The Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester

First published:Beat to Quarters, 1937; A Ship of the Line, 1938; Flying Colours, 1938; Commodore Hornblower, 1945; Lord Hornblower, 1946; Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, 1950; Lieutenant Hornblower, 1952; Hornblower and the Atropos, 1953; Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, 1958; Hornblower and the Hotspur, 1962

Type of work: Historical fiction

Themes: War

Time of work: 1794-1823

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: Chiefly the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas

Principal Characters:

• Horatio Hornblower, a complex and self-conscious officer in the Royal Navy, who rises to command through imagination and resourcefulness
• Lady Barbara Hornblower, his wife, sister to the Duke of Wellington, who has inherited wealth and a title
• William Bush, Hornblower’s closest friend, a lieutenant with Hornblower who rises to captain
• Maria Hornblower, Hornblower’s first wife, mother of his children, ill-suited to him but whom he marries out of compassion

The Story

The Horatio Hornblower series consists of ten books, which, although not composed in chronological order, trace the career of this Royal Navy officer from his youth as a midshipman through maturity and into retirement. All are adventure novels, set in the Napoleonic War era, balancing the foreground of adventure with the background of historical context. Each begins with Hornblower entering a new phase of his career, from his arrival as a seasick midshipman on the Indefatigable in 1793 to his assuming command of the West Indies Squadron as admiral. As Hornblower follows the orders given him, he faces conflicts and matures in each episode. Through his skills as a leader and seaman, he fulfills each assigned task.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (1950) is the most episodic of the series, with adventures of Hornblower learning the fundamentals of seamanship and naval practice. The novel climaxes as Hornblower, in his first independent command, loses a captured merchant ship he had been conveying to England. Under the eyes of his Spanish captors, however, he smuggles dispatches to England, with the help of an aging actress, and gains promotion to lieutenant. After two years’ imprisonment in Spain, he puts his skills to use, rescuing a shipwrecked Spanish crew. For risking his life, he is rewarded with his freedom.

Lieutenant Hornblower (1952) is the only book in the series told from a point of view other than Hornblower’s own—in this case, that of Lieutenant William Bush, Hornblower’s senior, as he joins HMS Renown on a mission to the West Indies. In the course of the novel, the captain is declared insane, and Hornblower, as the most junior officer, demonstrates initiative and good judgment in handling his superiors. The high point of the novel is the recapture of the Renown from escaped prisoners, in which adventure Hornblower takes the lead. The story closes with Bush and Hornblower in London during a lull in the hostilities; Hornblower has been reduced to card-playing at a club to survive financially. His future wife, Maria, is introduced.

Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962) follows immediately, with Hornblower’s wedding opening the novel, as he is ordered to sea to participate in the blockade of the French ports. Now a commander, Hornblower has Bush as his lieutenant. The novel is episodic, concluding with his promotion to captain by the admiral of the squadron. Lacking aristocratic backing or wealth, Hornblower has succeeded because of his skill and daring.

Hornblower and the Atropos (1953) places the captain in the center of world events twice. His first orders are to arrange the ceremonial funeral of Horatio, Lord Nelson, after his death at Trafalgar. This completed, he must then sail for the coast of Turkey to retrieve, with the aid of Ceylonese pearl divers, a cargo of gold and silver, lost when a transport ship sank at anchor. As he arrives home in England, he finds both of his infant children ill with smallpox.

Beat to Quarters (1937), actually the first composed of the books, gives Hornblower independent command in the Pacific, harassing Spanish shippers and aiding rebels against Spanish rule. When Spain allies itself with England against France, Hornblower must undo his work. The last half of the novel introduces Lady Barbara Wellesley, who is escaping from the plague in Panama. Hornblower conveys her to England, and, although married and faithful to Maria, he falls in love with her.

A Ship of the Line (1938) places Hornblower in the Mediterranean in a squadron commanded by Admiral Leighton, Lady Barbara’s new husband. At the climax of the novel, Hornblower is forced to surrender his ship to the French after a pitched battle. His friend and lieutenant, Bush, has lost a leg in the disaster, and Hornblower’s ship is sinking. Though defeated, Hornblower has contributed substantially to the defeat of the French squadron opposing them.

