If I’m not mistaken, there are a series of books written about the character Horatio Hornblower. Having blown through the Aubrey/Maturin series twice now, and feeling let down each time they came to an end, I was wondering if the Horatio Hornblower series was worth trying.
Can anyone render an opinion on this?
Only way to find out is to read them! I own the entire series (both the books and the A&E TV movies) and I like it a lot.
Horatio’s not quite the brave fearless leader that Aubrey seems to be from the Master and Commander movie, but makes up for it by a quick thinker and an excellent strategist. Very big on doing his duty, even (actually, especially) when it involves things that outright terrify him, such as climbing up a mast to set the sails on a French warship during a cutting-out expedition, while he is terrified of heights.
If you want to start with the series, start either with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower or Beat To Quarters (if your local library or book store has a copy of the English release of the book, Beat to Quarters will be called “The Happy Return”). Mr. Midshipman Hornblower is the earliest book chronologically, detailing the start of Ol’ Horny’s career, but Beat to Quarters was the first book published, and begins the story arc that continues until the end of the Napoleanic Wars in Lord Hornblower.
I love the Hornblower series, more than the Maturin series.
The Hornblower books are saturated with naval lore and learning, and Hornblower himself is a very private, introspective person who lives for naval action. In contrast to the O’Brien books, there’s not so much about culture (Hornblower, in fact, is tone-deaf. I’ve often wondered if Aubrey and Mautin were musicians so as to bwe in contrast. ) Forester tells you all you need to know, as well. O’Brien seemed to like making you work for it, not fully explaining things, and sometimes not translating passages.
On the other hand, Forester avoids the abrupt changes of mood and scene you have in the Aubrey books. And Hornblower seems far less secure. He perpetually sees himself balanced on the knife-edge of failure.
Forester wrote quite a few other naval stories as well –The Captain from Connecticut is set about the same time. Then there’s The Ship, set in WWII. And, of course, he wrote The African Queen.
They’re definitely worth a read. I agree with the comments already made, mostly. Forester’s style is not as ornate, which makes him an easier read. (This isn’t meant as a criticism of either. I enjoy both.)
I think if you like one, the odds are very good that you’ll like the other. As has been implied, I think O’Brian deliberately wrote Aubrey as sort of the anti-Hornblower. The two characters are opposites in a lot of ways, but that’s part of the fun.
I liked the Hornblower books, but I didn’t fall in love with them like I did the Aubrey/Maturin series. For one thing, after a while I got frustrated with Hornblower’s particular brand of depression and insecurity. I’ve never thought about Aubrey being the anti-Hornblower, but that does sound about right.
You might also try Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series. It’s about a British infantry officer during the Napoleonic wars. There are a lot of those books, but I think the first 10 or so he wrote are the best. The mini-series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe is pretty good.
Hmmm… I came from the opposite direction - I loved the Hornblower series, so when reviews on amazon suggested Maturin, I bought two paperbacks … and couldn’t get into it at all. So if you prefer the action-types, Hornblower might be too much of a thinker, insecure, and not gung-ho.
I couldn’t get into the Aubrey series, although I’ve loved Hornblower for years. I think it’s partly the writers pacing: Forester wrote in an era when books (and movies) moved at an easier pace. O’Brien wrote when readers (and audiences) were used to faster-pacing.
I find the Hornblower character has way more depth, and is way more sympathetic. He’s full of self-doubt. I disagree with constanz: he makes it sound like the books are Dostoevsky-like, and they’re far from that. Hornblower is intensely self-critical, but he’s not “a thinker” in the sense of ruminating about life, truth, justice, etc. He comes up with brilliant strategies, he thinks outside the box, and yet he’s unaware of his own brilliance. I like the character, very much.
And I agree, there are two approaches to get into it: publication order and chronological order (following Hornblower’s career) as outlined by Raguleader above.
I love both, but I think I might like Hornblower a bit more. (I think I like the character of Hornblower more and the O’Brian books as a whole better.) The Hornblower books are more old-fashioned, certainly. They’re, er, rip-snorting adventure tales, if people are still allowed to say that. I agree that you should start with *Beat to Quarters, read the next two, and then start chronologically at the beginning.
