C. S. Forester (1899–1966)

This is the first book in my reread of the Hornblower series that is not, in fact a reread. Unfortunately, it is clearly the worst of the Hornblower novels, confirming my suspicion that Forester made a mistake at the end of Flying Colours when he gave Hornblower everything he ever wanted: recognition, wealth, and love. Hornblower with recognition, wealth, and love is just not Hornblower, even if he does yearn to go to sea. Commodore Hornblower is the worst installment in the entire series. show more Unlike in the first three books, where Hornblower is cleverly making the best out of a bad situation, in this book, he commands a squadron and respect. His situation is actually quite nice! You could do a book about how commanding a squadron brings new challenges, but Forester doesn't; Hornblower seems to settle in quickly, without a problem.

Which is really symptomatic of the whole book. It never feels like anything's at stake. In Beat to Quarters, Forester made you feel like this one ship-to-ship battle was of the utmost importance. In Commodore Hornblower, we're constantly told that the war in the Baltic, and thus the whole war with Napoleon, depends on what Hornblower does. But one never really feels that anything significant depends on Hornblower cruising around lobbing bombs from safety and discovering hors d'oeuvres.

It is interesting to note how Forester pulls back from some of the elements of Flying Colours that were intended to wrap things up. In that book, Bush is promoted to captain, but we're told he'll work in a naval yard on account of his wooden leg. Here, he assumes command of an active-duty ship because, well, what's a Hornblower novel without Bush?

(Delightfully, the title page of my 1981 Pinnacle Books edition gives the title as Commodore Hornblower: Number Eight in the Hornblower Saga, The greatest naval adventures of all time! I love it.) show less

Ripping good yarn alert!!!

My favorite of the series so far. Capital A Adventure with a lot of great historical detail. There’s a funeral at sea, midnight attacks, buried treasure, and a daring escape. Plus, Forester explores Hornblower’s marriage and fatherhood more than he has yet in the series.

If you only like Hornblower for sea battles this one is comparatively light on those, but this is a great adventure that takes the reader into the past.

This is really very good. It is more a psychological study of a man losing his mind as a result of his actions.
At the beginning of the book, the Marble family are struggling financially, they are living within their means but have not actually taken any steps to address the problem and now it has become acute. The "solution" arrives in 2 parts, one legal, if slightly immoral, the other most certainly not legal. One rests on his conscious, the other not at all.
From this point on, the money show more worries vanish, but Mr Marble, in particular, has a new obsession, not being caught for his actions. This disrupts his family's lives in many ways, which are fascinating to follow. The way his anxiety escalates into paranoia and obsession is very well done, you can almost feel your skin crawl at times. The ending is brilliantly executed and most unexpected. show less

This is the last of the Hornblower books that I own-- obviously it's time to make another trip to the used bookstore. Overall, this one was honestly something of a disappointment. Hornblower doesn't really succeed in this one because of his natural brilliance; he succeeds mostly because of a series of unlikely coincidences. The house he takes refuge in in France just happens to host someone sympathetic to his cause, the harbor he visits just happens to have a captured English ship there, the show more harbor also just happens to have a passing group of prisoners he can liberate and enlist (somewhat less egregious than in the film, though, where the prisoners just happen to be British to boot), and his wife and Lady Barbara's husband just happen to die in time for a marriage. Hornblower's various marital indiscretions, though probably realistic, make him less than sympathetic, and I just don't like Lady Barbara. (God, the scene where his learning that she's taken his son in makes him feel a rush of affection aggravated me to no end. His wife taking care of the kids never seemed to do much for his feelings for her!) Still, the seafaring bits (rare though they are in this volume) never fail to disappoint as always. My least favorite book in the series so far.

added April 2019:
This time I liked it more, and I would definitely rate it above some of the books Forester wrote later, like Hornblower and the Atropos. Yes, a lot of things go in Hornblower's favor, but the thing that makes Hornblower succeed isn't those opportunities, it's the way he seizes hold of them. He's lucky with what happens to his carriage in the snow, but taking hold of that opportunity and getting Bush and Brown out of there requires genius and determination. It's a harrowing, thrilling sequence. Though one wants some good naval adventures in a Hornblower novel, I actually felt the contrast between this book and the previous ones worked very well. It's a tragic notion that Hornblower, Bush, and Brown actually have the best time of their life while hiding in Napoleonic France-- it's a much less hard life than that in the Royal Navy. I like the different side to all three characters we get here. Brown was in the previous book, but not up to much of note; here he pops. I always like Bush's stolidness; here he puts up with an awful lot!

As always, I have thoughts on Hornblower's relationships. Here my theory that Laby Barbara is meant to show how duty constrains his personal life as much as his professional one breaks down because here Hornblower totally has an affair with Marie, which means he's cheating on Maria and on Lady Barbara! He has neither respect for the commitment he's made to Maria, nor for the torch he supposedly carries for Barbara. What is up with you, dude, except that you will take sex and affection where you can get it? (The novel carefully makes him not an initiator... it just kind of "happens.") It's weird that a man who twists himself into knots with self-control in other aspects of his life has none here, and I just don't quite know how to reconcile it with my mental image of Hornblower.

Well, I kind of do. The main thing we know about Hornblower is that Hornblower Must Suffer. He accomplishes much, but he never quite succeeds. His battle in Beat to Quarters was an amazing success that went relatively unheralded due to circumstances. So keeping him apart from Lady Barbara adds to his suffering. Though then at the end of the book, Hornblower gets everything he ever wanted, including Lady Barbara. I wasn't really into this, because I think Hornblower works best when he's scrapping, trying to make the best of a bad situation. Making him successful, rich, renowned, and loved undermines what makes Hornblower Hornblower (as we'll see in Commodore Hornblower). But Forester thought this would be his last Hornblower novel, so I can forgive a happy ending; the issue isn't really with Flying Colours, then, but with the fact that three more novels followed it chronologically. show less