Horatio Hornblower | Hornblower | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Hornblower, the son of a doctor, was born on July 4 , 1776 (the date of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence ) in Hythe , Kent . He was given a classical education, and by the time he joined the Royal Navy at age seventeen, he was well-versed in Greek and Latin . He was tutored in French by a penniless French emigré and had an aptitude for mathematics, which served him well as a navigator . Early career Edit Hornblower's early exploits were many and varied. Joining the Royal Navy as a midshipman , he fended off fire ships which interrupted his first (disastrous) examination for promotion to lieutenant . Still only an acting lieutenant, he was given command of the sloop Le Rêve , which blundered into a Spanish fleet in the fog, resulting in Hornblower's capture and imprisonment in Ferrol . He was finally confirmed as a commissioned lieutenant while still a prisoner of war .

His daring rescue of some sailors from a shipwreck, and his honourable adherence to the parole he had given, was rewarded by his Spanish captors by his release. His captivity left him with a fluent knowledge of Spanish , which proved highly useful in several further adventures. As a junior lieutenant, he served under Captain James Sawyer , who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia on a trip to the Caribbean , during which he began his long friendship with William Bush . Returning to England , Hornblower was demobilised during the Peace of Amiens , causing him great financial distress -- he resorted to making a living as a professional gambler. He was employed for the Long Rooms , playing whist for a modest income. During this time, Hornblower took up residence in Portsmouth , in Mrs. Mason 's boarding house. In 1803 , he was reactivated and given command of a sloop of war. Mrs. Mason's daughter, was incredibly distraught at this development. Out of pity, Hornblower proposed marriage. Maria happily accepted. He had been confirmed as Commander of HMS Hotspur when hostilities resumed against Napoleon .

After gruelling service during the Blockade of Brest , he finally was promoted to captain and recalled to England. Once there, he met the secretary of the Admirality and post rank is conferred immediately when Hornblower agreed to take part in a clandestine operation that eventually lead to the resounding English victory at the Battle of Trafalgar that cost Horatio Nelson his life. Hornblower then organised Nelson's funeral procession along the River Thames and had to deal with the near-sinking of the barge conveying the hero's coffin. Later, he secretly recovered sunken gold and silver from a sunken ship on the bottom of Marmorice Bay within the Ottoman Empire with the aid of pearl divers from Ceylon , narrowly escaping a Turkish warship at the end. Upon unloading the treasure and refitting, his ship was taken away from him to be given to the King of the Two Sicilies for diplomatic reasons. On his return to England, he found his two young children dying of smallpox . He later made a long, difficult voyage in command of the frigate HMS Lydia , round the Horn to the Pacific, where he supported a madman, El Supremo , in his rebellion against the Spanish.

He captured the Natividad , a much more powerful Spanish ship of the line, then had to reluctantly cede it to El Supremo to placate him. When he found that the Spanish had switched sides in the interim, he was forced to find and sink the ship he had captured. On his return voyage, he and his well-connected passenger, Lady Barbara Wellesley , the younger sister of Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington ) became dangerously attracted to each other. Later career Edit After these exploits, he was given command of HMS Sutherland, a seventy four gun ship of the line . While waiting at his Mediterranean rendezvous point for the rest of his squadron - and its commander, Admiral Leighton - to arrive, he carried out a series of raids against the French along the south coast of Spain. He learned that a French squadron of four ships of the line was loose, having slipped the blockade. He decides that his duty required that he fight at four-to-one odds to prevent them from entering a well-protected harbour. In the process, his ship was crippled and, with two-thirds of the crew incapacitated, he surrendered to the French.

He was sent with his coxswain, Brown , and his injured first lieutenant, Bush, to Paris for a show trial and execution. During the journey, Hornblower and his companions escaped, and after a winter sojourn at the chateau of the Comte de Graçay , navigated down the Loire river to the coastal city of Nantes . There, he recaptured a Royal Navy cutter , the Witch of Endor , manned the vessel with a gang of slave labourers and escaped to the Channel Fleet . He is very smart. Hornblower faced a court-martial for the loss of the Sutherland but was "most honourably acquitted." Among the honours he received was a knighthood . When he arrived home, he discovered that his first wife Maria had died in childbirth and that his infant son, Richard, has been adopted and cared for by Lady Barbara. As she had been widowed by the death of her husband, Hornblower's former commander, Admiral Leighton , they were free (after a decent interval) to marry. Barbara was more beautiful, cleverer and far richer than the poor Maria (whom Hornblower had more pitied than loved).

Thereafter, he lived (uncomfortably) as a country squire in Kent. Freedom from this purgatory came when he was promoted to commodore and sent on a mission to the Baltic Sea , where he was to be a diplomat as much as an officer. He foiled an assassination attempt on the Russian Czar and was influential in the ruler's decision to resist the French invasion of his vast country. He provided invaluable assistance in the defence of Riga against the French army, where he met Carl von Clausewitz . He returned ill with Typhus to England, yet soon after his recovery went off to deal with mutineers off the coast of France. After taking the mutinous ship by trickery, he sets up the return of the Bourbons to France, and was created a peer as Baron Hornblower, of Boxley in the County of Kent. When Napoleon returned from exile at the start of the Hundred Days , Hornblower is staying at the estate of the Comte de Graçay. He lead a Royalist Guerrilla movement; after capture by the French, he was about to be shot under an earlier warrant for his execution when he was saved by news of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo .

