isn't confirmed before peace "breaks out". Hornblower must pay back the difference in his Lieutenant's pay and the Commander's pay he'd started to receive, before he reverts back to that level. Once he's ashore with no ship (ain't peace awful?) he's reduced to making a living through card playing (wist).
But "happily" the peace doesn't hold (irony huh) and he's called back to navy confirmed as a Commander of a sloop of war.
Of course, he also met his soon to be "first wife" while he was on shore...
December 30, 2019
I love all the Hornblower stories and movies too. I recommend them highly to all readers who enjoy a rollicking sea story of old written by a consummate author. His books are classics and the movies exciting and really enjoyable.
April 11, 2010
Lieutenant Hornblower may be the name of the book, and he's certainly what it's about, but there's a fine little twist that begins on the first page and is sustained throughout: Lieutenant Hornblower is not from his point of view.
Instead of experiencing HMS Renown's time in the Caribbean through Lieutenant Hornblower's eyes, we see the Renown's mission to Santo Domingo from the perspective of one of Horatio's superior officers, Lieutenant William Bush.
Bush -- a solid, steady, unimaginative Lieutenant -- meets Hornblower in the earliest stages of the novel, and everything we know about the title character comes through the filter of Bush. At first Bush finds Hornblower fascinating, then he feels a twinge of jealousy, then some fear when he wonders if Hornblower is responsible for maiming Captain Sawyer (and putting him permanently out of commission), then wonder at Hornblower's self-control, then some admiration, before a return of anger, and finally a deep respect and devoted friendship for the junior officer who is destined to become his superior.
It's an interesting move for an author of a series to make, but [C.S. Forester:]'s use of Bush in Lieutenant Hornblower is effective in a couple of pragmatic ways. First, Forester controls exactly what he wants us to know about Hornblower; second, this withheld knowledge leaves us always wondering, along with Bush, whether Hornblower really did have anything to do with the injuring of Captain Sawyer, and maybe even his murder during the retaking of Renown from a pack of captured privateers; third, it gives us the very important experience of seeing how the men who follow Hornblower, subordinates and superiors alike, come to lay their lives on the line for such a distant, arrogant, mysterious and precocious young man.
Lieutenant Hornblower isn't without its flaws, though. It's nautical bits seem to be a bit of annoyance to the author, who uses them primarily as a way to move the reader from one nasty battle or action set piece to the next. This peculiarity makes it feel more like something out of the Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell's anti-heroic rifleman, than Patrick O'Brian's superior Aubrey/Maturin series. Which isn't to say that Cornwell and Forester are bad -- far from it -- but I'd much rather eat a perfectly cooked steak than overcooked hamburgers.
Then again, when steak isn't available burger is a satisfying substitute. And I've know doubt I will be eating burgers again very soon.
Instead of experiencing HMS Renown's time in the Caribbean through Lieutenant Hornblower's eyes, we see the Renown's mission to Santo Domingo from the perspective of one of Horatio's superior officers, Lieutenant William Bush.
Bush -- a solid, steady, unimaginative Lieutenant -- meets Hornblower in the earliest stages of the novel, and everything we know about the title character comes through the filter of Bush. At first Bush finds Hornblower fascinating, then he feels a twinge of jealousy, then some fear when he wonders if Hornblower is responsible for maiming Captain Sawyer (and putting him permanently out of commission), then wonder at Hornblower's self-control, then some admiration, before a return of anger, and finally a deep respect and devoted friendship for the junior officer who is destined to become his superior.
It's an interesting move for an author of a series to make, but [C.S. Forester:]'s use of Bush in Lieutenant Hornblower is effective in a couple of pragmatic ways. First, Forester controls exactly what he wants us to know about Hornblower; second, this withheld knowledge leaves us always wondering, along with Bush, whether Hornblower really did have anything to do with the injuring of Captain Sawyer, and maybe even his murder during the retaking of Renown from a pack of captured privateers; third, it gives us the very important experience of seeing how the men who follow Hornblower, subordinates and superiors alike, come to lay their lives on the line for such a distant, arrogant, mysterious and precocious young man.
Lieutenant Hornblower isn't without its flaws, though. It's nautical bits seem to be a bit of annoyance to the author, who uses them primarily as a way to move the reader from one nasty battle or action set piece to the next. This peculiarity makes it feel more like something out of the Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell's anti-heroic rifleman, than Patrick O'Brian's superior Aubrey/Maturin series. Which isn't to say that Cornwell and Forester are bad -- far from it -- but I'd much rather eat a perfectly cooked steak than overcooked hamburgers.
Then again, when steak isn't available burger is a satisfying substitute. And I've know doubt I will be eating burgers again very soon.
September 29, 2012
I am so glad I never read the Hornblower books when I was younger, since I get to enjoy them as fresh reads now. It must be redundant to say what an interesting character Forester has created and how well he integrates the history.
I have read most of the Patrick O'Brien books, and it is unavoidable to compare the two series, a common element of which is the arbitrary and often unfair nature of a life controlled by the politics of the British navy. In my view, both series are great escapist reading, with lots of action. So far, Forester's Hornblower seems to have a more focused career path than O'Brien's Aubrey.
The interplay among the lieutenants is fascinating, and Forester provides insights into how to survive and rise in any complex organization. What we don't get is an understanding of what Hornblower thinks about the risks he takes and the way luck plays a hand, since the story is not told from Hornblower's POV. And, by the way, how did the captain fall into the hole?
