Mr Midshipman Hornblower

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And if Hornblower and I turn out to be dancing to the same sheet of music, it will be worthwhile to revisit this book. Forester wrote many novels. He is best known for the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic wars. He began the series with Hornblower fairly high in rank in the first novel, published in 1937. The last completed novel was published in 1962. With demand for more stories, Forester filled in Hornblower's life story, in effect. Hornblower's fictional feats were based on real events, but Forester wrote the body of the works carefully to avoid entanglements with real world history, so that Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval victory occurs during the Napoleonic Wars.

Sten Nadolny's 1983 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.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. [2] :90 The surname "Hornblower" comes from Arthur Hornblow, a Hollywood producer who was a colleague and friend of Forester's. [5] [6] Too many folks I know have corrupted their youth early on with the strategy of power, its dark secrets veiled in a “tedious argument of insidious intent” to lead their hapless victims to an “overwhelming question” and force their hands. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Horatio Hornblower, 1st Viscount Hornblower, GCB is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films and radio and television programmes, and C. Northcote Parkinson elaborated a "biography" of him, The True Story of Horatio Hornblower. [1]

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. Forester's original inspiration was an old copy of the Naval Chronicle that described the effective dates of the Treaty of Ghent. [2] :81 Two countries could be at war in one part of the world after a peace was obtained months before in another part because of the time required to communicate around the world. The burdens that this placed on captains far from home led Forester to invent a character struggling with the stresses of a "man alone". [2] :82

by C. S. Forester

Following this exploit, Hornblower is given command of the sixth-rate ship HMS Atropos. His first task is to organise Nelson's funeral procession along the River Thames and he has to deal with the near-sinking of the barge conveying the hero's coffin. 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 that he is unfaithful to Barbara, dallying with a young Russian noblewoman. He provides assistance in the siege of Riga, employing his bomb ketches against the French army, where he meets General Carl von Clausewitz of the Prussian Army. 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.

Here is part of Gene Roddenberry's description of his hero from the original Star Trek pitch to the networks. "Space-age Captain Horatio Hornblower, lean and capable both mentally and physically. The series consists of eight television films, which are notable for their high production values. All were later released on DVD (with the original aspect ratio of 16:9 widescreen in Europe and 4:3 in the US). In the US, the series was retitled Horatio Hornblower, and some of the films were known by different titles. The eight films cover the events of just three of the ten novels ( Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, and Hornblower and the Hotspur), and various alterations and additions are made to the source material (e.g., the recurring characters of Lt. Archie Kennedy, Matthews and Styles). Altrettanto delizioso è leggere un romanzo ambientato sulle navi della Royal Navy standosene accomodati in una casetta anch'essa tutta di legno, proprio come gli imponenti bastimenti. Il vento e il sole di montagna possono quasi assomigliare a quelli di alto mare. 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 were collected in Hornblower One More Time (4 July 1976) though only 350 copies were printed. [18]As with similar men in the past (Drake, Cook, Bougainville and Scott), his primary weakness is a predilection to action over administration, a temptation to take the greatest risks onto himself. But, unlike most early explorers, he has an almost compulsive compassion for the plight of others, alien as well as human and must continually fight the temptation to risk many to save one"Roddenberry doesn't mention that he is in love with his ship almost as a living entity, but perhaps that came later. :-D I'm still quite entranced by the series & will continue to listen to it. It's very well read, a perfect medium. Short story subsequently published as "Hornblower and the Widow McCool" in Hornblower and the Crisis

a dir poco delizioso prendere in mano Forester e ritrovare le stesse atmosfere, le stesse ambientazioni di O'Brian, con le navi e con gli inviti a pranzo al Palazzo del Governatore a Gibilterra, e addirittura con personaggi in comune come Sir Edward Pellew e Sir John Jervis. Una noce moscata di consolazione (cit.).

Parkinson, C. Northcote (1970). The True Story of Horatio Hornblower. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 0750934395. You see, I’ve always believed in a still slightly autistic adulthood that virtue, and not swagger and a strutting attitude, yields the best rewards.