After several years ashore, he was promoted to Admiral and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the West Indies . He foiled an attempt by veterans of Napoleon's Imperial Guard to free Napoleon from his captivity on Saint Helena , captured a slave ship , and encountered Simón Bolívar 's army. He retired to Kent and eventually becomes Admiral of the Fleet. His final, improbable achievement occurred at his home, when he assisted a seemingly-mad man claiming to be Napoleon to travel to France. That person turned out to be Napoleon III , the nephew of Hornblower's great nemesis and the future president (and later emperor in his own right) of France. For his assistance, Lord Hornblower was created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour . At the end of his long and heroic career, he was wealthy, famous, and contented; a loving and indulgent husband and father; and finally free of the insecurities and self-loathing that had driven him throughout his life. Traits and Personality Edit Horatio Hornblower was chiefly characterized by his courage and integrity. He regarded himself as defiant and resourceful.

His introverted nature continually isolated him from the people around him, including his closest friend, William Bush , and his wives never fully understood him. He suffered from severe seasickness (like Horatio Nelson ) at the beginning of his voyages and played excellent whist ; he was tone-deaf and found music an incomprehensible irritant. He was philosophically opposed to flogging and capital punishment , to the extent that on one occasion he contrived an escape for his personal steward who would otherwise have been hanged for striking a superior. Hornblower's ships Edit Horatio Hornblower was created by author C. S. Forester , who wrote 11 books about the character between 1937 and 1967. Hornblower is iconic in Age of Sail traditional naval fiction . There are many parallels between Hornblower and real naval officers of the period, especially Thomas Cochrane and Horatio Nelson . The name "Horatio" was inspired by the character in William Shakespeare 's Hamlet and chosen also because of its association with contemporary figures such as Nelson .

[1] Published in 2012, The Jamaican Affair of 1805 was written by John Mahon,with permission of Forester's family to include the period immediately after Hornblower and the Crisis. The Hornblower novels and short stories Flying Colours , The Commodore , Lord Hornblower , and Hornblower in the West Indies make up a third omnibus edition called Admiral Hornblower to fill out the series. The Hornblower short stories Edit Three short stories by C. S. Forester about Hornblower were also published in 1940 and 1941. The stories are: Hornblower's Charitable Offering (aka The Bad Samaritan), published in Argosy , May 1941, and was originally intended as a chapter for A Ship of the Line. Hornblower and His Majesty, in Collier's , March 1940, and in Argosy, March 1941. The Hand of Destiny, in Collier's, November 1940.

Two other stories Hornblower and the Widow McCool (aka Hornblower's Temptation) (1967) and The Last Encounter (1967), are often included with the unfinished novel Hornblower and the Crisis. Another short story The Point And The Edge is included as an outline only in The Hornblower Companion (1964), a book in which Forester describes and illustrates with maps the incidents which his fictional hero experienced, and describes how the novels were written, what inspired them and how they relate to the real world of the Royal Navy. Hornblower in other media Horatio Hornblower (Character) Horatio Hornblower (Character) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. Videos There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview Horatio Hornblower, based on C.S. Forrester's Hornblower novels... See more » Alternate Names: 3rd Lt. Horatio Hornblower / Acting Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower / Acting Lt. Horatio Hornblower / Capt.

Horatio Hornblower / Capt. Horatio Hornblower R.N / Captain Horatio Hornblower / Commander Horatio Hornblower / Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower / Midshipman Horatio Hornblower Filmography (as Acting Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower) ... aka "Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil" - UK (original title) (as Acting Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower) ... aka "Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant" - UK (original title) ... aka "Fred Astaire's Premiere Theatre" - USA (alternative title) ... aka "Premiere, Presented by Fred Astaire" - USA (alternative title) (as Capt. Horatio Hornblower R.N) ... aka "Captain Horatio Hornblower" - Canada (English title) (imdb display title), USA (alternative title) From Horatio Hornblower: Retribution (2001) (TV) 3rd Lt. Horatio Hornblower : I'm sorry that his last command was taken away from him. He was a leader of men, and he died in battle. Gunner Hobbs : It's all over now, sir. All over.

See more » Update You may correct errors and omissions on this page directly. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process. IMDb Everywhere Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. ( 1951 ) 1h 57min During the Napoleonic wars, a British naval captain has adventures in Central American waters.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 44 titles created 12 Jun 2012 a list of 27 titles created 21 May 2014 a list of 32 titles created 24 Oct 2014 a list of 29 titles created 03 Dec 2014 a list of 39 titles created 15 May 2015 Title: Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) 7.5/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Roistering sea captain Jonathan Clark, who poaches seal pelts from Russian Alaska, meets and woos Russian countess Marina in 1850 San Francisco. Events separate them, but after an exciting ... See full summary » Director: Raoul Walsh Horatio Hornblower begins his naval career, but a deadly feud with a despicable mate is causing complications.

Director: Andrew Grieve A pistol-packing tomboy and her grandfather discover a band of bank robbing bandits taking refuge in the neighboring ghost town. Director: William A. Wellman In Colorado territory, outlaw Wes McQueen escapes jail to pull a railroad robbery but, upon meeting pretty settler Julie Ann, he wonders about going straight. Director: Raoul Walsh On the H.M.S. Defiant, during the French Revolutionary Wars, fair Captain Crawford is locked in a battle of wills against his cruel second-in-command Lt. Scott-Paget whose heavy-handed command style pushes the crew to mutiny. Director: Lewis Gilbert Hornblower: Mutiny (TV Movie 2001) Adventure | Drama | War Hornblower and his comrades come under the command of a revered but obviously mentally unstable captain and eventually must mutiny. Director: Andrew Grieve Honest Edward Maynard finds himself serving as ship's surgeon under the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Director: Raoul Walsh While Lt. Hornblower studies for his promotion examination, he is distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew. Director: Andrew Grieve Notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo rides into town to find his true love, who doesn't want to see him.