I understand from other reviewers that this is the only book in the series not from Hornblower's POV, which I think is probably a good thing. Does anyone know why Forester wrote this one as he did?
I have read most of the Patrick O'Brien books, and it is unavoidable to compare the two series, a common element of which is the arbitrary and often unfair nature of a life controlled by the politics of the British navy. In my view, both series are great escapist reading, with lots of action. So far, Forester's Hornblower seems to have a more focused career path than O'Brien's Aubrey.
The interplay among the lieutenants is fascinating, and Forester provides insights into how to survive and rise in any complex organization. What we don't get is an understanding of what Hornblower thinks about the risks he takes and the way luck plays a hand, since the story is not told from Hornblower's POV. And, by the way, how did the captain fall into the hole?
I understand from other reviewers that this is the only book in the series not from Hornblower's POV, which I think is probably a good thing. Does anyone know why Forester wrote this one as he did?
October 23, 2015
Karijera casnog i pametnog mornara u surovoj sredini se nastavlja :) Ovog puta imamo vise akcija, cak i napad na utvrdjenje, a i sama radnja je nekako vise popunjena tako da se mnogo brze cita. Prosto vuce.
Svi likovi u knjizi su fino realizovani i ostavljaju utisak pravih ljudi pa imamo likove za koje navijamo i koje mrzimo. Good times.
A i kraj je odlican mada FU glavnom liku za sve muke koje je preziveo.
U svakom slucaju preporuka.
Svi likovi u knjizi su fino realizovani i ostavljaju utisak pravih ljudi pa imamo likove za koje navijamo i koje mrzimo. Good times.
A i kraj je odlican mada FU glavnom liku za sve muke koje je preziveo.
U svakom slucaju preporuka.
January 12, 2021
The 2nd novel in the series chronologically. unlike the first it is told from the point of view of Lieutenant Bush, who meets and serves with our hero, the start of a friendship that continues through the rest of the series. Perfect escapism for the current lockdown world, adventures on high seas in foreign sunlit lands, and Forester is a master at managing to convey the workings of a naval ship in detail but never losing the reader and always making it sound exhilerating.
November 4, 2023
C.S. Forester, Lieutenant Hornblower, 1951.
Book 2 of 11 goodreads.com/series/49812-hornblower...
Lad lit. Set in the British navy during the Napoleonic wars. Good character development, interesting settings.
In this second book, Hornblower is a lieutenant, in 1803, age about 26, in the Caribbean.
Wikipedia's fictional biography: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horat...
There's a terrific set of eight TV movies of these stories, starring Ioan Gruffudd.
Book 1 was the first four movies:
I Horatio Hornblower: The Duel, 1998: (chapters 1-5)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0129686/fu...
II The Fire Ships, 1998: (chapters 7-9)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0194947/fu...
III The Duchess and the Devil, 1999: (chapter 10)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0194946/fu...
IV The Wrong War, 1999: (chapter 6)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0194948/fu...
The TV movies improve the stories, adding drama, excitement, and romance. Excellent pacing, beautiful replicas of naval sailing ships, great acting, fine music, good costumes.
This book 2 comprises movies 5-8:
Mutiny (2001)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0273656/fu...
Retribution (2001) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0273657/fu...
Loyalty (2003) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0327890/fu...
Duty (2003) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0352410/fu...
A list of the eleven Hornblower books, and how the 20th-century author learned what naval life was like, 1790-1820: https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio...
Book 2 of 11 goodreads.com/series/49812-hornblower...
Lad lit. Set in the British navy during the Napoleonic wars. Good character development, interesting settings.
In this second book, Hornblower is a lieutenant, in 1803, age about 26, in the Caribbean.
Wikipedia's fictional biography: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horat...
There's a terrific set of eight TV movies of these stories, starring Ioan Gruffudd.
Book 1 was the first four movies:
I Horatio Hornblower: The Duel, 1998: (chapters 1-5)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0129686/fu...
II The Fire Ships, 1998: (chapters 7-9)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0194947/fu...
III The Duchess and the Devil, 1999: (chapter 10)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0194946/fu...
IV The Wrong War, 1999: (chapter 6)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0194948/fu...
The TV movies improve the stories, adding drama, excitement, and romance. Excellent pacing, beautiful replicas of naval sailing ships, great acting, fine music, good costumes.
This book 2 comprises movies 5-8:
Mutiny (2001)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0273656/fu...
Retribution (2001) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0273657/fu...
Loyalty (2003) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0327890/fu...
Duty (2003) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0352410/fu...
A list of the eleven Hornblower books, and how the 20th-century author learned what naval life was like, 1790-1820: https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio...
October 10, 2018
Not a lot of depth, but enormous fun.
October 21, 2011
There are not *words* for how much I love the character of William Bush after reading this. Normally I can't stand stoic and unimaginative characters, but Bush is just so endearing, and Forester keeps making little asides like 'if Bush had been possessed of an imagination' and 'of course Bush saw nothing odd in Hornblower's desiring a position that placed him in great danger' and I love it. 'Course, this book being from Bush's POV, you don't get much of Hornblower's self-doubt coming through, but that's possibly a good thing now he's a proven officer. (I do worry that that particular character trait will really annoy me when we return to Hornblower's POV because now it just seems like wilful blindness not to recognise that, oh hey, I am actually quite capable at my job. Anyway.)
