Mr Midshipman Hornblower

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Jonathan Hornblower senior and Jonathan Hornblower junior, noted engineers who designed and worked with steam engines in Cornish mines in the late 18th century Forester provides two different brief summaries of Hornblower's career. The first was in the first chapter of The Happy Return, which was the first Hornblower novel written. The second occurs midway through The Commodore, when Czar Alexander asks him to describe his career. The two accounts are incompatible. The first account would have made Hornblower about five years older than the second. The second account is more nearly compatible with the rest of Hornblower's career, but it omits the time he spent as a commander in Hornblower and the Hotspur. There are other discrepancies as well; in one account of his defeat of a Spanish frigate in the Mediterranean, he distinguished himself as lieutenant and in another he is a post-captain with less than three years' seniority. In The Happy Return, Bush is serving with Hornblower for the first time, but other books in the series set earlier in his career completely disregard that. It appears that these discrepancies arose as the series matured and accounts needed to be modified to coincide with his age and career. Forester wrote the Hornblower series to avoid entanglements with real-world history. Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval victory occurs during the Napoleonic Wars. Hornblower and the Crisis was unfinished at the time of Forester's death, but the author left notes - included here - telling us how the tale would end. Also included are two further stories - Hornblower and the Widow McCool and The Last Encounter - that tell of Hornblower as a very young and very old man, respectively.

I kept wondering, how could I relate so much to an 18th century midshipman in the Royal Navy? I am not a boy. And definitely not a surly, reserved, sort-of-dashing English boy. I don't get captured by French galleons, or dine with Spanish sea captains, or smuggle intelligence for British admirals. A "biography", called The life and times of Horatio Hornblower, was published in 1970 by C. Northcote Parkinson which gives various scholarly "corrections" to the stories told by Hornblower's creator. [12]Hornblower possesses a highly developed sense of duty, though on occasion, he is able to set it aside. For example, in Hornblower and the Hotspur, he contrives an escape for his personal steward who would otherwise have been hanged for striking a superior officer. Hornblower is philosophically opposed to flogging and capital punishment, and is pained when circumstances or the Articles of War force him to impose such sentences. As the ancient seas weave an endless pattern of waves some days calm, others not so much the vessels on their surface also continually try to eliminate perceived rivals , such is the world.The very young but talented Mr. Horatio Hornblower at 17 in 1793 ( born July 4 1776 which amuses some) that midshipman, barely an officer on the Indefatigable , ( a real distinguished vessel from two centuries past) technology advances nevertheless and better systems to eliminate your troublesome enemies moves forward... that is the problem- Gene Roddenberry was influenced by the Hornblower character while creating the Star Trek characters James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard. Nicholas Meyer, director of some of the Star Trek films, frequently cites Horatio Hornblower as one of his primary influences. [30] [31]