He hasn't come looking for trouble, but trouble finds him around every corner. Director: Henry King Story of international intrigue involving a university professor, an Arab prime minister, a ruthless businessman, a beautiful spy, and hieroglyphics. Director: Stanley Donen Lt. Hornblower and his crew are captured by the enemy while escorting a Duchess who has secrets of her own. Director: Andrew Grieve Mary Rafferty comes from a poor family of steel mill workers in 19th Century Pittsburgh. Her family objects when she goes to work as a maid for the wealthy Scott family which controls the ... See full summary » Director: Tay Garnett Edit Storyline In 1807, Captain Horatio Hornblower leads his ship the HMS Lydia on a perilous voyage around Cape Horn and into the Pacific. The men, even his officers, don't know exactly where he is leading them. England is at war with Napoleon and everyone wonders why they have been sent so far from the action. They eventually arrive on the Pacific coast of Central America where the HMS Lydia has been sent to arm Don Julian Alvarado, who is planning an attack against France's Spanish allies on the North American continent.

The hope is that Alvarado's forces will require the French to divert some of their military resources to North American defense in the aid of their Spanish allies. He arrives to learn that a Spanish Galleon is en route and he no sooner captures it and hands it over to Alvarado that he learns the Spanish are now England's allies and he must take it from Alvarado. He also gets a very comely passenger in the form of Lady Barbara Wellesley, sister of the Duke of Wellington. The ... Written by garykmcd A great picturization of C.S. Forester's famous novel of romance and adventure! See more » Genres: 10 April 1951 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Captain Horatio Hornblower See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Alexander Davion 's role was curtailed because of a schedule clash with another project so his scenes were given to various other actors. See more » Goofs During the battle between the Lydia and the Natividad, the model of the Natividad is clearly held down by visible ropes.

See more » Quotes [first lines] Narrator: In the year Eighteen Hundred and Seven, a small ship of the Royal Navy set sail from England for a secret destination. With five million French and Spanish soldiers poised on the Continent under Napolean, nothing could save England from invasion except her 300 ships. HMS Lydia was soon far beyond battle-charged Europe. Under the most secret of sealed orders, she sailed for southern waters, fought her way around the Horn... headed north again into the Pacific. For seven months, she ... Hornblower almost at his best 13 June 2005 | by jacob-139 (Netherlands) – See all my reviews The books of Cecil Scott Forrester were brought to my attention by my first English teacher and I am still thankful for that. The books about Hornblower are in a series of 12 volumes and they are all great. The strength of the 8 episodes (TV movies) with Ion Gruffith are very very well in there description of the characteristic doubtfulness of the character Horatio Hornblower. In this movie, however, there is not as much time as in the latter TV series...

where the TV series only describe part of a book, this movie is the story of 3 books in all. Keeping that in mind, Gregory Peck makes quite a good Hornblower in a great story, that more takes the action from the books then the doubts of the main character. But what great actions! This movie is really, even after more then 50 years worth to watch. It hardly has aged.... it is an excellent movie... and I wonder: why is it so hard to get? I had expected that this movie would be for sale on DVD in all regions. Pity it is only a hard to get movie on NTSC VHS tape, because the movie is of such quality that it can most certainly be compared with the TV series, and... of course keeping in mind it is 50 years older, with "Master and commander, the far side of the world" from that other great novelist in this topic: Patrick O' Brian. 3 of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes Horatio Hornblower | fictional character | Britannica.com fictional character Cheshire Cat Horatio Hornblower, fictional character, a British naval officer who is the hero of 12 books (mostly novels) by C.S. Forester that are set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The Hornblower novels begin with The Happy Return (1937; also published as Beat to Quarters) and conclude with the unfinished novel Hornblower and the Crisis (1967; also published as Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories: Hornblower’s Temptation and The Last Encounter). Other novels in the series include A Ship of the Line (1938), Flying Colours (1938), and Lord Hornblower (1946). The Hornblower Companion (1964) is a book of anecdotes and maps that provides background on the series. C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a “biography” of this fictional hero, The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower (1970). The character was perhaps most famously played by Gregory Peck in the film Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951).

Beginning with Horatio Hornblower: The Duel (1998), Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd played Hornblower in a series of made-for-television movies. Learn More in these related articles: C.S. Forester August 27, 1899 Cairo, Egypt April 2, 1966 Fullerton, California, U.S. British historical novelist and journalist best known as the creator of the British naval officer Horatio Hornblower, whose rise from midshipman to admiral and peer during the Napoleonic Wars is told in a series of 12 novels,... C. Northcote Parkinson July 30, 1909 Barnard Castle, Durham, England March 9, 1993 Canterbury British historian, author, and formulator of “Parkinson’s Law,” the satiric dictum that “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” A relatively obscure academic prior to the... 1 Reference found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference created by Forester (in C.S. Forester ) External Links Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this.

Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. (Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later.

Close Date Published: December 18, 2014 URL: Access Date: January 19, 2017 Share Horatio Hornblower - iSnare Free Encyclopedia Horatio Hornblower This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2014) Nationality British Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Napoleonic Wars era Royal Navy officer who is the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester . He was later the subject of films and radio and television programs. The original Hornblower tales began with the 1937 novel The Happy Return (U.S. title Beat to Quarters) with the appearance of a junior Royal Navy captain on independent duty on a secret mission to Central America . Later stories filled out his earlier years, starting with an unpromising beginning as a seasick midshipman . As the Napoleonic Wars progress, he gains promotion steadily as a result of his skill and daring, despite his initial poverty and lack of influential friends.