But it's OK, because we get a lots of lovely lengthy paragraphs detailing Bush's admiration for Mr Hornblower (not to mention Mr Hornblower's hands; they crop up fairly frequently) and how *wrong* it is for a first lieutenant to so admire a third. (Shippers gonna ship, I'm afraid.) Oh and there is also the most beautiful scene with Bush being an adorable drunk that had people coming up to me to ask if I was all right. Plus we get to watch Hornblower be endearingly awful at personal relationships.
I just like this book a lot, I'm sorry, I'll shut up now.
But it's OK, because we get a lots of lovely lengthy paragraphs detailing Bush's admiration for Mr Hornblower (not to mention Mr Hornblower's hands; they crop up fairly frequently) and how *wrong* it is for a first lieutenant to so admire a third. (Shippers gonna ship, I'm afraid.) Oh and there is also the most beautiful scene with Bush being an adorable drunk that had people coming up to me to ask if I was all right. Plus we get to watch Hornblower be endearingly awful at personal relationships.
I just like this book a lot, I'm sorry, I'll shut up now.
May 23, 2022
This is the second book in the series and opens with Lieutenant Bush climbing aboard to join HMS Renown as the ship's third lieutenant. The officer on watch as he does so is Hornblower, the ship's most junior (fifth) lieutenant.
All the action that follows is told from Bush's point of view. It starts in Plymouth Sound where an atmosphere of fear and suspicion exists between the captain and his officers, an apparent accident befalling the captain, a mission to the West Indies that ends in triumph before finishing off in the peacetime port of Portsmouth.
In this second book Hornblower has progressed in rank with much of his character already formed by the time the novel opens, but here get to see how his natural talents which as a leader of men and a strategist begin to develop and be recognised. Whilst Forester provides a pretty convincing portrayal of what is takes to sail a wooden warship in the heat of battle it still takes quite a leap in faith to believe that more senior officers would not only follow the suggestions made by a junior officer so closely but also give him credit for its subsequent sucess.
It has been quite a few years since I last read any of these books and this is a re-read however, I've always been a bit of a sucker for a maritime yarn. I found it a pacy piece of escapism but just not up to the standards of Alexander Kent's Bolitho series.
All the action that follows is told from Bush's point of view. It starts in Plymouth Sound where an atmosphere of fear and suspicion exists between the captain and his officers, an apparent accident befalling the captain, a mission to the West Indies that ends in triumph before finishing off in the peacetime port of Portsmouth.
In this second book Hornblower has progressed in rank with much of his character already formed by the time the novel opens, but here get to see how his natural talents which as a leader of men and a strategist begin to develop and be recognised. Whilst Forester provides a pretty convincing portrayal of what is takes to sail a wooden warship in the heat of battle it still takes quite a leap in faith to believe that more senior officers would not only follow the suggestions made by a junior officer so closely but also give him credit for its subsequent sucess.
It has been quite a few years since I last read any of these books and this is a re-read however, I've always been a bit of a sucker for a maritime yarn. I found it a pacy piece of escapism but just not up to the standards of Alexander Kent's Bolitho series.
December 28, 2021
It was an interesting choice for Forester to not make Hornblower the main character in this one. It really works, though, because it gives you a chance to see the character through someone else's eyes rather than via Hornblower himself. It actually made me like the character even more.
October 17, 2011
This review is for the complete 11-book series of THE HORNBLOWER SAGA by C.S. Forester, which I just finished reading last night.
[Note: Individual books have individual star ratings (mostly 5-star, a few 4-star), but the descriptive review will be the same for each, and encompass the entire series, as follows.]
Actually, I just finished reading the complete series for the second time, the first being as a teenager some 30 years ago.
It's remarkable to me that I have only just this moment realized that my own timeline regarding the two readings corresponds almost exactly to the age progression experienced by the main character in the course of these 11 novels.
It's a 30-year journey unlike any other I have ever taken in books - full and deep and satisfying.
This is the epic saga of fictional British naval hero HORATIO HORNBLOWER, who goes from a 17-year-old midshipman to a 46-year-old admiral during the "golden age of sail" which encompasses the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century.
I'll list the 11 books in chronological order (not the order they were written), which is the best way, I believe, to read them:
- MR. MIDSHIPMAN HORNBLOWER
- LIEUTENANT HORNBLOWER
- HORNBLOWER AND THE HOTSPUR
- HORNBLOWER DURING THE CRISIS
- HORNBLOWER AND THE ATROPOS
- BEAT TO QUARTERS
- SHIP OF THE LINE
- FLYING COLOURS
- COMMODORE HOWNBLOWER
- LORD HORNBLOWER
- ADMIRAL HORNBLOWER IN THE WEST INDIES
I've read other sea-faring novels, but to me, Forester earns the crown.
Why?
Many reasons, but I'll list just three:
1. All the rousing action you could ask for in a well-paced adventure series...
2. ...coupled with a complex main character. This is the true secret of the Hornblower books - that Hornblower himself is not some one-dimensional, infallible, faultless hero. On the contrary, he is filled with self-doubt and doesn't always choose the best course, especially in personal matters. But by building the main character this way, Forester allows you to recognize, empathize, and eventually care deeply about him - rooting for his success rather than merely expecting it. It's this complex characterization that complements and actually allows for the heroics of the plot - because it all comes at a price.
