Horatio Hornblower
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the Royal Navy, created by C.S. Forester, apparently drawn, in part, on Horatio Nelson and Thomas Cochrane (Lord Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald).
Forester, a pseudonym for Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, wrote many nautical works, some fictional and some not, some under his name and others under pseudonyms such as . The Hornblower works were the best-known written under that name, although he also wrote a shorter series on the Peninsular War.
The Hornblower character became the standard for naval historical writing; other authors' works, both Napoleonic era historical fiction such as the Aubrey-Maturin series, and science fiction about future navies, such as the Honor Harrington universe, often are described as "Hornblower-like".
The books
The novels were not published in order of the character's career. The first novel Forester wrote about Hornblower was published under the somewhat ironic title The Happy Return. It took place in the middle of his career, as a junior captain on an independent command. It took place in the Pacific Ocean, complicated by Spain switching from being allied to Napoleon Bonaparte's France, to being an ally of the United Kingdom.
Other books take the reader back to his first days in the navy, and to the highest ranks. Hornblower and the Crisis is a collection of stories and novelettes, with vignettes from his midshipman days, to a story in his retirement as Admiral of the Fleet. Forester also wrote The Hornblower Companion, a guide to the series written as a biography of the fictional character.
| Order in character life | Publication date | Character rank |
|---|---|---|
| Midshipman Hornblower | 1950 | Midshipman and lieutenant |
| Lieutenant Hornblower | 1952 | Lieutenant and commander* |
| Hornblower and the Hotspur | 1962 | Commander, fifth-rate sloop HMS Hotspur and junior captain* |
| Hornblower and the Atropos | 1953 | Junior captain, fourth-rate sloop HMS Atropos' |
| The Happy Return/Beat to Quarters | 1937 | Mid-level captain (frigate, HMS Lydia) |
| Ship of the Line | 1938 | Senior captain third-rate ship, HMS Sutherland |
| Flying Colours | 1939 | French prisoner and escapee |
| Lord Hornblower | 1945 | Temporary commodore; squadron & shore command |
| Commodore Hornblower | 1946 | Commodore |
| Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies | 1958 | Rear admiral |
Derivatives
Perhaps the best known is the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, also called Master and Commander. The Richard Bolitho series is another, written by Douglas Freeman under the pen name Alexander Kent.
A contemporary science fiction universe, created by David Weber around the Honor Harrington character and now used by multiple writers, is acknowledged to be based on Hornblower. The duplication of character name initials is not coincidental.
References
- Promotion at end of book