After surviving many adventures in a wide variety of locales, he rises to the pinnacle of his profession, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet, knighted as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB), and named the 1st Baron Hornblower. Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know," [1] and Winston Churchill stated, "I find Hornblower admirable." [2] Contents 10 External links Inspirations There are many parallels between Hornblower and real naval officers of the period, notably Admiral Lord Nelson and also Sir George Cockburn , Lord Cochrane , Sir Edward Pellew , Jeremiah Coghlan , Sir James Gordon , Sir William Hoste , and many others. The actions of the Royal Navy at the time, documented in official reports, gave much material for Hornblower's fictional adventures. [3] The name "Horatio" was inspired by the character in William Shakespeare 's Hamlet and chosen also because of its association with contemporary figures such as Nelson. [4] Forester's original inspiration was an old copy of the Naval Chronicle , which described the effective dates of the Treaty of Ghent [ citation needed ].

It was possible for two countries to still be at war in one part of the world after a peace was obtained months before in another because of the time required to communicate around the world. The burdens that this placed on captains far from home led him to a character struggling with the stresses of a "man alone". [5] At the same time, Forester wrote the body of the works carefully to avoid entanglements with real world history, so Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval victory occurs during the Napoleonic Wars . There is a strong resemblance between the early Hornblower and Peter Simple , the fictional naval officer created by Frederick Marryat in 1833. Stories are similarly set in the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Both midshipmen start their career rather unpromisingly and without influential friends, but advance themselves through hard work, honesty and bravery. Both fight in duels before their careers have properly even started and both are taken prisoners early in their careers, but escape in extraordinary fashion.

It is likely that when, after the success of his first novels, Forester wrote about Hornblower’s origins, he found Marryat's work most helpful.[ citation needed ] Characteristics Hornblower is courageous, intelligent, and a skilled seaman, but he is also burdened by his intense reserve, introspection, and self-doubt, and is described as "unhappy and lonely". Despite numerous personal feats of extraordinary skill and cunning, he belittles his achievements by numerous rationalizations, remembering only his fears. He consistently ignores or is unaware of the admiration in which he is held by his fellow sailors. He regards himself as cowardly, dishonest, and, at times, disloyal—never crediting his ability to persevere, think rapidly, organise, or cut to the heart of a matter. His sense of duty, hard work, and drive to succeed make these imagined negative characteristics undetectable by everyone but him and, being introspective, he obsesses over petty failures to reinforce his poor self-image. His introverted nature continually isolates him from the people around him, including his closest friend William Bush , and his wives never fully understand him.

He is guarded with nearly everyone, unless the matter is the business of discharging his duty as a King's officer, in which case he is clear and decisive. Hornblower possesses a hyper-developed sense of duty, though on occasion he is able to set it aside; for example, in Hornblower and the Hotspur, he contrives an escape for his personal steward, who would otherwise have to be hanged for striking a superior officer. He is philosophically opposed to flogging and capital punishment , and is pained when circumstances or the Articles of War force him to impose such sentences. He suffers from seasickness at the start of his voyages. As a midshipman, he becomes seasick at the sheltered roadstead of Spithead , an embarrassment which haunts him throughout his career. He is tone-deaf and finds music an incomprehensible irritant (in a scene in Hotspur, he is unable to recognize the British national anthem ). A voracious reader, he can discourse on both contemporary and classical literature. His skill at mathematics makes him both an adept navigator and an extremely talented whist player.

He uses his ability at whist to supplement his income during a poverty-stricken period of inactivity in the naval service. Fictional biography Youth Hornblower is born in Kent , the son of a doctor. He has no inherited wealth or influential connections who can advance his career. In The Happy Return , the first novel published, Hornblower's age is given as 37 in July 1808, implying a birth year of 1770 or 1771. 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 birth date 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. [6] He is given a classical education , and by the time he joins the Royal Navy at age seventeen, he is well-versed in Greek and Latin . He is tutored in French by a penniless French émigré and has an aptitude for mathematics, which serves him well as a navigator .

Early career Hornblower's early exploits are many and varied. He joins the Royal Navy as a midshipman and fends off fire ships which interrupt his (disastrous) first examination for promotion to lieutenant . He is given command of the sloop Le Rêve while still only an acting lieutenant; the vessel blunders into a Spanish fleet in the fog, resulting in Hornblower's capture and imprisonment in Ferrol . During his captivity, he acquires a fluent knowledge of both Galician and Spanish , which proves highly useful in several further adventures, and is finally confirmed as a commissioned lieutenant. He leads a daring rescue of Spanish civilians from a shipwreck under extremely hazardous conditions, which leads to his being picked up by a British warship patrolling offshore; but since he had given his Spanish captors his parole that he would not escape, he insists upon being returned to captivity. The Spanish, admiring his sense of honor, release him in recognition of his “courage and self-sacrifice in saving life at the peril of [his] own”. As a junior lieutenant, he serves in HMS Renown under Captain Sawyer, whose bouts of paranoia on a mission to the Caribbean strain discipline to the breaking point.

It is on this voyage that he begins his long friendship with William Bush , at the time his senior officer. Due to his exploits, Hornblower is made commander , but his promotion is not confirmed when he returns to England following the announcement of the Peace of Amiens , causing him great financial distress: He has to make up the difference between a commander's pay and a lieutenant's, all from his half pay while inactive. He is forced to resort to playing whist with admirals and other senior figures in an upper-class gaming establishment for a modest stipend; all wins (and losses) are his responsibility. Fortunately, his skill at whist is up to the task. HMS Hotspur In 1803, renewed hostilities against France seem imminent, and Hornblower is confirmed as commander of HM sloop Hotspur . Before sailing, he marries Maria, the daughter of his landlady, despite his doubts about the match. Maria dotes upon the irritable Hornblower in ways that he finds distressing; she knows little of the sea, and annoys him both with her ignorance and hero-worship of him, which clashes with his eternally low self-image.