[One price is so high that, as a teenager, I couldn't believe that Forester had actually done it. I can't go into detail because this is a spoiler-free review, but something happens that is so devastating that literally for entire books afterwards, I kept expecting Forester to make amends. But it doesn't happen. And finally, as an older adult - knowing it will happen, knowing there will be no reprieve - I realize Forester was saying, "This is the price of war."]
3. The Language of Sailing Ships: I'm not nautically-minded, and there is much use of nautical language in these books. But rather than being annoyed, I had a very different reaction. First, I learned a few things. But much more importantly, I also grew to appreciate the language itself, whether I understood its technical details or not. To me, it became like poetry. Or even music.
And I loved it.
All 11 books.
It's an investment, to be sure.
But, for those "able-bodied", a wonderfully entertaining journey awaits.
Should you set sail?
Aye-aye!
[Note: Individual books have individual star ratings (mostly 5-star, a few 4-star), but the descriptive review will be the same for each, and encompass the entire series, as follows.]
Actually, I just finished reading the complete series for the second time, the first being as a teenager some 30 years ago.
It's remarkable to me that I have only just this moment realized that my own timeline regarding the two readings corresponds almost exactly to the age progression experienced by the main character in the course of these 11 novels.
It's a 30-year journey unlike any other I have ever taken in books - full and deep and satisfying.
This is the epic saga of fictional British naval hero HORATIO HORNBLOWER, who goes from a 17-year-old midshipman to a 46-year-old admiral during the "golden age of sail" which encompasses the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century.
I'll list the 11 books in chronological order (not the order they were written), which is the best way, I believe, to read them:
- MR. MIDSHIPMAN HORNBLOWER
- LIEUTENANT HORNBLOWER
- HORNBLOWER AND THE HOTSPUR
- HORNBLOWER DURING THE CRISIS
- HORNBLOWER AND THE ATROPOS
- BEAT TO QUARTERS
- SHIP OF THE LINE
- FLYING COLOURS
- COMMODORE HOWNBLOWER
- LORD HORNBLOWER
- ADMIRAL HORNBLOWER IN THE WEST INDIES
I've read other sea-faring novels, but to me, Forester earns the crown.
Why?
Many reasons, but I'll list just three:
1. All the rousing action you could ask for in a well-paced adventure series...
2. ...coupled with a complex main character. This is the true secret of the Hornblower books - that Hornblower himself is not some one-dimensional, infallible, faultless hero. On the contrary, he is filled with self-doubt and doesn't always choose the best course, especially in personal matters. But by building the main character this way, Forester allows you to recognize, empathize, and eventually care deeply about him - rooting for his success rather than merely expecting it. It's this complex characterization that complements and actually allows for the heroics of the plot - because it all comes at a price.
[One price is so high that, as a teenager, I couldn't believe that Forester had actually done it. I can't go into detail because this is a spoiler-free review, but something happens that is so devastating that literally for entire books afterwards, I kept expecting Forester to make amends. But it doesn't happen. And finally, as an older adult - knowing it will happen, knowing there will be no reprieve - I realize Forester was saying, "This is the price of war."]
3. The Language of Sailing Ships: I'm not nautically-minded, and there is much use of nautical language in these books. But rather than being annoyed, I had a very different reaction. First, I learned a few things. But much more importantly, I also grew to appreciate the language itself, whether I understood its technical details or not. To me, it became like poetry. Or even music.
And I loved it.
All 11 books.
It's an investment, to be sure.
But, for those "able-bodied", a wonderfully entertaining journey awaits.
Should you set sail?
Aye-aye!
July 29, 2023
This book really should have been called Mr. Bush as most of the story centered around this character, Hornblower mainly in the wings.
This story was really good in that it showed just how hard the seafaring man had it when there was no war going on, being under the command of an unsteady captain and all the contradicting orders that followed and just how sympathetic Hornblower really was with the opposite sex which I believe lead him to an unfortunate match!
I was able to picture various scenarios from the books in the TV series and how the writers changed a few characters around and fiddled with the storyline. But still, all was good!
7/23 - 5 stars this time around. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, especially getting to know Bush better and the friendship he forms with Hornblower. Exciting sea battles, land battles and generally a good tale. But I did notice the story basically dropped the Sawyer storyline and wimped out at the end by having things happen off-stage. (And by the way, I think Hornblower pushed him.)
Looking forward to the next which I don't think I've read before.
This story was really good in that it showed just how hard the seafaring man had it when there was no war going on, being under the command of an unsteady captain and all the contradicting orders that followed and just how sympathetic Hornblower really was with the opposite sex which I believe lead him to an unfortunate match!
I was able to picture various scenarios from the books in the TV series and how the writers changed a few characters around and fiddled with the storyline. But still, all was good!
7/23 - 5 stars this time around. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, especially getting to know Bush better and the friendship he forms with Hornblower. Exciting sea battles, land battles and generally a good tale. But I did notice the story basically dropped the Sawyer storyline and wimped out at the end by having things happen off-stage. (And by the way, I think Hornblower pushed him.)
Looking forward to the next which I don't think I've read before.
August 4, 2011
A very good book, very enjoyable, I would like to read more of these Horation Hornblower books.
May 1, 2017
Another excellent instalment of the seminal Hornblower series, this entertaining and thoroughly researched novel has three segments: the crisis of command on board British ship of the line the Renown following the descent of its captain into madness; classic high seas action and derring do as its crew clash with Spanish privateers in the Caribbean; and Hornblower's struggle to survive back home in England on half pay after peace is declared in 1802.
