Lord Hornblower

I kind of think that Forester noted about Commodore Hornblower the same thing that I did in my review: that it all seemed too easy. Lord Hornblower starts with a big challenge for Horatio, to bring back a group of mutineers without compromising discipline or just slaughtering them all. It's a sticky problem; Hornblower thinks they have a point, but can't give them clemency. But if he fights them, they'll just flee into the arms of the French. What's a captain to do? As always, it's enjoyable to see Hornblower's mind work over the problem and come up with one of his typically clever solutions.

After that (about the first third or so), though, the book flounders, as Hornblower convinces a French town to come over to the side of the French show more Royalists. Like Commodore, it doesn't feel like it matters. How will the war or Hornblower suffer if this plan fails? And land-bound politics just aren't what one reads a Hornblower novel for. Bush is killed. It's a typically understated moment, but I understand it; it doesn't seem right that all these military men could live through a war, and so someone's gotta die, even if it's just before the close. Feels unfair that a born sailor should die on land, though.

The final third picks up, chronicling what Hornblower gets up to when Napoleon escapes while he's vacationing in France, and thus suddenly becomes a wanted man. It's harsh and bleak and well-written but I just don't think it's where I would go with this series. Again, it just doesn't feel like what one reads Hornblower for. A well-executed version of an ill-conceived plan, I guess. The climax to the whole thing is pretty great, though.

Anyway, the next Hornblower book is our first jump backward, and I can see why; the two post-trilogy books have largely lost what made the first book work so well, and maybe by going back to the roots of the character, Forester can also get back to the roots of the series's appeal. show less

While a book in a longer series, I read this without much prior knowledge of the character and enjoyed it fine even so. We here follow naval hero Horatio Hornblower's outer and inner struggles in the final years of the Napoleonic wars. The novel begins very strongly, in my opinion, with Hornblower sent to deal with a mutinous crew with whom he secretly sympathizes. The pages flew by here, dove-tailing into a rather different tale as the resulting mission creep ends up being quite extreme. However, by the time a new status quo is set, the book starts dragging its feet, more and more so, and the middle third of the novel gradually loses all the steam of the first third. There is a rallying sequence of exciting action towards the very end, show more albeit comparatively brief, but this still ended up weakening my impression of the novel as a whole by rather a lot.

Forester's ability to show the positives and negatives of Hornblower's (for a literary war hero perhaps slightly unusual) constant introspection, prickly pride and chiding self-deprecation, strikes me as very impressive. It never slows down the narrative -- even during the slow bits mentioned above, this is if anything one of the redeeming qualities -- and only very rarely gets heavy-handed with spelling out for the reader how his thoughts and reality don't necessarily match up like he thinks they do.

All in all, despite the weaker second half of the book, I enjoyed this novel, and if I stumble over another Hornblower story in a bargain bin somewhere, I might well pick it up. show less

The tenth in C.S. Forester's wonderful series of novels about a British naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars, this entry illustrates Forester's growth as a writer of adventurous fiction depicting a deeply human protagonist. Forester has a way with his hero, a way of conveying Hornblower's own unheroic thoughts so as to amplify the man's true heroism. Horatio Hornblower is ten times the man he thinks himself to be, and that is much of the series' charm. But Forester has a way, also, with nautical language, language he rarely if ever explains, but which rolls off his pen so eloquently that it defines itself through osmosis. After a few of these books, one *feels* like a sailor. And finally, the adventures themselves are deeply show more involving, none more so than this one chronicling the end of the wars Hornblower has fought since he was youth. This is a magnificently entertaining series of novels. show less

It was the best of books, it was the worst of books... Okay, that's a bit of hyperbole. Lord Hornblower, the penultimate novel of the Hornblower series, is a very good adventure. Once again Horatio Hornblower finds obstacles in his mission--this time his task is to recover a ship captured by mutineers. Once again he wrestles with self doubt. And once again he proves himself to be the resourceful, creative, and heroic commander that everyone else in the story knows him to be. But then Mr. Forester has to peg on another adventure, where Hornblower is less than exemplary and which ends... well, let's just say I was completely underwhelmed. I think I liked the ending of the unfinished novel better. In Mr. Forester's defense, he did need to show more follow history in this historical novel. Letting Hornblower enjoy a "happily ever after" at the end of the first adventure really wasn't an option. Anyway, don't let my grumblings dissuade you from checking it out. It really is a book worth reading. show less

Hornblower was the inspiration for Star Trek's Captain James Kirk, as well as Cornwell's Sharpe. Hornblower is more cerebral and socially awkward than Kirk, more educated and refined than Sharpe. In his own right, Hornblower is certainly an engaging and complex character and the series is an interesting study in leadership, and a fascinating portrait of life at sea in the age of sail.

I do think the series lost something after Hornblower gained so much in rank and position. I think the best books run from Hornblower and the Hotspur to Flying Colours when he captained ships of his own. But I do think one of the strengths of the series is we see Hornblower at all stages of his naval career--from raw teenage midshipman to admiral. And it's show more not as if this book doesn't have its share of daring do and loss. Hornblower has his faults, his moments of self doubts, and his dealings with women... well. But especially in the course of reading several books he begins to feel real in a way few fictional characters do. I'd say he's easily as indelible and remarkable a literary creation as Sherlock Holmes. And if this isn't in my opinion as good as those books with him as captain, it's stronger than others in the series, and certainly very readable. show less

Hornblower is sent out to sea to deal with a band of mutineers against one of his old acquaintances. With his typical daring, Hornblower turns the tables on the mutineers and the French simultaneously; he brings about the turning of Le Havre to the Bourbon cause and becomes governor of the city and must protect it from the wrath of Napoleon. Later, caught in France during the Hundred Days, Hornblower leads a guerilla band in a last desperate attempt to defeat Bonaparte.

This was undoubtedly my least favorite of the Hornblower novels. Only the very beginning of the story takes place on the sea - where Hornblower invariably shines. Most of it is consumed with the politicking necessary to deal with dignitaries and his own wife and her kin. show more Unfortunately a great deal of Hornblower's time is taken up with being mad at his wife because she enjoys different things than he does, because he spoils her evenings through tactlessness, generally because he has to be courteous and think of someone other than himself and he resents it. And as usual, this makes him turn to yet another woman. I hate Hornblower's dealings with women - one of the reasons I like it best when he is at sea and far away from them.

I don't want to paint too bleak a picture of this novel. It still had high points (especially the beginning). But Hornblower is either feeling guilty or in mourning for most of the novel and there is not much action to take his mind off of these things. show less

The tenth in C.S. Forester's series British naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars--this adventurous fiction depicts a deeply human hero. The story was actually several stories all glued together, but they flowed much better than earlier attempts. Hornblower shows remarkable human emotion all the way to the end of the book...perhaps too much for Lord Horatio. In this book, he actually sets strategy for the ships at sea, as a Commodore should do, but it almost reads like he's the captain. After he's appointed governor of a small French town, there's little relative to the governance of it and more about the visiting Duke from jolly ol' England. I'm ready for the next book in the series.