Various Hornblower collections, C.S. Forester.

Having taken a look at the Wikipedia entry on Horatio Hornblower,¹ I am pretty sure that I have read every single one of the collections. My father is awesome. I may have missed out on Hornblower and the Crisis, because I don't recall that one in any detail. Anyway, that is pretty freaking cool.

Because the books are all much of a muchness, I'm only going to talk about them as a collective anyway. Each is much like another, and I read them in internally chronological order, so I cannot even speak of Forester's prose improving with time: it was all the same to me.

Which was good. I really enjoyed these books. Were they deep, mining the depths of the human psyche in search of wondrous treasures and great insight? Dude, they're books about a navy officer in the Napoleonic Wars.² We're not talking literature for the ages here. What we are talking about is adventure and derring do and the like. With cannons! And muskets! And honourable gentleman doing honourable things. It is fantastic.

Unrealistic? A little. Hornblower gets through life mostly okay, with good things happening to him. He doesn't lose an arm and an eye, for example. On the other hand, he does lose close friends and falls seriously ill, not to mention an entire novel spent escaping from the French revolutionary forces. It is a mixed bag really. There is only one point in the entire series where I snickered to myself, thinking "Protagonist luck- he wrote himself into a corner." Once out of some eleven books is not bad at all.

I do not know how accurate Forester was for the period, as I know nothing about any kind of history after the Restoration. It feels accurate, although I suspect a fair bit of artistic licensing has been taken with finer details. Nonetheless, there are cute tidbits to be found throughout the books, adding a nice touch. Hornblower is a great fan of Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, for example. Forester details the shifting of military technology and tactics. There are a host of real, living characters, including the Duke of Wellington.³

The books are adventure stories, as I said. If you were looking for strong women here, you would be better looking elsewhere. Having said that, most of the women in the books impressed me. Horatio's first wife is a pathetic, useless woman, but at the same time she knows what she wants and takes it... it just so happens that what she wants is to be a useless mooch. Blech. Lady Barbara on the other hand is a freaking awesome character, though. I wanted to be friends with her by the end of The Happy Return.

I liked Hornblower. I do not know how anachronistic his opposition to flogging and capital punishment was, but I adored his devotion to duty. A stern, forthright character, all tormented on the inside? Fun times.⁴ It can be wearing on times, but watching him torn between duty and personal gain never wore thin on me. Keep an eye out in Hornblower and the Hotspur for a particularly gruelling example of this.

So, do we recommend it? Yes. I wouldn't put it on any 'must read' lists, but it's solid good times. For those seeking something a little different from the usual fantasy/science-fiction adventure set up. If anyone out there is really into historical fiction, this is pretty core to the genre, so I'd read it if I were you.

I realise I've not done a comparison with the movies. I cannot be bothered. Watch the movies for they are good. They compact several books, and Hornblower retains the same crew from ship to ship, which is unrealistic and not in keeping with the books, but that is okay. They are excellent movies.

There we go.



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1: I always, always pronounce that name in my head with an Irish accent. Those of you who have seen the Ioan Gruffudd television series will understand.

2: Because no-one wanted to read stories about the life of a naval officer before the Napoleonic Wars:

"Today, it rained and we stayed at Spithead. There are rats."

"Today it smelled of rat, rained and we stayed at Spithead."

"Today it still smells of rat, and we stayed at Spithead. Didn't rain, though." Repeat ad nauseam.

3: Who I couldn't take seriously thanks to Black Adder. Thanks a lot, British guys.

4: For fun times, compare him to Harry Potter, a snivelling brat, all tormented on the outside and useless on the inside with no concept of duty at all. Neville should have been the hero of those books.

To see the list of unreviewed books, head over here. Feel free to request one, as this is the last that has been requested.