Horatio Hornblower Series

My earlier posting that discussed 'casting' for the 1951, Horatio Hornblower movie mentioned that the rights to the 3 C.S. Forester books were bought by the Hollywood studio a bit earlier with the intent of 'boosting' Errol Flynn's career but that "growing difficulties" with the actor lead to the seeking of another to play the title character.

Seems the best they could do for Errol Flynn in 1951, was a low budget 'nautical' flick that didn't do well at the box office:


The Adventures of Captain Fabian **
1951 Errol Flynn, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead. " Dashing sea captain comes to the aid of a lovely lady. This is the least likable of Flynn's four seagoing dramas, a low budget disappointment to all but the most ardent fans of Errol Flynn. This is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Captain Blood - both in terms of his career, and in entertainment value. In 1951 Flynn was up to his ears in trouble, facing statutory rape charges in the US, and his career flagging. He was living on his yacht in Europe when he conceived this project, and wrote the script, with the hope of reviving his career."

Today, I began to read Horatio Hornblower for the 5th time. Why would I do that?

I've come to the opinion that periodically, I need to "cleanse my palate" with a return to "the standard". You might call it calibrating your yardstick. After reading the books the first 3 times, I'm, this time, returning to the audiobooks which I enjoyed so much on my previous 'read'.

If I'd had to 'take a test' on the early chapters of the 1st book Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, I might well have failed. I didn't remember Hornblower's birthday, nor the significance of it:

" In The Happy Return, the first novel by order of publication, Hornblower was born June 11 in 1771. His age is given as 37, and the events of the novel take place during 1808, in which year Spain was first at war with Great Britain but then changed sides. However, when Forester decided to write about Hornblower's early career in the sixth novel Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, he made his hero about five years younger, giving his birthdate as July 4, 1776 (the date of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence). This adjustment allows Hornblower to begin his career in wartime (1793)."

Nor did I remember the significance of 'the grain ship' that was Hornblower's 1st command:

"It was part of the 'grain fleet' sailing from America to France to abate the current famine and had escaped Howe's fleet, while at the same time the Battle of the Glorious 1st of June was being fought 'out in the mid-Atlantic' by Admiral Howe."

After reading 'many hundred's' of 1st chapters of HNF novels, I find this '1st chapter' to be a short story in itself (as the very best are) and to carry the title of "the standard" well.

I  look forward to this '5th reading' even more than before.

I've been taking this '5th reading' of Hornblower in small portions as I not only "re-enjoy" (my word) it, but try to analyze, at least in my mind, what makes it so good.

Lieutenant Hornblower which, while the 2nd book in the chronological life of the protagonist, is in fact the 7th book in the series (1952) in the order in which they were written.  I find that the author has adeptly produced a situation that allows the character traits that define Hornblower as both a leader and a person during those earlier books to be faithfully exposed. Further, we see the formation of the bond between Hornblower and Bush which is so much a part of the later, but earlier written novels. And C.S. Forester 'carried this off' a fully 15 years after he began the series in 1937.

Certainly speaks to the 'ability' of the author and 'off hand' I don't remember another author that has 'gone back' and done it this well.

For any young (or old) author who would like to 'try their hand' at writing a short story that would 'dovetail' into the timeframe laid down by C.S.Forester for Horatio Hornblower:

In the 2nd book (chronologically), Lieutenant Hornblower the author has left a brief void that truly 'begs a story'. Hornblower and Bush each received "100 pounds" in prize money as their share for the Spanish prizes taken by HMS Renown and, so we're told, spent it during a brief 'liberty' that lasted less than a fortnight ashore in Jamaica.

That's a 'pile of tin' and I don't remember any convents being named after either of them. Any thoughts?

Well into Hornblower and the Atropos (book 5) and once again noting that most of the 'episodes' making up the book work well as 'stand alone short stories'.

Other than that, and the 'vocal inflection' of the narrator certainly emphasizes it, Hornblower has 'personal issues' that while not debilitating, make his life as 'Captain of a King's Ship' a misery.

Just finished Beat to Quarters (aka The Happy Return) and while chronologically book 5, this is where 'it all began' back in 1937 when Captain Hornblower was introduced to a genre that carried C.S. Forester's character forward as its 'standard',

A further 'standard' came from the battle between HMS Lydia and Natividad which carried on from "sail ho" to its conclusion for 5 chapters. Noted author James Hall (Mutiny on the Bounty) proclaimed this: "The best account of an engagement at sea that I have ever read".  It's unfortunate that the 1950's movie did not choose to recreate this battle in its entirety, but movies tend to 'compress' the best scenes and events to their detriment.

As this '5th reading' of the Hornblower saga continues, I am still finding 'that which is new' (or possibly just rediscovered) to me and enjoying it all.

  "As this '5th reading' of the Hornblower saga continues, I am still finding 'that which is new' (or possibly just rediscovered) to me and enjoying it all."

Beautiful words! You're a really reader!

