5.06.2009
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
by C.S. Forester, 310 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B
Series: Horatio Hornblower
Okay, I admit it. I'm a sucker for Napoleonic Era Royal Navy stories. I devoured Patrick O'Brian's series and I loved the Horatio Hornblower movies done by the BBC (Ioan Gruffudd :luffs:). So it was about time that I got around to actually reading the actual Horatio Hornblower books that basically inspired this genre, neh? Now I do know that Forester didn't write the series chronologically, so this was like the fourth book or so that he wrote. Still, I don't like to spoil myself, so I decided to read chronologically versus publication order.
First off, if you want to understand all the nautical terms, these books are not your friend. Horatio quickly becomes competent in the vocab and nary an explanation is given. It really made me miss the perennial landlubber Stephen Maturin :( So I would highly suggest getting yourself the Hornblower Companion or some similar volume if things like lee shores and tops'ls and the Mole are going to drive you nutty.
Second, the book is comprised not of chapters, but of 6-7 short stories with no really good places to stop in the midst of them. So be warned that you're probably committing yourself to reading the whole story when you start one. If you rotate through a stack of books reading chapter-by-chapter, this novel will not play fair.
Third, I miss character development. Perhaps this comes later in the series. From the BBC movies I got the impression that Horatio became fast friends with one of the other midshipman, but he's a lieutenant by the end of this book, so maybe the BBC played fast & loose? There's lots of action and because of the short story business, no downtime or lull in the pace of the novel which happens of necessity sometimes in O'Brian's books. But if you do want well-developed & developing characters, I still favor O'Brian's Aubrey & Maturin over Forester's Hornblower.
But I'll continue on with the series and let you know if the writing changes.
Also, the cover pictured here is a paperback I think, and not the edition I read, which was an old library hardcover.
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: historical, media: book, series: Horatio Hornblower