Forester cleverly picks a new character - the judgemental but stalwart Lt Bush - for his main POV narrative, which gives the reader a more neutral take on the eponymous hero. By now Lt Hornblower is an indefatiguable and resourceful officer with nearly a decade's experience at sea, and Bush soon learns to respect his lower-ranked comrade, who proves invaluable in outwitting and outflanking their Spanish foes in Haiti.
But it is the last segment of the novel that really caught my attention: subversive isn't often a word that springs to mind when describing a swashbuckling tale of high adventure, but Forester certainly doesn't shy away from shedding light on the gross unfairness of a society that saw fit to promote the wealthy and well-connected while able officers of Hornblower's merit were left to languish on paltry peacetime wages once their services were no longer required.
This story has just about everything packed into it: gun battles, swordfights, gambling, prize money, madness, near mutiny and dry English humour, all delivered to your imagination courtesy of Forester's muscular prose. A must for any fan of nautical historical fiction.
Forester cleverly picks a new character - the judgemental but stalwart Lt Bush - for his main POV narrative, which gives the reader a more neutral take on the eponymous hero. By now Lt Hornblower is an indefatiguable and resourceful officer with nearly a decade's experience at sea, and Bush soon learns to respect his lower-ranked comrade, who proves invaluable in outwitting and outflanking their Spanish foes in Haiti.
But it is the last segment of the novel that really caught my attention: subversive isn't often a word that springs to mind when describing a swashbuckling tale of high adventure, but Forester certainly doesn't shy away from shedding light on the gross unfairness of a society that saw fit to promote the wealthy and well-connected while able officers of Hornblower's merit were left to languish on paltry peacetime wages once their services were no longer required.
This story has just about everything packed into it: gun battles, swordfights, gambling, prize money, madness, near mutiny and dry English humour, all delivered to your imagination courtesy of Forester's muscular prose. A must for any fan of nautical historical fiction.
September 7, 2016
This book is a classic in the Age of Fighting Sail genre so I do not think I can add much to what has probably already been said about this book and the series that it is part of. I will simply state that I am a fan of this genre and thought that I should read this series if I wish to continue calling myself a fan. However, now having read two books in this series I still think O'Brian and Woodman were better, certainly as regards sea lore and sailing knowledge. Of course that opinion may change as I read more entries in this series. I did find the book entertaining though the action was rather ordinary and familiar. What I did enjoy was the author's use of the book to develop Hornblower's character and his growth as a man and as an aspiring leader. The author, I hope, seems also to be developing what could be a secondary character or sidekick in the person of the character Lt. Bush. I hope to see more of this as I continue in the series as much space was devoted to their relationship in this book and would be a shame to see that done for naught. An entertaining read.
January 19, 2018
I love Horatio Hornblower- both the character created by C.S. Forester and the series. I've now read books 1,2 and 10. I began with 10 and found I like it so much that I'm going back to the beginning. This book was enjoyable because I'm a Navy man and the exploits and heroics of the main character make it nearly impossible to put down. It's non-stop action and adventure. If you crave action and excitement in a 19th century nautical setting, then you'll love this series.
In this book HH starts out on the HMS Renown- a ship of the line- in the British Navy. His commanding officer is a raving, paranoid maniac- who berates his officers and... well... you'll need to pick up the story and see how it goes for HH and the crew as their exploits that take them to the tropics of the West Indies to do the bidding of the King and fight the Spaniards.
This is the 9th book of my 2018 reading challenge and I made quick work of it because it's a real page turner. Can you tell I love it?
In this book HH starts out on the HMS Renown- a ship of the line- in the British Navy. His commanding officer is a raving, paranoid maniac- who berates his officers and... well... you'll need to pick up the story and see how it goes for HH and the crew as their exploits that take them to the tropics of the West Indies to do the bidding of the King and fight the Spaniards.
This is the 9th book of my 2018 reading challenge and I made quick work of it because it's a real page turner. Can you tell I love it?
September 19, 2024
This is arguably the most interesting of the Hornblower novels and also one of some particular personal significance. Having had Ash point out a copy to me in the second hand bookshop at Mount Stewart, I picked it up and enjoyed a brisk re-read of an influential book.
When Forester wrote this, he had already charted the future of Hornblower and Bush's relationship. Having introduced them as Captain and First Lieutenant respectively in the 1936 publication The Happy Return (aka Beat to Quarters for the American market) he followed their professional development through The Ship of the Line, then Flying Colours, then The Commodore before concluding Hornblower and Bush's part in the Napoleonic wars with Lord Hornblower published in 1946.
Understandably fond of his character and his maritime adventures, Forester delved into Hornblower's pre-Happy Return past to deliver Mr Midshipman Hornblower in 1950, and that I think is where I picked up the series, with what were essentially a collection of short stories about Hornblower's adventures on and around Sir Edward Pellew's famed frigate Indefatigable. Perhaps because of the age of its protagonist there is a Young Adult feel to Mr Midshipman Hornblower that led a pre-teen reader like me smoothly into the series and indeed the whole genre.
Chronologically (on Hornblower's timeline) Lieutenant Hornblower is the second book in the series and I probably got that out of the local library. By that stage Forester knew the full future of both his characters and was essentially retro-fitting a backstory onto those future relationships.