For some time I have wondered about the origins of Forester's Hornblower saga, and particularly the source for the plot for "The Happy Return", first in the series. The basic story, in which Hornblower takes a Spanish frigate, is required by his government to turn it over to the local tyrant, and then forced to take the frigate again, now manned by fanatical rebels loyal to "El Supremo", seems too bizarre to be anything other than a product of the author's fertile imagination.

But in fact there were historical events that clearly gave Forester inspiration and even some of the specifics for this story. They are given in some detail on pages 451 to 455 of Volume 28 of the Naval Chronicle, which journal Forester mentioned in "The Hornblower Companion" was the source for the idea of Hornblower and many of his adventures.

Briefly, in 1809 a French frigate, La Felicite, was taken by two British ships in the Caribbean, but instead of being commissioned in the RN, it was sold to General Christophe, leader of the independent republic of Haiti. Renamed L'Amethyste, it was operated by Christophe's forces for a couple of years until in 1811 it was seized by rebels loyal to one General Borgellat, who was trying to set himself up as an independent ruler in the south of the island. On the 3rd of February, 1812, the rogue frigate (now named L'Heureuse Reunion", was stopped by HMS Southampton under Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo. When the commander of the rebel frigate refused to provide evidence that his ship was in fact a legitimate man-of-war (as opposed to a pirate), a conflict ensued in which broadsides were exchanged for some time, and after Yeo avoided his ship being boarded by the oversized crew of his opponent, the Heureuse Reunion finally surrendered with over a hundred casualties, including most of the officers. The ship was taken to Jamaica and restored to Christophe under its old name.

Clearly Forester has made some changes, transferring the events to the Pacific coast of Central America, making them occur some years earlier than the historical precedent, and having the same Royal Navy ship take the frigate on both occasions. However other details in his story derive from the account in the Naval Chronicle, including the threat by the rebels to detonate the ship's magazine rather than be captured, and it cannot be a coincidence that the ship's name itself (Heureuse Reunion i.e. "Happy meeting") is reflected in the title of Forester's book (at least for the British edition; the American version was called "Beat to Quarters).

It says something interesting about Forester's unwillingness to reveal too much about his creative process that in "The Hornblower Companion" he spends nearly two pages discussing the origins of "The Happy Return", mentioning the Naval Chronicle and the vagaries of changing alliances in the age of sail, but never even hints at a real-life model for the events of his story.

Excellent information. Many thanks.

Put this one under the heading; the more I read, the more I learn.

All these years, and I thought that The Happy Return referred to the romance that was kindled between Hornblower and Lady Barbara on the 'return voyage'.

Thanks, pauljm.

I would guess that's what Forester intended the reader to think, and it's the only explanation of the title that makes any sense; the additional reference to the actual event behind the story was his little private joke.

Since someone mentioned rereading "Hornblower and the Atropos", I thought I would put my two cents in on this title.

In short, I think it's Forester's best book, and one of the best titles in the entire historic naval fiction canon. This may seem odd, since it departs from many of the standard formats of the genre: instead of a single continuous story, there are several fairly separate episodes; the battle between the Atropos and the Castilla is handled in a relatively low-key fashion; and the book ends on a downer as Hornblower returns to a family stricken by smallpox.

However, I feel that despite the episodic nature of the story, the whole book is held together by Forester's complete understanding of his hero, and his ability to show the various sides of Hornblower's character in very different situations. By the time this book was written, Forester had produced seven titles in the series, and knew his hero's strengths and weaknesses inside out.

The author (according to "The Hornblower Companion") enjoyed filling in this part of continuing story, pulling together events that had to happen for future adventures (writtten earlier) to be coherent. In addition, he brilliantly inserted Hornblower into unusual settings, drawn from the historical record (the Sapperton tunnel, the funeral of Nelson, and the presence of Keith's fleet in Marmorice Bay) in a way that prefigures O'Brian's even broader social and political settings.

Thus for me, part of the book's appeal is that it is different from the usual format, and that it respects and uses the real history of the time (including referring to actual commanders such as Collingwood), rather than making history a vague and inaccurate backdrop to anachronistic hi-jinks. My interest in historic naval fiction centres on the genre's ability to give the reader a sense of what it might have been like to live in that distant world...for my money, "Hornblower and the Atropos" takes us back in a convincing and engaging way.

Well said, Pauljm

I've just finished Ship of the Line on this '5th reading and trip down memory lane', and talk about "the book ending on a downer". It takes me back to those 'days of yester-years' when we watched the 'serials' at the Saturday picture shows that ended with: "tune in next week".

After having read a lot of HNF over the years, it comes to me that while most HNF authors of the recent past have felt it 'obligatory' to insert their protagonist into one or more of the 'great sea battles' of the period, C.S. Forester produced an iconic protagonist and 'standard' for HNF series without ever taking Hornblower into any of these battles though his career spanned both French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Please correct me if I've erred on this, but by Hornblower and the Atropos Nelson was dead and Trafalgar past.

80 Winters wrote:Please correct me if I've erred on this, but by Hornblower and the Atropos Nelson was dead and Trafalgar past.

Well as the first part of the book was all about Hornblower organising his funeral I hope he was dead.  

I must endeavor to make my thoughts more 'lucid'.