Despite this unfortunate beginning, however, he warms to her over the course of several books, and becomes a good (though not perfect) husband to her and father to their two children, also named Horatio and Maria. After gruelling service during the blockade of Brest aboard the Hotspur, he is promised the coveted promotion to post captain by Commander-in-Chief William Cornwallis and is recalled to England. Once there, he meets the Secretary of the Admiralty and the rank is conferred when Hornblower agrees to take part in a dangerous clandestine operation that eventually leads to the resounding British victory at the Trafalgar . HMS Atropos Following this exploit, Hornblower is ordered by the Admiralty to organize Nelson's funeral procession along the River Thames and has to deal with the near-sinking of the barge conveying the hero's coffin. Later, after being given command of HMS Atropos, he is sent on a secret mission to recover gold and silver from a sunken British transport on the bottom of Marmorice Bay within the Ottoman Empire with the aid of pearl divers from Ceylon , narrowly escaping a Turkish warship at the end.

Upon his return to a British-controlled port, after unloading the treasure and refitting his ship, Atropos, is given to the King of the Two Sicilies for diplomatic reasons, much to his disappointment. Returning to England, he finds his two young children dying of smallpox . Their deaths were referred to in the first novel to be published. HMS Lydia Later (in the time line, but written of in the first novel), he makes a long, difficult voyage in command of the frigate HMS Lydia round the Horn to the Pacific, where his mission is to support a megalomaniac , El Supremo, in his rebellion against the Spanish. He captures the Natividad, a much more powerful Spanish ship (Bush refers to it as a " ship of the line ", although Hornblower believes this is stretching a point), but then has to reluctantly cede it to El Supremo to placate him. When he finds that the Spanish have switched sides in the interim, he is forced to find and sink the ship he had captured—adding injury to insult, as he had given up a fortune in prize money to maintain the uneasy alliance with the madman.

Hornblower also takes on an important passenger in Panama—Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional younger sister of Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington )—also Hornblower's future wife and the love of his life. He is at first nettled and infuriated by her forthright and outspoken manner, her ability to easily see through his reserve, and the great social gap between them. Over time, however, her beauty, strength, and intelligence win his heart, and the two become dangerously attracted to each other. Before things get out of hand, Hornblower informs Lady Barbara that he is married. She leaves the Lydia two days later when they rendezvous with other British ships. Hornblower fears for his career, having offended the daughter of an earl and sister of a marquis . HMS Sutherland After these exploits, he is given command of HMS Sutherland, a seventy-four gun ship of the line . His feelings are disturbed during this period by the fact that his commander, Admiral Leighton, has recently married Lady Barbara, thereby apparently ending any hope that she and Hornblower might act on their feelings for one another.

Hornblower is tormented by jealousy of Leighton, compounded by the admiral's dismissive treatment of him; this treatment is due in fact to Leighton's rightly suspecting his wife's attraction to the famous captain, and feelings of inferiority towards Hornblower, but naturally the self-doubting captain is incapable of realizing this. While waiting at his Mediterranean rendezvous point for the rest of his squadron—and its commander—to arrive, he carries out a series of raids against the French along the south coast of Spain. He learns that a French squadron of four ships of the line is loose, having slipped the blockade. He decides that his duty requires that he fight at one-to-four odds to prevent them from entering a well-protected harbour. In the process, his ship is crippled and with two-thirds of the crew incapacitated, he surrenders to the French. As a prisoner he witnesses the destruction of the French ships at anchor by Leighton's squadron. He is sent with his coxswain, Brown, and his injured first lieutenant, Bush, to Paris for a show trial and execution. During the journey, Hornblower and his companions escape.

After a winter sojourn at the chateau of the Comte de Graçay, during which he has an affair with the nobleman's widowed daughter-in-law, the escapees travel down the Loire river to the coastal city of Nantes . There, he recaptures a Royal Navy cutter , the Witch of Endor, mans the vessel with a gang of slave labourers and escapes to the Channel Fleet . Hornblower faces a mandatory court-martial for the loss of the Sutherland, but is "most honourably acquitted." A national hero in the eyes of the public, he is awarded a knighthood and made a Colonel of Marines (a sinecure which confers a second salary without any additional duties). When he arrives home, he discovers that his first wife Maria has died in childbirth and that his infant son has been adopted and cared for by Lady Barbara. As she has been widowed by the death of Admiral Leighton, Hornblower's former commander (he had died of wounds sustained during the attack Hornblower had observed as a prisoner) they are free (after a decent interval) to marry.

Thereafter, he lives as a country squire in the fictional village of Smallbridge, Kent, largely satisfied but longing for the sea. Flag Officer A return to duty comes when he is appointed to be commodore and sent with a squadron of small craft on a mission to the Baltic Sea , where he must be a diplomat as much as an officer. He foils an assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander I of Russia and is influential in the monarch's decision to resist the French invasion of the Russian Empire . While at the court of the Tsar, it is implied (but not explicitly confirmed) that he is unfaithful to Barbara, dallying with a young Russian noblewoman. He provides invaluable assistance in the defence of Riga , employing his bomb-ketches against the French army, where he meets General Carl von Clausewitz of the Prussian Army . He returns ill with typhus to England. Soon after his recovery, he is given the difficult task of dealing with mutineers off the coast of France. After provoking the French by trickery into attacking the mutinous ship, he rounds up the rebels, personally shooting their ringleader as he tries to escape.

