The Hornblower Companion: An Atlas and Personal Commentary on the Writing of the Hornblower Saga

C.S. Forester, The Hornblower Companion (1964). The first edition I have in front of me has become very collectible and pricey. Fortunately, it has been reprinted in paperback, a used copy of which can be had for a few dollars (or pounds). This is a wonderful book. No, actually two wonderful books. The subtitle says it all: An Atlas and Personal Commentary on the Writing of the Hornblower Saga, with Illustrations and Maps by Samuel Bryant. The first part of the book consists of thirty detailed maps covering HH's entire naval career, with a paragraph or two of commentary and analysis. The maps and the margins of their facing pages are adorned with Bryant's exquisite pen-and-ink drawings. He does a masterful job illustrating both ships and people. The pleasure of examining these little gems never seems to fail. Forester modestly entitles the remainder of the book, some 90 pages, Some Personal Notes. Forester opens his mind to us and describes the writing process in real depth, discussing how he gets ideas, how they come together in to books, his writing regimen, and the writing/publishing history of the Hornblower books. Absolutely fascinating. And, I should think, required reading for all contemporary writers of Historic Naval Fiction. This book is a must for both readers and writers of HNF.

C.S. Forester, The Hornblower Companion (1964). The first edition I have in front of me has become very collectible and pricey. Fortunately, it has been reprinted in paperback, a used copy of which can be had for a few dollars (or pounds). This is a wonderful book. No, actually two wonderful books. The subtitle says it all: An Atlas and Personal Commentary on the Writing of the Hornblower Saga, with Illustrations and Maps by Samuel Bryant. The first part of the book consists of thirty detailed maps covering HH's entire naval career, with a paragraph or two of commentary and analysis. The maps and the margins of their facing pages are adorned with Bryant's exquisite pen-and-ink drawings. He does a masterful job illustrating both ships and people. The pleasure of examining these little gems never seems to fail. Forester modestly entitles the remainder of the book, some 90 pages, Some Personal Notes. Forester opens his mind to us and describes the writing process in real depth, discussing how he gets ideas, how they come together in to books, his writing regimen, and the writing/publishing history of the Hornblower books. Absolutely fascinating. And, I should think, required reading for all contemporary writers of Historic Naval Fiction. This book is a must for both readers and writers of HNF.

I would strongly recommend this book for any fan of the Hornblower novels.I have written my review for someone who has read most or all of the Hornblower novels. If you have not read most of the novels and plan to, do not read the rest of this review. This review may inadvertently spoil a future story for you, although I tried to avoid doing that.When I found this book, I did not know what to expect. I had noticed that some reviewers of the Horatio Hornblower novels seemed to have background on Forester's writing influences that I wished I had. I didn't know that those references were contained in an extended essay contained in the second half of this book, described as Author's Personal Notes, 1963, and Postscript, dated 1964. What a treat!Mr. Forester begins by showing a page of the long hand he used to draft the books. From there, he goes on to describe the general writing process that he favored for creating his novels. Then, he turns to the origins of Hornblower in his thinking. The book becomes even more fascinating as he explains the ways he developed each of the stories in the saga. I had always wondered why he did this in such an scattered chronology, but the essay makes it clear what the purposes were behind all of this seeming haphazardness. Knowing how tight many of the scrapes are into which Hornblower fell, you will marvel at how much thinking went into developing those fascinating scenarios. Mr. Forester also keeps a running background of the world events and activities in his own life (including illnesses) that played a role in his thinking. The postscript describes the development of the plot for the unfinished final novel, Hornblower During the Crisis. After reading the essay, I was pleased to realize that I could now understand many of the quirks in the novels. If you read the novels in order, his wife, Maria, barely exists. Yet in Beat to Quarters, you get all kinds of development of Lady Barbara as a character. Forester notes that Maria was an afterthought to an assumption that Hornblower was married in Beat to Quarters, and Mr. Forester treated poor Maria in just that way when he later wrote her in as a character.In the novels, there are many wonderful references to the Naval Chronicle, written by ships' officers to be read by other ships' officers, seamen and their families. Little did I know that reading old editions of the Chronicle was an important part of Mr. Forester's developing fascination with creating a fictional British naval officer hero for the Napoleonic years. In the first half of the book, you get a series of simple maps which employ the place names used in the relevant novels to locate where key events took place in each story. You can enjoy these maps while reading the novels, or refer to them to refresh your mind about the plots after you have not read the books in some time. This arrangement makes sense, so that you will not learn too much about what happens in the future to Hornblowe

I consider this to be an indispensable companion to the C.S. Forester novels and the television series. It helps the casual fan of the Hornblower series to follow the action as our hero progresses along. Hard-core fans for Forester will really appreciate the details that went into making the Companion, and casual fans will develop a better sense of how things flow along in the novels.Too bad the Naval Institute Press, one of the better publishers out there, decided to put it on backorder so soon. Hopefully, with the recent television series generating interest, the book will be re-released.

This book has a collection of maps and diagrams representing in pictures what Forester describes in prose in the Hornblower series. Forester often described battles and campaigns in now-obscure placenames, appropriate to the era, but not always findable in a modern atlas. This serves as sort of a Historical Atlas. Also has sailing ship layouts and descriptions of Napoleanic-era technology for the modern reader. (Think of someone reading Tom Clancy in 200 years without reference material).Book ALSO contains what is elsewhere described as "Long Before Forty", Forester's autobiographical look at becoming a writer.