There are some anachronisms. In The Happy Return Hornblower refers to having had other first lieutenants before Bush and been dissatisfied with a degree of overfamiliarity he had allowed, hence his more reserved and aloof captainship on the long journey round Cape Horn. This may be partly why Forester waited ten years between publication of the Lieutenant Hornblower and its immediate chronological sequel Hornblower and the Hotspur (published 1962) where it becomes clear that Bush has always been first lieutenant of Hornblower's ships.
The chief peculiarity of Lieutenant Hornblower is that, unlike all the other b0oks, it is told from Bush's third person limited point of view, rather than Hornblower's (apart from a few passages where Forester, unable to resist hopping into Hornblower's head, slips into an omniscient narration). This device serves two purposes, it keeps the essential mystery of what happened to Captain Sawyer as an enigma for the reader - could Hornblower really have been a cold blooded murderer? It's second purpose is to give us both an insight into Bush's character and an outsider's perspective on Hornblower.
In the books already written, Forester had depicted Bush as a loyal, competent but fundamentally unimaginative officer who could only ever have reached the rank of captain through extreme good fortune. Making him at this point senior to Hornblower, allowed Forester to impose some significant constraints on his favourite protagonist. It also means that Forester has to constantly qualify his elegant prose and character analysis with passages that go The feelings/thoughts that Bush was experiencing were essentially 'X' but he lacked the capacity to express/recognise it in those terms The limitations of Bush the character force Forester to be a more intrusive author.
One of the features of Hornblower - as Forester had already written him - was a social awkwardness that prevents him from scrabbling for self-interest. In A Ship of the Line Hornblower internally bemoans his reluctance to glad-hand the dockyard supervisors in order to garner preferential interest for fitting out his ship, reflecting that 'It was not his conscience that stopped him, but his self-consciousness'. In Lieutenant Hornblower Forester has Bush witness this trait and be frustrated by it when Hornblower is playing whist with two very influential admirals and ignores key opportunities to mention/name drop his triumphant exploits in Santa Domingo, instead falling back on self-deprecating comments that border on rudeness.
Reading this as a ten or eleven year old, the place names were all a mystery to me, but - with google maps at my phone finger tips it was easy to zoom in on Scotchman's Bay off Haiti and to finally appreciate the dangers of the long narrow Bahia de Samana where HMS Renown was trapped on a sandbank between the hostile fire of two enemy forts. Forester's fidelity to geographic and historical detail was remarkable, and the detail in his description of naval operations from moving guns, to kedging a ship of a sandbank were all very impressive. They have that air of realism, even if they may not be entirely real. I say this because at one point in wind strong enough to have the ship heeling, Forester has the Renown travelling with studding sails set. Studding sails were, as I understand them, fragile sail extensions used only in conditions of almost dead calm, when the ship was desperate to catch every breath of wind.
There is, in the context of Haitii and the Toussant L'Overture rebellion a degree of casual racism which probably was true of Hornblower's time (Nelson himself had terribly racist views about people of colour), and also of Forester's time when writing the book. The language might not be quite as sharp as the (historically accurate) use of the N word in the near contemporary 1955 film The Dambusters (Guy Gibson did name his dog the N-word, and when the dog was run over just before the mission he did decide to use the dog's name as one of the codewords for success in the mission). However, the dismissive language for the rebellious slaves does grate against modern sensibilities.
Forester's story telling is masterful, the use of chapters to divide the narrative into neat contained episodes strikingly effective. The prose elegantly describes scenery and events, while also capturing complex professionalism of ship and crew as a machine of interdependent parts working in harmony. Bush's desperate defence of the ship when the prisoners threaten to overrun it captures that adrenaline fuelled rage of combat, and almost berserker fury, a level of immersive description that many a fantasy author would do well to emulate.
For me, this was a significant book on my journey as a writer. The combination of action and adventure with tense psychological pressures of a team of officers in claustrophobic confinement and subordinate to a rigid hierarchy, created the potential for narrative conflict essential to any compelling story. That was exactly the tension I tried to capture in a succession of trunk/attic novels that I churned out in the long summer holidays of my early teens. They may never see the light of day, but they fired in me that drive to write, to tell a story.
To be fair to Forester though, I never felt I could aspire to be as good as him. It was instead picking up another naval novel, a copycat writing capturing the swelling wave of this genre. The book was Form Line of Battle by Alexander Kent, a sop to my reading senses that had by then exhausted all that Forester had to offer. Kent's much more ordinary prose, and mechanical plotting is what first convinced me - 'Hey I can do better than this' and launched me on the way to writing a handful of pale imitations. But hey, I'm still writing after all these years!
Lieutenant Hornblower is also the source of one particular lingering moment of childhood frustration. I was going out for a meal with my parents to help entertain one of dad's more exalted work colleagues - who also happened to be a Hornblower afficionado. Naturally the forty-something business consultant and the thirteen year old school boy fell to a game of Hornblower trivia, and he asked me "What was the smallest ship Hornblower returned to England in?" I thought carefully, rejected the Hotspur as a 20 gun sloop and settled somewhat triumphantly on the Retribution the 18 gun prize Hornblower had captured and been sent back to England in at the conclusion of Lieutenant Hornblower.
My opponent, with a gleam in his eye, declared me wrong and named instead The Witch of Endor in which Hornblower escaped French captivity at the end of Flying Coloures Shame faced I conceded defeat and it was only hours after the meal I realised I had not in fact been wrong. While - in the Gregory Peck film Hornblower it was The Witch of Endor that carried the escapees all the way to Portsmouth, in the books (which are canon) The witch only carried Hornblower as far as the blockading squadron off Brest and he returned to England on the 100 gun Flagship. So I was right!