When he is approached by a French official willing to negotiate the surrender of a major port, he seizes the opportunity and engineers the return of the Bourbons to France. He is rewarded by being created a peer as Baron Hornblower of Smallbridge in the County of Kent. However, his satisfaction is marred by the death in action of his longtime friend, Bush. When Napoleon returns from exile at the start of the Hundred Days , Hornblower is staying at the estate of the Comte de Graçay, which he was visiting after again growing tired of his life in Smallbridge. While there, he renews his affair with Marie de Gracay, so that he has now been unfaithful, with her, to both of his wives. When the country goes over to Napoleon en masse, Hornblower, the Count, and his family choose to fight rather than flee to Britain. He leads a Royalist guerrilla force, and causes the returned Emperor's forces much grief before his band is finally cornered; in a desperate shootout, Marie is slain, and a devastated Hornblower captured.

After a brusque hearing before a military tribunal, he and the Count are both sentenced to the firing squad the next morning by an officer who obviously regrets the task. However, in the morning when his cell door is opened, he is granted a stay due to Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo . Napoleon had tried to stir up support for a renewed national resistance when he arrived in Paris after Waterloo, but the temper of the legislative chambers, and of the public generally, did not favor his view. Lacking support, Napoleon abdicates and after he is again sent into exile, Hornblower is released. After several years ashore, he is promoted to rear admiral and appointed naval Commander-in-Chief of the West Indies . He foils an attempt by veterans of Napoleon's Imperial Guard to free Napoleon from his captivity on Saint Helena , captures a slave ship , and encounters Simón Bolívar 's army. He also discovers a plot by Lady Barbara to engineer the escape of a Marine bandsman sentenced to death for a minor offence. An astonished Hornblower overlooks her breach of the law and reassures her of his love.

Finally, while attempting to return to England, the Hornblowers are caught in a hurricane, and Horatio struggles desperately to save Barbara's life from the storm. In a moment of terror and desperation, she bares her heart to him, revealing that she never loved her first husband, only him. The two survive, and this revelation does much to heal the last self-inflicted wounds in Hornblower's soul. He retires to Kent and eventually becomes Admiral of the Fleet. His final, improbable achievement occurs at his home, when he assists a seemingly mad man claiming to be Napoleon to travel to France. That person turns out to be Napoleon III , the nephew of Hornblower's great nemesis and the future President (and later Emperor in his own right) of France. For his assistance, Lord Hornblower is created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour . At the end of his long and heroic career, he is wealthy, famous and contented, a loving and beloved, indulgent husband and father, and finally free of the insecurities and self-loathing that had driven him throughout his life. Forester provides two different brief summaries of Hornblower's career.

The first was in the first chapter of The Happy Return, which was the first Hornblower novel written. The second occurs midway through The Commodore, when Czar Alexander asks him to describe his career. The two accounts are incompatible. The first account would have made Hornblower about five years older than the second. The second account is more nearly compatible with the rest of Hornblower's career, but it omits the time he spent as a commander in Hornblower and the Hotspur. There are other discrepancies as well; in one account of his defeat of a Spanish frigate in the Mediterranean, he distinguished himself as lieutenant and in another he is a post-captain with less than three years seniority. It appears that these discrepancies arose as the series matured and accounts needed to be modified to coincide with his age and career. Non-canonical biography C. Northcote Parkinson , more famous for his invention of Parkinson's Law , wrote a "biography" of Hornblower, detailing his career as well as personal information.

The biography sheds light upon what really happened to Captain Sawyer on HMS Renown (including a confession that Hornblower pushed Captain Sawyer down the hatchway), as well as subsequent careers of Lord Hornblower's descendants, ending with the present Lord Hornblower's emigration to Apartheid South Africa in the late 1960s. According to Parkinson, Hornblower in later life became a director of P&O , Governor of Malta (1829–1831), Commander in Chief at Chatham (1832–1835) a Viscount (in 1850), and an Admiral of the Fleet , dying at the age of 80 on 12 January 1858. [7] This fictional biography of a fictional character has confused some readers, who have taken it as a factual work. [3] Parkinson includes in Horatio's family tree at least two real life Hornblowers, though he nowhere admits to this. They are Jonathan Hornblower senior and Jonathan Hornblower junior, who were noted engineers designing and working with steam engines in mines in Cornwall in the late 18th century.

In their spare time they were active Baptist Christians, founding a church in Chacewater whose offshoot in Truro is very much alive to this day. Bibliography The Hornblower canon by Forester consists of eleven novels (one unfinished) and five short stories. In addition, The Hornblower Companion includes maps showing where the action took place in the ten complete novels plus Forester's notes on how they were written. UK Title Short story subsequently published in Hornblower During the Crisis Another short story, "The Point and the Edge," is included only as an outline in The Hornblower Companion. Omnibus publications The first three novels written, The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours were collected as Captain Horatio Hornblower (1939) by Little Brown in the US. Both a single-volume edition and a three-volume edition (in a slip case) were published. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, and Hornblower and the Atropos were compiled in one book, variously titled Hornblower's Early Years, Horatio Hornblower Goes to Sea, or The Young Hornblower.

Hornblower and the Atropos was replaced by Hornblower and the Hotspur in later UK editions of The Young Hornblower. Hornblower and the Atropos, The Happy Return, and A Ship of the Line were compiled into one omnibus edition, called Captain Hornblower. Flying Colours, The Commodore, Lord Hornblower, and Hornblower in the West Indies were presented as a third omnibus edition called Admiral Hornblower to fill out the series. Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower, and Hornblower in the West Indies were also compiled into one book, called The Indomitable Hornblower. Four "Cadet Editions" were released by Little Brown and later by Michael Joseph, each collecting two Hornblower novels and edited for younger readers: Hornblower Goes to Sea (1953, 1954), from Mr.

