Review: The Hornblower Companion by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 140 pages
Published 1998 (originally 1964)
Acquired June 2008
Read March 2019

The Hornblower Companion by C. S. Forester
With Maps and Drawings by Samuel H. Bryant

I finished off my Hornblower journey with this, an official "companion" to the series written by C. S. Forester himself. I was a little surprised, to be honest, to realize that the term "companion" book, which I primarily associate with big media franchises (e.g., Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Companion, Doctor Who: The Television Companion), goes back to the 1960s and to literature.

The first half of the book is a series of maps, covering Hornblower's career in chronological order. Some are big picture, such as one of the entire western coast of Central America, chronicling the events of Beat to Quarters. Others zoom in on specific battles, just showing a few nautical miles. These were neat, but I ultimately flipped through them pretty quickly. Instead of reading them all at once after finishing the novels, I'd've been better off keeping them by my side while reading the novels, to better help me visualize what was going on. Oh well; if I ever read the series through a third time, I will do that.

The second half is much more meaty, though, a lengthy personal essay by Forester about his history with the Hornblower character, about how he came to write one book, then three, then ten. Very rarely did he set out to do it, so you get a good glimpse into his creative process, how things bubble out of the subconscious and ultimately demand to be written. I tore through it very quickly because I enjoyed it so much. A nice way to tie up my (re)read of these books.

Review: Hornblower and the Hotspur by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 394 pages
Published 1998 (originally 1962)
Acquired 2006(?)
Previously read May 2007
Reread March 2019

Hornblower and the Hotspur by C. S. Forester

1803-05
This is the last completed Hornblower novel by publication order. Something I didn't realize before doing this readthrough is that Forester jumps around within his flashback stories; I thought that having gone backward, Forester works his way forward again. But he doesn't. Hornblower and the Atropos pretty much leads straight into Beat to Quarters, so to get another prequel adventure in, Forester jumps backward yet again, filling a not-quite-extant gap between Lieutenant and Atropos. He disregards his own continuity to do so, as having Bush as Hornblower's first lieutenant prior to Beat to Quarters really pushes the bounds of plausibility. It's also kind of odd to have Hornblower deal with an inconsequential act of insubordination immediately after a similar incident in Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, and the solution he chooses here doesn't entirely mesh with the one there. Also also Hornblower knows French in this book, but in the original trilogy he knew Spanish but not French, which he only learned in Flying Colours.

But who cares when the result is as good as this? Unlike Atropos, this installment is highly focused, chronicling two years on the Channel blockade, two years where Hornblower distinguishes himself in action, but never manages to win any prize money. His financial and romantic and career fortunes are the threads that tie the novel together as we follow him from escapade to escapade. The incident with the treasure fleet is a particular highlight, and I will always remember where I was the first time I read the chapter where Hornblower is served a delectable feast by an admiral (on a transatlantic flight, eating much less delectable food), lavishly described by Forester. This isn't the best Hornblower book, but it's a solid outing of naval adventure, for the final time.

I've read the incomplete Hornblower during the Crisis before, and it's a curio, worth reading once but not worth rereading, so this will be my last Hornblower book. It's nice that Hornblower's last outing is a good one, and that it takes place in the middle of his career, and that it includes Bush. We don't end with and old man and/or a dead one, but two of the greatest sailors of fiction, in action. One can imagine Hornblower and Bush out there sailing, forever.

Review: Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 342 pages
Published 2000 (originally 1957-58)
Acquired June 2008
Read March 2019

Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies by C. S. Forester

1821-23
This is the last Hornblower novel chronologically, the second last by publication order, and the last that was not a reread for me. I was a little apprehensive going in, because the post-Flying Colours novels had been disappointing to me, because things seemed too good for Hornblower, who works best as a character when he's on the back foot. (I'm convinced that if Forester knew he was going to write more than the original trilogy, he wouldn't have married Hornblower off at the end of Flying Colours.) Additionally, Forester occasionally struggles to bring cohesion to some Hornblower novels (e.g., Commodore Hornblower, Hornblower and the Atropos).