When Forester wrote this, he had already charted the future of Hornblower and Bush's relationship. Having introduced them as Captain and First Lieutenant respectively in the 1936 publication The Happy Return (aka Beat to Quarters for the American market) he followed their professional development through The Ship of the Line, then Flying Colours, then The Commodore before concluding Hornblower and Bush's part in the Napoleonic wars with Lord Hornblower published in 1946.
Understandably fond of his character and his maritime adventures, Forester delved into Hornblower's pre-Happy Return past to deliver Mr Midshipman Hornblower in 1950, and that I think is where I picked up the series, with what were essentially a collection of short stories about Hornblower's adventures on and around Sir Edward Pellew's famed frigate Indefatigable. Perhaps because of the age of its protagonist there is a Young Adult feel to Mr Midshipman Hornblower that led a pre-teen reader like me smoothly into the series and indeed the whole genre.
Chronologically (on Hornblower's timeline) Lieutenant Hornblower is the second book in the series and I probably got that out of the local library. By that stage Forester knew the full future of both his characters and was essentially retro-fitting a backstory onto those future relationships.
There are some anachronisms. In The Happy Return Hornblower refers to having had other first lieutenants before Bush and been dissatisfied with a degree of overfamiliarity he had allowed, hence his more reserved and aloof captainship on the long journey round Cape Horn. This may be partly why Forester waited ten years between publication of the Lieutenant Hornblower and its immediate chronological sequel Hornblower and the Hotspur (published 1962) where it becomes clear that Bush has always been first lieutenant of Hornblower's ships.
The chief peculiarity of Lieutenant Hornblower is that, unlike all the other b0oks, it is told from Bush's third person limited point of view, rather than Hornblower's (apart from a few passages where Forester, unable to resist hopping into Hornblower's head, slips into an omniscient narration). This device serves two purposes, it keeps the essential mystery of what happened to Captain Sawyer as an enigma for the reader - could Hornblower really have been a cold blooded murderer? It's second purpose is to give us both an insight into Bush's character and an outsider's perspective on Hornblower.
In the books already written, Forester had depicted Bush as a loyal, competent but fundamentally unimaginative officer who could only ever have reached the rank of captain through extreme good fortune. Making him at this point senior to Hornblower, allowed Forester to impose some significant constraints on his favourite protagonist. It also means that Forester has to constantly qualify his elegant prose and character analysis with passages that go The feelings/thoughts that Bush was experiencing were essentially 'X' but he lacked the capacity to express/recognise it in those terms The limitations of Bush the character force Forester to be a more intrusive author.
One of the features of Hornblower - as Forester had already written him - was a social awkwardness that prevents him from scrabbling for self-interest. In A Ship of the Line Hornblower internally bemoans his reluctance to glad-hand the dockyard supervisors in order to garner preferential interest for fitting out his ship, reflecting that 'It was not his conscience that stopped him, but his self-consciousness'. In Lieutenant Hornblower Forester has Bush witness this trait and be frustrated by it when Hornblower is playing whist with two very influential admirals and ignores key opportunities to mention/name drop his triumphant exploits in Santa Domingo, instead falling back on self-deprecating comments that border on rudeness.
Reading this as a ten or eleven year old, the place names were all a mystery to me, but - with google maps at my phone finger tips it was easy to zoom in on Scotchman's Bay off Haiti and to finally appreciate the dangers of the long narrow Bahia de Samana where HMS Renown was trapped on a sandbank between the hostile fire of two enemy forts. Forester's fidelity to geographic and historical detail was remarkable, and the detail in his description of naval operations from moving guns, to kedging a ship of a sandbank were all very impressive. They have that air of realism, even if they may not be entirely real. I say this because at one point in wind strong enough to have the ship heeling, Forester has the Renown travelling with studding sails set. Studding sails were, as I understand them, fragile sail extensions used only in conditions of almost dead calm, when the ship was desperate to catch every breath of wind.
There is, in the context of Haitii and the Toussant L'Overture rebellion a degree of casual racism which probably was true of Hornblower's time (Nelson himself had terribly racist views about people of colour), and also of Forester's time when writing the book. The language might not be quite as sharp as the (historically accurate) use of the N word in the near contemporary 1955 film The Dambusters (Guy Gibson did name his dog the N-word, and when the dog was run over just before the mission he did decide to use the dog's name as one of the codewords for success in the mission). However, the dismissive language for the rebellious slaves does grate against modern sensibilities.
Forester's story telling is masterful, the use of chapters to divide the narrative into neat contained episodes strikingly effective. The prose elegantly describes scenery and events, while also capturing complex professionalism of ship and crew as a machine of interdependent parts working in harmony. Bush's desperate defence of the ship when the prisoners threaten to overrun it captures that adrenaline fuelled rage of combat, and almost berserker fury, a level of immersive description that many a fantasy author would do well to emulate.
For me, this was a significant book on my journey as a writer. The combination of action and adventure with tense psychological pressures of a team of officers in claustrophobic confinement and subordinate to a rigid hierarchy, created the potential for narrative conflict essential to any compelling story. That was exactly the tension I tried to capture in a succession of trunk/attic novels that I churned out in the long summer holidays of my early teens. They may never see the light of day, but they fired in me that drive to write, to tell a story.