Midshipman Hornblower and Lieutenant Hornblower; Hornblower Takes Command (1953, 1954), from Hornblower and The Atropos and Beat To Quarters; Hornblower in Captivity (1939, 1955), from A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours; and Hornblower's Triumph (1946, 1955), from Commodore Hornblower and Lord Hornblower. The short stories "The Hand of Destiny," "Hornblower's Charitable Offering," and "Hornblower and His Majesty" plus other Hornblower material not previously published in book-form was collected in Hornblower One More Time (000000001976-07-04-0000Jul 4, 1976) though only 350 copies were printed. [11] Serialisation The Hornblower novels were all serialised in US periodicals and most also in UK periodicals. Except for the first novel Beat to Quarters, the serialisations appeared before the books.

US Novel Title In other media Screen adaptations The film Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) stars Gregory Peck in the title role, encompassing the events in The Happy Return , A Ship of the Line , and Flying Colours , with C. S. Forester sharing writing credits. Peck and co-star Virginia Mayo would recreate their roles on a one-hour Lux Radio Theater program broadcast on January 21, 1952, which is included as an audio-only feature in the film's DVD release. [13] The ITV and A&E television series Hornblower (1998–2003) starred Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower, and included stories from Mr. Midshipman Hornblower , Lieutenant Hornblower , and Hornblower and the Hotspur . Radio adaptations Michael Redgrave played Hornblower in a radio series of the same name between 1952 and 1953, later rebroadcast over Mutual in the United States syndicated via Towers of London .

[14] Nicholas Fry played Hornblower in the radio series 'The Hornblower Story' in 1979/80 for the BBC (20 x 30mins). This series covers the books, 'Mr Midshipman Hornblower', 'Lieutenant Hornblower', 'Hornblower and the Hotspur' and 'Lord Hornblower'. Literary appearances In the fictional setting of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore , Hornblower is the equivalent of Lord Nelson, with The Black Dossier depicting Hornblower's Column as one of London's most popular landmarks. A "biography", called The life and times of Horatio Hornblower, was published in 1970 by C. Northcote Parkinson which gives various scholarly "corrections" to the stories told by Hornblower's creator. [7] In Dudley Pope 's Ramage , Hornblower is mentioned in passing as a former shipmate of the title character, Lord Ramage, when both were midshipmen. Sten Nadolny 's novel The Discovery of Slowness contains allusions to the Hornblower cycle.

For instance, the Lydia is written among other vessels in a sailor's bar in Plymouth. Lieutenant Gerard who appears in The Happy Return and A Ship of the Line is mentioned several times. In Dewey Lambdin 's King, Ship, and Sword, the main character Alan Lewrie (another fictional British captain of the era) makes a visit to the Admiralty and takes particular note of a tall, thin lieutenant in a threadbare uniform with a melancholy expression. While the lieutenant's name is never mentioned, he displays several of Hornblower's best known characteristics, and the state of a penniless lieutenant fits with the events at the end of Lieutenant Hornblower (this scene takes place during the Peace of Amiens). Influence on other fiction Napoleonic War series The popular Richard Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell were inspired by the Hornblower series; Cornwell avidly read the series as a child, and was disappointed to learn that there was no similar series chronicling the Napoleonic Wars on land. [15] Patrick O'Brian 's Aubrey/Maturin novels were likely influenced by the Hornblower tales.

[16] Douglas Reeman 's Richard Bolitho series was inspired by Hornblower and was described in publicity as 'the best of Hornblower's successors'.[ citation needed ] Dudley Pope was encouraged by C. S. Forester to create his Lord Ramage series of novels set around the same period.[ citation needed ] Science fiction series Gene Roddenberry was influenced by the Hornblower character while creating the Star Trek characters James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard . Nicholas Meyer , director of some of the Star Trek films, frequently cites Horatio Hornblower as one of his primary influences. [17] [18] The science fiction characters of John Grimes (created by A. Bertram Chandler ) and Nicholas Seafort (created by David Feintuch ) are heavily inspired by the Hornblower series. Like Forster, Chandler first introduced his protagonist as a veteran senior officer and then charted his career backwards to its humble beginnings and forward to new adventures. David Weber 's character Honor Harrington closely parallels Hornblower and he deliberately gave her the same initials.

[19] Like Hornblower, the reader first meets Harrington in junior command rank, the daughter of doctors from a fairly modest background and lacking patronage of any sort, and throughout the series she accrues promotions, peerages, and other honours. By the time of the most recent novels Harrington is a Fleet Admiral (NATO O-11 equivalent), a duchess, the recipient of two different nations' highest military decorations, and so on. The first novel in the series, On Basilisk Station , is dedicated to C. S. Forester; in the sixth, Honor Among Enemies , Harrington is described reading a Hornblower novel. Weber wrote a short story, Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington which parallels the title of Forester's first story; At least two elements of Mr. Midshipman Hornblower are paralleled in the series: a supporting character deals with a bully on board ship akin to Forester's Mr. Simpson, and Harrington herself fights a duel with a cowardly enemy, who, like Simpson, attempts to cheat by firing early and then walking away.