The Wikipedia entry for the series has a lot of good information, but careful of spoilers. There is a table listing all the books & stories with both the UK/USA published names & dates, plus the chronological dates, movies & other stuff. This volume covers our hero's start as a junior officer in the British navy, early 1794 age 17 to, apparently, early 1800 age 23. Wikipedia's fictional biography: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horat... What strikes me about these books as opposed to some of the recent Age of Sail (or Age of Sail in space) fiction that I've recently read is that Hornblower faces adversity. Hornblower is given tasks and he fails! When Hornblower loses the prize ship (and his first independent command) because swelling rice in the hold literally pops his ship open from the inside out I was hooked. In too many stories of this ilk, the main character faces only token cardboard opposition - an unruly crew that needs to be whipped into shape, or some such. In this book the curve balls lobbed at Hornblower are often either self-inflicted or out of his control. That's a nice change of pace.HMS Indefatigable is at anchor in Plymouth Sound waiting to escort the transport ships HMS Sophia and HMS Dumbarton to France with a wing of the 43rd Foot, Earl of Edrington, major commanding, and French troops under the command of the Marquis of Pouzauges, Brigadier General of His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVII to France to attempt to take the country from Napoleon. Hornblower was assigned to attend to the embarkation of the French troops as he spoke the language. You're technically an adult though you certainly don't feel like one, everyone is older than you, you feel out of your depth, are sometimes miserable, and sometimes triumphant. Some of your co-workers are a little crazy, but others are great. You pretend to know how to do things. And eventually you actually learn how to do them. It's me! It's you! It's Horatio! Life in the Navy, though it seemed to move from one crisis to another, was really one continuous crisis; even while dealing with one emergency it was necessary to be making plans to deal with the next. p. 59. Hornblower and his crew is transferred to Ferrol, a prison on the northeast coast of Spain. After four months, Hornblower receives a letter from Kitty that she has reached England and has delivered his dispatches to the Admiralty. Not only that, but, he was informed by the Commandant that he has been promoted to Lieutenant by their Lordships at the Admiralty. He was then transferred to the Officers' quarters and given privileges of his new rank, which included receiving half-pay of Lieutenant and the liberty to visit the town and vicinity two hours each day upon giving his parole that he would return. Both my oldest daughter and her husband are fans of the Hornblower series, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the A & E movie productions that I've seen of the Hornblower corpus; so I was motivated to read the books, and decided to begin at the beginning of Hornblower's career, with this novel. (My only previous acquaintance with Forester was from reading one of his short stories.) I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint!

Hornblower and the Atropos, The Happy Return, and A Ship of the Line were compiled into one omnibus edition, called Captain Hornblower. His final achievement occurs at his home, when he assists a seemingly mad man claiming to be Napoleon to travel to France. That person turns out to be Napoleon III, the nephew of Hornblower's great nemesis and the future president and later emperor of France. For his assistance, Lord Hornblower is created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. At the end of his long and heroic career, he is wealthy, famous, and contented, a beloved, indulgent husband and father, and finally free of the insecurities and self-loathing that had driven him throughout his life.

Hornblower also takes on an important passenger in Panama, Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional younger sister of Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington). He is at first nettled and infuriated by her forthright and outspoken manner, her ability to see easily through his reserve, and the great social gap between them. Over time, however, her beauty, strength, and intelligence win his heart, and the two become dangerously attracted to each other. Before things get out of hand, Hornblower informs Lady Barbara that he is married. She leaves the Lydia two days later when they rendezvous with other British ships. Hornblower fears for his career, having offended "the daughter of an earl, the sister of a marquis". Michael Redgrave played Hornblower in a radio series of the same name between 1952 and 1953, later rebroadcast over Mutual in the United States syndicated via Towers of London. [22] But then I realized that Horatio's first job is like everyone's first job! I mean, minus the threat of grapeshot to the throat. And if Hornblower and I turn out to be dancing to the same sheet of music, it will be worthwhile to revisit this book.

Hornblower and the Crisis aka Hornblower During the Crisis Aug 1805–Dec 1805 (partial, unfinished novel) I very much enjoy maritime fiction, when done well. This book was somehow not what I was expecting and I find it difficult to define, but I very much enjoyed it. Food & water are mentioned a few times. Do NOT look it up. It's enough to gag a maggot. And there were rats. Yet Hornblower likes the sea life! It's beyond imagining. Shore life must have been dismal indeed. It makes the adventures & hardships that he willingly endures far more believable. Winston Churchill, The Grand Alliance, p. 382. "I find Hornblower admirable—vastly entertaining". He relates that "this caused perturbation in Middle East Headquarters, where they imagined that 'Hornblower' was the code word for some special operation of which they had not been told." After the war this was naturally used as an excellent "blurb" by Forester's publishers. If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader.This chapter opens with Hornblower as midshipman of the watch aboard HMS Indefatigable while at anchor in Cadiz, when he observes an eight-oared pinnace approaching. Hornblower translates the conversation between Pellew and the Spanish Captain, who states that Spain has made peace with France and that Indefatigable will be fired upon unless she leaves within six hours. As Indefatigable made ready to get underway Hornblower was able to observe a couple of Spanish galleys as they row about the area.