Commodore Hornblower (Hornblower Saga) by C. S. Forester
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Book Reviews of Commodore Hornblower (Hornblower Saga)
Book Review: Hi diddle lee dee, the Baltic now for me.
Summary: 4 Stars
If you have read the series in order you are now treated to the biggest change in the Hornblower character since his first marriage. What do you do with a character that has now achieved all of the primary goals of his life. A secure financial future, the woman he loves and fame and respect. How do you motivate such a character? Forester pulls it off. Hornblower is put in the position of the many senior officers he has served under. Having to watch rather than giving the orders. Having to decide who risks his life and who does not. Even patronage as Bush is jumped up to a SOL.
The decisions are different and for the most part Hornblower watches others execute his plans. Forester however keeps the tension level high. The handling of a fleet, the delecate matters of diplomacy and a totally different front and nature of the war adds to and completes the character.
The social changes are not ignored as Sir Horatio Hornblower K.B. discovers that the honors and responsibilities of his knighthood are not all they are cracked up to be. Several valuable lessions are given here, all are interesting and entertaining.
Like HORNBLOWER and the ATROPS it is a change of pace, and one worth the money you will spend.
Book Review: Russian politics and naval strategy
Summary: 4 Stars
In Commodore, Forester takes our hero to the Baltic Sea to intervene in the war between the Russians and Napoleon. Now on the top half of the Captains list, Hornblower is given command of a small squadron of ships and sent north in as much of a political gambit as a naval one. There are no real naval threats to Hornblower's fleet, a few coastal raiders on British shipping, but the one they find is easily dispatched. Forester spends time detailing the use of bomb vessels, ungainly ships with large mortars in the center. They are used to shell and destroy a ship in a harbor and enemy positions on shore. When Napoleon attacks Russia he sends one army north towards St. Petersburg along the eastern most end of the Baltic, and of course Commodore Hornblower is there to save the day and negotiate a switch of sides by the Prussians. It's a little short on naval lore and a little long on period politics. A contrived dalliance with a Russian lady gives Hornblower flees, and then typhus. At the time it was written it was pretty unusual to have an adulterous affair in a fiction of this kind. It gives more variety to our understanding of British Naval operations in another area of the world.Book Review: Not his best, but still very good.
Summary: 4 Stars
As a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, I have a natural inclination towards nautical themes. I have fallen in love again with the Hornblower series. I just read them all back to back during the last year.This book was very good, but I must admit it was my least favorite of the series. Very dark. The darkness of Forester's life at this time came through. And I felt the relationship with the Countess served little purpose in the book.
However, I felt that the book's military and nautical themes were very well done. Much like today's navy, Hornblower is engaged in a latorial warfare. His cunning and superb skills show through. One learns how he deals with his subordinate skippers, some good and some not so good.
As with the rest of the series, I will want my son to read about Hornblower, so as to learn duty, honor, sacrifice and the inward pains and costs of infidelity.
Book Review: Hornblower in command of a squadron
Summary: 4 Stars
Horatio Hornblower is now rich. His wife pampers him by buying him a set of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, his favourite reading material. He has the best amenities money can buy.During the passage into the Baltic, HH hosts a luxurious breakfast on the quarterdeck for Bush. Basking in sunshine, the HMS Nonsuch passes under the guns of hostile batteries.
Later on in St. Petersbourg, HH has a dalliance with the doe-eyed countess. (If Forester's son is to be believed, the author also had many such escapades.)
There are plenty of historical personages in the book: Richard Wellesley, Alexander I; Von Clausewitz. HH is involved with the siege of Riga. Only after he arranges an armistice with the retreating Prussians, does he get very ill with typhus.
Book Review: Hornblower in command of a squadron
Summary: 4 Stars
Horatio Hornblower is now rich. His wife pampers him by buying him a set of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, his favourite reading material. He has the best amenities money can buy. During the passage into the Baltic, HH hosts a luxurious breakfast on the quarterdeck for Bush. Basking in sunshine, the HMS Nonsuch passes under the guns of hostile batteries. Later on in St. Petersbourg, HH has a dalliance with the doe-eyed countess. (If Forester's son is to be believed, the author also had many such escapades.)
There are plenty of historical personages in the book: Richard Wellesley, Alexander I; Von Clausewitz. HH is involved with the siege of Riga. Only after he arranges an armistice with the retreating Prussians, does he get very ill with typhus.