Weber's main space-nation, the Star Kingdom of Manticore , is deliberately made to resemble 19th-century Britain in many respects (peerage, strong informal importance of birth and patronage in Naval service, the legality of dueling , etc.), likely in part to accommodate the parallels to Hornblower. The fictional physics of Weber's " Honorverse " impose restrictions on spacecraft combat similar to those imposed on Napoleonic sailing ships: ships are cylindrical in shape, and thus mount much more firepower on their broadsides than their bows or sterns ; and the ships' "impeller wedge" propulsion technology creates an impenetrable shield along their dorsal and ventral axes , forcing ships to engage each other across a horizontal plane, like ships on the ocean. Poul Anderson 's Dominic Flandry (featured in the Terran Empire series) also parallels the Hornblower series. The fifth novel in the Jackelian series of Stephen Hunt , Jack Cloudie, has the Hornblower series as a major influence (fighting with airships, rather than sailing craft). The title, Jack Cloudie, is itself derived from Jack Tar , as is the series name.

Lois McMaster Bujold 's Vorkosigan Saga uses the Hornblower series as a structural model. [20] David Feintuch 's Seafort Saga has a very similar central character in Nicholas Seafort , a young Midshipman serving on a deep space military ship who rises through the ranks to become Earth's savior several times over. Seafort is recognized by those around him as a brave and noble man, but the sacrifices he is called to make plague him with guilt and angst. In The Traitor's Hand, the third novel of the Ciaphas Cain series by Sandy Mitchell , set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, there is brief mention of an Imperial Navy commander named Horatio Bugler, who would go on to have a much more distinguished career. Other references Captain Horario Harpplayer, R.N. is a short story parody written by the science fiction author Harry Harrison . While Hornblower is tone deaf, Harpplayer is completely colour blind , with the result that he cannot recognize a little green man as an alien from outer space. Harpplayer reflects on the "imaginary colors" that other people claim to see, and refers to the alien as "Mr.

Greene". The British comedy film Carry On Jack featured a character named Midshipman Poopdecker, played by Bernard Cribbins , who was intended as a parody of Hornblower. President Jimmy Carter accidentally called the late Senator Hubert Horatio Humphrey "Hubert Horatio Hornblower" during his acceptance speech after he was nominated for re-election in 1980. The video game Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships features a character named Horatio Hornblower who offers his services to the player if the right questions are asked. In the episode " Smile Time " of the television series Angel , one of the demon-possessed puppets is named Ratio Hornblower. The same character also appears in the limited comic book series Spike: Shadow Puppets . In the episode of Archer (TV series) Archer (season 4) Episode 12 Sea Tunt Part 1 Archer makes an alcoholic drink and claims the best name he can think of for it is "Horotio Cornblower." References NLS/BPH: Minibibliographies, The Horatio Hornblower Series by C.S.

Forester Home > Bibliographies > Minibibliographies > The Horatio Hornblower Series by C.S. Forester NLS Minibibliographies The Horatio Hornblower Series by C.S. Forester Content last modified December 2014 Introduction In 1927, C.S. Forester purchased three volumes of The Naval Chronicle from 1790 to 1820. For the Chronicle, officers of the Royal Navy wrote articles on strategy, seamanship, gunnery, and other professional topics of interest to their colleagues. The Chronicle for those years covered the wars with Napoleon. Reading these volumes and traveling by freighter from California to Central America allowed the germination of the character Horatio Hornblower as a member of the Royal Navy in the late eighteenth century. By the time Forester's journey brought him home to England, the former medical student-turned-writer had plotted Beat to Quarters, and it was published in 1937. A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were published soon after, and in 1939 all three appeared as Captain Horatio Hornblower.

Forester's interest in the Romantic period and the political and military maneuvers of the early 1800s continued, and the Hornblower saga was produced. Subsequent volumes in the series were sequels to the original trilogy or filled in its gaps. The episodic quality of the novels is due partly to their having appeared serially in magazines, primarily the Saturday Evening Post. Most of the books were written around the time of World War II, which influenced Forester to concentrate on strong military leaders and heroic deeds in the earlier world war he described. Hornblower's complexity has endeared him to readers. He is cynical but compassionate, courageous but not without fear. Self-conscious and socially unconfident, his marriage is a mismatch, and he finds himself in love with the Duke of Wellington's sister. Above all he is a consummate seaman, deserving of the loyalty of his men. The achievement of Forester, who led a quiet, contemplative life and suffered from serious illness, was that in conjuring up person, period, and place--rousing sea battles, eventual shore life, England, France, Central America--he made it easy for readers to believe they were there.

In England, Beat to Quarters was published as The Happy Return. Captain Horatio Hornblower appeared as a motion picture in 1951. Following are the books of the Horatio Hornblower series in the order in which they should be read according to the Fiction Catalog, Twelfth Edition, 1991. Dates are the original dates of publication. All of the books listed are available from NLS network library collections. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower The early career of Horatio Hornblower of the British Royal Navy is traced in a series of adventurous episodes. They illustrate the quick thinking, brilliant intuition, and decisiveness characteristic of our hero and leave him with the rank of lieutenant. 1950 DB 26915 Commander Hornblower marries Maria in England and soon afterward sails for duty off the French coast. War breaks out with France, involving Hornblower in a land raid and in several sea battles.

1962 DB 46118 Hornblower during the Crisis, and Two Stories: "Hornblower's Temptation" and "The Last Encounter" Hornblower receives a promotion to captain and is relieved of his command of the Hotspur in this last-to-be-written and incomplete novel. When the new captain is court-martialed, Horatio is asked to testify. In "Hornblower's Temptation," which takes place before the events in Lieutenant Hornblower, an Irishman condemned to die wants Hornblower to undertake an apparently innocuous assignment. "The Last Encounter," truly the end of the saga, concerns a meeting with Napoleon in 1848. 1967 DB 41649

Question: Who created the character of Horatio Hornblower?
Answer: C S Forester