Flying Colours (1938) begins almost immediately afterward, with Hornblower, Bush, and a seaman escaping from French captivity. They are given sanctuary by the French family of the Comte de Gracay through the winter. During this time, Hornblower falls in love with the comte’s daughter, Marie. When Hornblower and his companions reach the French coast, they recapture a Royal Navy cutter, crew it with freed prisoners, and escape to join the blockade fleet. Hornblower returns to England, triumphantly exonerated after a court-martial hearing for the loss of his ship, and is knighted by the prince regent. In the midst of his joy at being free, he learns that Maria has died in childbirth and that Lady Barbara, widowed by the death of Admiral Leighton, is rearing his son. The novel concludes with hints of their marriage.

Commodore Hornblower (1945) gives the captain command of a small squadron in the Baltic, and the military and diplomatic tasks of both harassing the French as they move into Eastern Europe and attempting to bring the Russians into the war on the side of the English. Successful in both, at the novel’s end Hornblower is struck down by typhus. He returns to England and Barbara to convalesce.

Lord Hornblower (1946) assigns the captain the task of suppressing a mutiny on a Royal Navy ship off the coast of France. He succeeds through duplicity and follows up with the first landing of the allies and the French royal family on French soil. As Napoleon faces defeat and rebellion at home, Hornblower encourages this disaffiliation in western France. Hornblower is struck with grief, however, at the loss of his friend Bush, killed in a river attack on a French supply train. For his successes, Hornblower is raised to the peerage, becoming Lord Hornblower of Smallbridge. Napoleon’s surrender leads to Hornblower’s return to England, where he discovers that Barbara has gone to Vienna to assist her brother, the Duke of Wellington. Hornblower returns to the de Gracay’s in France within a few months. Napoleon’s escape from Elba forces the comte and Hornblower to mount a guerrilla action against him; although successful, they are eventually captured, and Marie, Hornblower’s lover, is killed. Only news of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo saves Hornblower and the comte.

Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies (1958) brings his active career to a close. More episodic than the previous novels, this one demonstrates Hornblower’s liberalism in politics and human rights: He captures a slave ship, frees the slaves, and aids Simon Bolivar’s revolution against the Spanish in South America. At the novel’s climax, as he and Barbara sail for England, his skill and leadership save the passengers and crew of their merchant vessel from the effects of a hurricane. One strand of their relationship is resolved, as, in the midst of the storm, facing death, Barbara confesses that she has never loved anyone but Hornblower.

Context

The Hornblower books are Forester’s most popular, although he was already well known for several successful novels and biographies before Beat to Quarters appeared in 1937. He had begun to focus his attention on the Napoleonic War era, with works on Napoleon and a biography of his wife, the Empress Josephine, as early as 1924. This research provided a thoroughly realistic background for the Hornblower series. Three earlier novels in particular bear on the Hornblower stories: The Gun (1933), set during the Spanish Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic War; The African Queen (1935), the famous love story set in Africa during World War I; and The General (1936), portraying the superficially successful career of a British officer in the same war. The first two show the ordeals of war, the desire for freedom, and the hatred of tyranny and oppression; each, as well, displays the triumph of imagination and technology over greater opposing forces. The General, by contrast, presents an English commander and leader capable of inspiring courage in his men but absolutely inflexible and unimaginative; his triumphs are in fact disasters at the expense of his men. Hornblower, equally capable of inspiring his followers, because of his imagination, self-doubt, and human concern for others, must be seen as Forester’s counterstatement to his earlier protagonist.

Forester’s works certainly reflect his own times. As a correspondent, he observed the Spanish Civil War and worked for the British Ministry of Information during World War II. The three Hornblower stories that appeared during this period, and indeed the entire series, reinforce the vision of Englishmen and their allies battling a formidable continental power absolutely ruthless and determined on England’s destruction. Each of the novels is, in that sense, optimistic; Hornblower, and by extension, England, move through hardship toward peace.

Regarded as a popular novelist, Forester has, for that reason, often been slighted. The Hornblower series, although unremarkable technically, is highly effective as narrative and is well plotted with well-developed and developing characters. Unlike the Romantic, swashbuckling, highly idealized costume narratives of his contemporaries, Forester’s works succeeded in incorporating both realistic historical details and a sense of life at sea. Adults were undoubtedly Forester’s intended first audience, but from the beginning, young adults have enjoyed the stories. Forester’s creation of an active hero—yet a man who regards himself as having few talents, who is shy and somewhat gawky—makes Hornblower attractive to many in this age group. He is, unlike many adventure heroes, both physically active and imaginative. He also shares a commitment to ideals lacking in many adventure heroes, and is clearly motivated less by self-interest than by regard for justice, honor, and patriotism. A further attraction of the series is the opportunity to see Hornblower grow both wise and unwise on the basis of the choices he makes, and to see him live with the consequences.