Now, did I get 'the thrust' of my question right......that Hornblower was never at any of the 'big historic battles'?

Not naval battles though I believe the land events at Riga were probably based round real actions

While it doesn't meet the standard of 'great sea battle', Hornblower was also involved in the interception of the Spanish treasure ships by Captain Moore's squadron in 1804 (Hornblower and the [i]Hotspur[i]).

This real event ended with the explosion of one of the four Spanish frigates, and triggered the Spanish declaration of war on Britain. A few years ago much of the silver being carried on one of the vessels was retrieved from the ocean bottom, and there was a lawsuit between the salvors and the Spanish government about who owned this treasure, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

While Hornblower was 'attached' to Moore's squadron of frigates in Hornblower and the Hotspur, once again 'fate' and his 'sense of duty' led him to the decision to engage the French National ship Felicite as Moore signal "wear ship" was passed to the ships of his squadron.

So once again, a historically significant sea engagement (even if not a great sea battle) was missed, but for 'the HNF affectionado' a lengthy single ship sea engagement was provided by Forester.

One other observation about "The Happy Return"...in "The Hornblower Companion", Forester said regarding the origins of Lady Barbara Wellesley "clearly...if a Wellesley sister [to the future Duke of Wellington] did not exist, it would be necessary to invent one."

But in reality the Duke did have a younger sister (Anne Wellesley), who was born in 1775. I would guess that Forester wasn't aware of that when he wrote his first Hornblower book, and it certainly made sense to have a fictional character (though attached to a real family) as his heroine.

I wonder if C.S. Forester realized that, as he did with the character of Hornblower, he was creating another 'prototype' in the character of Lady Barbara.

The strong-willed, competent, cultured and well educated woman who was easily the match (and likely more) for the most strong-willed and competent Captains in the British Royal Navy.

I can think of several ladies who 'followed in her footsteps' (Bolitho's Katherine amongst many).

Just finished Flying Colours which might also be known as 'the last of the trilogy', as Forester had published Beat to Quarters (aka The Happy Return) in 1937 and Ship of the Line and Flying Colours in 1938. However, it would be another 7 years (1945) until Commodore Hornblower picked up the story once more. I suspect that Forester's involvement in WW2 was, in part responsible for this 'hiatus'.

For me, the prototype of 'the escape' was laid down in Ship of the Line. While several HNF authors have chronicled their protagonists adventures while 'in enemy territory', none quite match the interplay of characters as Forester did here.
Thankfully, a bit of this story made it into the 1950's movie Horatio Hornblower.

My reading of C.S. Forester's Hornblower series for the 5th time will soon end as I finished The Commodore (aka Commodore Hornblower) last evening. Never having considered it before, but in continuing the original 'timeline' there had been not just 7 years transpire, but a major world war, during which Forester's writing had ranged from the adventures of an American naval Captain in the Revolutionary War to 'dragon adventures' which were aimed at getting his sons to cease a 'hunger strike'.

When 'Hornblower' returned, following this hiatus, I found him, though recognizable, an aged officer who, though still aware of the image that he wished to project to his subordinates, just as apt to compare himself to 'senior officers' and their actions as he remembered them. Also, as an officer responsible for more than 'just his ship', his thoughts, plans and actions portrayed  one charged with a greater 'span of control'. So while there was 'action a plenty' it differed from earlier novels in Forester's series.

"Fighting is the profession of Lieutenants and Captains".

As I'm proceeding with this 5th reading of the Hornblower series I find my thoughts going as much to 'the mind of the author' as to the 'trials of Hornblower'.

Lord Hornblower is Forester's 5th volume (1947) in the continuing timeline of an adventure that has, to date, covered only the final 8 years of the French and Napoleonic conflicts, while in the same 8 years (1937-45) Forester's world has seen as much, and possibly more conflict. The world has been 'reborn' and now Forester is divorcing and soon to be remarried (secretly, we're told). There's great turmoil in his personal life and in the life of his protagonist.

While Lord Hornblower begins as 'another adventure' well crafted and told by Forester, it quickly moves to become the 'personal trials of Hornblower' as 20+ years of almost continual war speed rapidly to conclusion and then 'reconclusion'. Loss of those 'most dear' and possibly life itself show us the true Hornblower ( much as he was at the wash pump, but now feeling 'the sting' of reality).

This, to me, is the very best of Hornblower, the man. To write of such emotion and passion takes personal experience. As in it's ending, all has been said, there is nothing more.

With the ending of Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies last evening, I've completed this, my 5th reading of this iconic HNF series. While I remembered much, this was a time to 're-taste and reconsider' what set 'Hornblower' apart from so much of the HNF that came after and attempted to 'pick' from the storyline and character of this protagonist (some more successfully than others).
Much as he did in other Hornblower novels, Forester in this the 11th and chronologically final novel,  'strung together' a series of individual adventures that easily fit nicely into weekly or monthly magazines as well as a full length novel.
What I took from this final novel as 'the parting message' was given to me at the very end as Hornblower is relieved of one of his greatest fears while accepting the 'gift' he wishes for most.

Thank You C.S. Forester for another opportunity to read HNF that's as good as it gets.