To be fair to Forester though, I never felt I could aspire to be as good as him. It was instead picking up another naval novel, a copycat writing capturing the swelling wave of this genre. The book was Form Line of Battle by Alexander Kent, a sop to my reading senses that had by then exhausted all that Forester had to offer. Kent's much more ordinary prose, and mechanical plotting is what first convinced me - 'Hey I can do better than this' and launched me on the way to writing a handful of pale imitations. But hey, I'm still writing after all these years!
Lieutenant Hornblower is also the source of one particular lingering moment of childhood frustration. I was going out for a meal with my parents to help entertain one of dad's more exalted work colleagues - who also happened to be a Hornblower afficionado. Naturally the forty-something business consultant and the thirteen year old school boy fell to a game of Hornblower trivia, and he asked me "What was the smallest ship Hornblower returned to England in?" I thought carefully, rejected the Hotspur as a 20 gun sloop and settled somewhat triumphantly on the Retribution the 18 gun prize Hornblower had captured and been sent back to England in at the conclusion of Lieutenant Hornblower.
My opponent, with a gleam in his eye, declared me wrong and named instead The Witch of Endor in which Hornblower escaped French captivity at the end of Flying Coloures Shame faced I conceded defeat and it was only hours after the meal I realised I had not in fact been wrong. While - in the Gregory Peck film Hornblower it was The Witch of Endor that carried the escapees all the way to Portsmouth, in the books (which are canon) The witch only carried Hornblower as far as the blockading squadron off Brest and he returned to England on the 100 gun Flagship. So I was right!
September 2, 2021
I expect it's actually pronounced LEF-tenant Hornblower.
Again, Forester is going back to fill in more of Hornblower's early career. At this point, he's (surprise!) a lieutenant, the juniormost lieutenant, on the Renown under a captain who ... just ain't right. And thing is: Captains at sea, especially at this time & place, have a terrifying amount of power, almost without check; and to even start to question your captain is a good way to find yourself swinging from a yardarm ...
But really, that's just where things begin. As it happens, this particular book is not told from Hornblower's point of view -- it's told from the POV of one Lieutenant William Bush, who is here meeting Hornblower for the first time; and it's interesting to compare & contrast Bush's take on Hornblower with Hornblower's own understanding of himself, as shown in, well, every other book in the series, I think -- HH is notoriously hard on himself in his self-evaluations.
More gripping naval adventure, this time mostly in the vicinity of Hispaniola.
Again, Forester is going back to fill in more of Hornblower's early career. At this point, he's (surprise!) a lieutenant, the juniormost lieutenant, on the Renown under a captain who ... just ain't right. And thing is: Captains at sea, especially at this time & place, have a terrifying amount of power, almost without check; and to even start to question your captain is a good way to find yourself swinging from a yardarm ...
But really, that's just where things begin. As it happens, this particular book is not told from Hornblower's point of view -- it's told from the POV of one Lieutenant William Bush, who is here meeting Hornblower for the first time; and it's interesting to compare & contrast Bush's take on Hornblower with Hornblower's own understanding of himself, as shown in, well, every other book in the series, I think -- HH is notoriously hard on himself in his self-evaluations.
More gripping naval adventure, this time mostly in the vicinity of Hispaniola.
December 31, 2021
The second chronologically but the sixth Hornblower published. It was interesting as it follows a new shipmate, Lieutenant Bush, who observes Hornblower while having his own story to tell.
The book is basically in two parts. The first sees Lieutenant Hornblower aboard a ship of the line sent to Haiti with secret orders to attack a Spanish-held fort protecting a fleet of privateers. The only problem is the Captain is mad.
Hornblower does his thing and saves the day a couple of times. He impresses the Admiral and is provisionally promoted and sails off with a converted prize ship back to England. The only problem now is England has declared peace and nine out of ten ships (and crews) are demobilised.
The second part of the book covers Hornblower and Bush trying to get by by in peace time playing whist or on their half-pay. Luckily for them Napoleon comes on the scene and war is on the horizon.
The book is basically in two parts. The first sees Lieutenant Hornblower aboard a ship of the line sent to Haiti with secret orders to attack a Spanish-held fort protecting a fleet of privateers. The only problem is the Captain is mad.
Hornblower does his thing and saves the day a couple of times. He impresses the Admiral and is provisionally promoted and sails off with a converted prize ship back to England. The only problem now is England has declared peace and nine out of ten ships (and crews) are demobilised.
The second part of the book covers Hornblower and Bush trying to get by by in peace time playing whist or on their half-pay. Luckily for them Napoleon comes on the scene and war is on the horizon.
April 15, 2009
The second in my chronological tour through the Hornblower series. Both so far have been an utter treat; the biggest testimony to which is the speed at which I consume them, at every possible, free, waking moment. More heroics and ensuing self-recriminations; as well as masterfully concealed anxiety of a character who is fast becoming one of my all-time favorite fictional heroes. Hornblower has heart! Hornblower is not messing around! And Hornblower proves that intellectuals are IN, about two hundred and fifty years before President Obama.
Like is the case with all my favorite writers - when reading CS Forester, I feel I am in the hands of a master. The history is astoundingly detailed, and events unfurl at precise and gripping pace.
Like is the case with all my favorite writers - when reading CS Forester, I feel I am in the hands of a master. The history is astoundingly detailed, and events unfurl at precise and gripping pace.
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