Commodore Hornblower

This was my first introduction to Horatio Hornblower, and I'm hooked...couldn't put this down, or any of the next two either. Hornblower is made a commodore and given a small fleet, and sent to the Baltic to ensure the safety of maritime trade. The local threat to British shipping is dealt with in short order, but the diplomatic situation quickly becomes complicated as the neutrality of Sweden and Russia are threatened. Will the Sweden be dragged into the war on the side of Napoleon, will Russia submit to French mastery of Europe? Hornblower has the opportunity to dine with the czar and participate in the seige of Riga. By the end of the novel, his health is spent, the tide of the war is turned, and you care intensely about the next chapter of the saga.

Start with Midshipman Hornblower and take a vacation. You won't put any book in the series down until you finish them all.

I liked this novel tremendously. In this one, Hornblower is dispatched to the Baltic in command of a squadron of British vessels, as Britain's struggle with Napoleon nears its climax. Hornblower must deal with all of the usual problems of command, and additionally he must, in fact, also concern himself with high affairs of state. Forester combines these factors brilliantly into a facinating look at Europe during this time period.I found this novel to be particularly vivid in its portrayal of Hornblower marauding about in the Baltic. You can practically feel the cold Baltic air, see the ice flows, hear the cannon, and see the armies ashore battling one another. Hornblower as usual is in the thick of things. This book in my opinion never drags although the storyline is somewhat more complex than the usual Hornblower novel.Fans of Hornblower won't want to miss this one. And if you are not a Hornblower afficianado, then what are you waiting for?

Here we find Hornblower leading adventures of prodigious consequences in the Baltic Sea while in command of a small squadron of ships and bomb ketches. He contemplates the nature of elevated command, tries to restrain himself from interfering in Capt. Bush's ship operation, and deeply worries over diplomacy while running the Kattegat, stalking a privateer, laying a howitzer, meeting royalty, raiding coastal shipping, and attacking Napoleon's flank during Nappy's fateful march on Moscow. In this volume Hornblower is truly, extraordinarily heroic, a hero for all of oppressed Europe. By force of arms and words in a tiny corner of the Baltic he stiffens Russian resolve, frustrates the French, emboldens the Spanish, and perturbs the Prussians. He brushes shoulders with famous Clausewitz and von Bulow. You could have had no idea of the importance of a little river-mouth town in Latvia until C.S. Forester pulls the fateful threads of destiny together in the person of Hornblower! The sense created by Forester here of monstrous forces converging may have something to do with its date of composition, 1945, when another European tyrant's dreams had crumbled. This is so different from the lugubrious version of Baltic action seen in Richard Woodman's book entitled Baltic Mission, in the Drinkwater series. Note there are at least two pb versions from Little Brown still available.

Commodore Hornblower was Forester's first attempt to replicate the pre-war success of his Horatio Hornblower trilogy; Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line and Flying Colours. After emerging victorious from the greatest war in human history, would his readership still be interested in a more distant conflict? The answer was "Yes", but Forester made sure by including strong parallels between the Napoleonic Wars and World War II. The result, as a historical novel, was as relevant to the readers of the day as if it had been written about WWII. Commodore Hornblower works as a historical novel of the Napoleonic era and as a reminder of the immense struggles and sacrifices of WWII. Commodore Hornblower begins with Hornblower leaving his new wife and son to return to sea. How poignant this passage must have been for the first post-war readers. Hornblower, now in charge of a small squadron, must take his ships into the Baltic past hostile Danes and Swedes who maintain a sinister neutrality. What follows is a series of naval and land engagements that are typical of this type of novel. However nobody surpassed Forester in telling exciting yet realistic action stories. The battle scenes are both exciting and exhilarating yet horrifying at the same time.During his stint in the Baltic, Hornblower rubs shoulders with the Tsar of Russia, Marshal Bernadotte of Sweden and the warrior/philosopher Clausewitz. Hornblower must try and win over those hanging onto to neutrality by a thread and those siding with the tyrant Napoleon. As always he acquits himself well although he is his own worst critic. While Commodore Hornblower works as both an action novel and a historical novel, I think that it might have lost some of the impact that it had when it was first published. The parallels for the British people in 1940 and 1812 are very strong. There is a tyrant dominating Europe who is both willing and able to throw away far more lives than the British could manage or accept. There is Russia siding with the tyrant, invading Finland and ultimately resisting the tyrant's invasion from the west. There is Europe ready for an uprising to overthrow the tyrant. And, of course, there is Britain standing alone against the might of the entire continent until forces can be rallied to defeat the tyrant. Commodore Hornblower is a story of heroism in the Napoleonic era but it was published at the right time to remind the British people of the heroism that they had so recently shown. It's a marvelous sequel and worthy successor to Forester's pre-war efforts.