Well, what I meant was that Hornblower’s insecurity and self-doubt make the character more sympathetic than the average gung-ho action type for me. While I certainly won’t compare him Myschkin from “Idiot” (the only Dostojewsky I’ve read so far), he is a thinker not only for coming up with very creative solutions to problems, but also because he’s aware of things outside the war, and the current battle going on. (see his internal comments on society, or about the monarchy when visiting the court…)
I also recommend order of publication - I was lucky enough to buy “Beat to Quarters/Happy Return” (The former is the US title, the latter the original english title) first in the series, and then scoured the antique book markets for the rest of the series. In the “Hornblower Map”, there’s a long essay/short novel from Forrester, where he describes the writing process that lead to the Hornblower novels, and it’s interesting that he didn’t intend to start a series with “Happy Return”, but Hornblower as character kept returning for other topics… Therefore, reading the novels in internal chronological order will give this disjointed feeling “why didn’t the character remember that something similar has already happened a few years before? Why does he worry about this if he already survived worse?” If you read in order of publication, you avoid this confusion.
I enjoyed them both, but prefer O’Brian’s work. One comment on the Hornblower series - you will never, never laugh out loud. You probably won’t even chuckle. There’s no humor in them. Not that I find anything wrong with that, but that was always my favorite part of the Aubrey/Maturin books.
Cur-tailed indeed.
While there’s not a lot of laugh-out-loud, I wouldn’t say there’s no humour. The bit about how the Tsar of Russia never gets a hot meal because he’s always served on gold plates that cool the food, for instance. The whole visit of the Tsar aboard the ship, in disguise, watching the men knock the weevils out of the bread.
Heck, even in Midshipman Hornblower, the duel where Hornblower knows that he doesn’t stand a chance with ordinary weapons, so he picks two guns, one loaded and one unloaded, giving him a 50/50 chance
No, it’s not roll on the floor laughter, but there’s a fair amount of good humour there.
I blew through the Aubrey/Maturin seried a couple of months ago. O’Brian has a wicked keen sense of humor. I have never laughed out loud while reading as much as I did with these books. Simply hilarious. Just imagining the look on the Aubrey’s or Maturin’s face when the other delivered some of these lines is enough to set me off laughing even now.
Yes. O’Brien is denser and has more humour, Forester is better written.
Me, too! Yes, that’s what made me fall in love with the series. The conversations between Jack and Stephen, each trying to understand the other’s passionate descriptions of his own specialty (navigation or natural philosophy), with Jack clumsily trying to form plays on words and Stephen slyly baiting him, are hysterical.
I’d read every Hornblower book at least 5 times before I’d even heard of Patrick O’Brian. My initial reaction to Aubrey/Maturin was “Who does this guy think he is, writing books that attempt to rival the acknowledged king of the genre?”
After two books I was grudingly conceding that there was real merit, and after a couple more I had to admit that Forester had been pushed into second place. I still love Hornblower and re-read the books, but the subtlety, depth of character development, humor and attention to detail that O’Brian offers are really unmatched.
Yet second place still has great merit. The Hornblower books are absolutely worth reading - I’d be surprised if you didn’t thoroughly enjoy them.
I have all the Hornblower books and enjoy rereading them. C. S. Forester writes so convincingly you can smell the salt air!
I have read a couple of Aubrey/Maturin and they were pleasant enough.
You may also enjoy C. Northcote Parkinson’s ‘The true story of Horatio Hornblower’. (But reread the entire series first!)
The most self-doubting Forrester character of all has to be the escort captain (I forget his name), the title character of The Good Shepherd.
Some of my favorite bits are when Jack catches Stephen trying to explain something nautical.
From The Mauritius Command:
Stephen, to Jack: “Pray explain this new and splendid rank of yours.”
“Stephen, if I tell you, will you attend?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I have told you a great deal about the Navy before this, and you have not attended. Only yesterday I heard you give Farquhar a very whimsical account of the difference between the halfdeck and the quarterdeck…”
I’m certain that sometimes I’m missing the joke when Stephen explains things, due to my own nautical ignorance.
I enjoy the discussions of these books here, because sadly I don’t know a single soul in real life who has read them. My husband has very patiently listened to me read some of the best parts aloud to him.
Besides writing a biography of Hornblower, Parkinson also wrote a series of four very Hornbloweresque novels starring his own naval hero, whose name I’ve forgotten.
I have quite a few other naval series at home, but the only other author I cvan recall is Alexander Kent, whose books I don’t recommend. Whereas I can recommend al of Forster’s other books, even the non-nautical ones (of which there are quite a few, including two mysteries). The only thing of his I don’t recommend is his history of the war of 1812, which is surprisingly dull.
By the way, there’s a Hornblower story by Forester that has never been reprinted anywhere, as far as I can tell. Forester doesn’t include it in his Hornblower Companion, and Parkinson missed t in his listing of Hornblower stories (which even includes “The Point and the Edge”, which hasn’t, technically, even been written). It’s Hornblower and the King, and, AFAIK, it’s only appeared once, in a magazine.