Well, I need not have worried, because Admiral Hornblower is one of the best Hornblower books, a great way for the series to end (or almost end). Hornblower feels much less overly accomplished in this one-- sure, he's an admiral, but when you're an admiral essentially on your own in the West Indies, that often constrains you more than it enables you. Much moreso than Commodore or Lord, Admiral captures how more responsibility makes things more difficult. So in some ways this is a return to the Hornblower of old, the captain we met in Beat to Quarters and Ship of the Line, and the wily young officer of Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and Lieutenant, but he's been successfully transposed to a new setting. One supposes it would have been possible to do the Star Trek thing, and have Hornblower technically be an admiral but still facing captain's problems, like in The Motion Picture or The Wrath of Khan, but Forester gives him admiral's problems that he deals with in his usual fashion: rogue French armies, diplomatic relations with Spain, sailors who need executing, and so on.

The book also benefits from being, like Mr. Midshipman, a series of short stories (or probably novellas, as there are just five of them) rather than a novel, though they don't have individual titles (in my edition at least; I see titles listed on Wikipedia). Forester doesn't struggle to unite disparate incidents, but can simply show the reader a series of problems across two years of being stationed overseas. There are a lot of great individual stories here, such as Hornblower having to violate his word for the first time in his career, or Hornblower's inventive solution to catching a slave ship when treaty forbids him to set sail immediately, or Hornblower facing a band of pirates, or accidentally supporting the wrong side in a revolution.

The very best one, though, is the last one, which covers Hornblower's need to enforce discipline by death (moreso than ever before, but for the most trivial of disobediences), his insecurities in his marriage, and a dramatic hurricane. It's great stuff, Hornblower at his most human as he doesn't quite believe in Barbara's love for him, and at his most superhuman as he tries to keep a tiny ship afloat in a gigantic storm, needing all his cleverness and charisma. The storm itself is some of Forester's very best writing, and I found the whole thing an emotional and fulfilling wrap-up to the Hornblower saga. Whether it's since Mr. Midshipman or Beat to Quarters, he's come a long way, no matter how you look at it.

Review: Hornblower and the Atropos by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 342 pages
Published 1999 (originally 1953)
Acquired January 2008
Previously read March 2008
Reread March 2019

Hornblower and the Atropos by C. S. Forester

1805-06
On my original chronological readthrough of the series, where this is the fifth book, I found it the most disappointing so far:

I enjoyed this, but for the first time, I felt as though I was reading "just another" outing in the Hornblower saga. The high points are definitely the beginning, with the canal trip and Nelson's funeral, and the end, with the escape from the Turks, the capturing of Castilla, and the coming of pox to Hornblower's family. (The last line is a killer.) Not to say that the middle is bad, in fact it's frequently good, what with a German prince and his short-tempered doctor serving aboard Atropos, a diving expedition to recover lost treasure, and a man who gets shot in a duel but grits his teeth and carries on for several days anyway. It's good overall, but it just lacks a certain overall something that made it the weakest of the Hornblower novels I've read thus far.

On this publication order reread, where it's the eighth book, I would rank it as the weakest with the exception of Commodore Hornblower. There's no strong throughline; it comes across as a series of random incidents at a random point in Hornblower's career. But it's not so disconnected that one can read it as a series of interesting short stories, like Mr. Midshipman Hornblower or Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies. Probably what doesn't help is that Hornblower is a little too competent; like in Commodore, one doesn't feel his struggles, so it just seems like he gets in trouble, gets out of it, rinse, repeat. Great scenes here and there (though I was apparently less taken by Nelson's funeral this time), but not a great novel. Which is a shame, because Hornblower's first command* seems like an opportunity: how did he adjust to the increased responsibilities? But he doesn't adjust; he just is suddenly great. Shame the tv show never got this far, as I reckon they could have taken these raw materials and made something great out of them.

Back in Beat to Quarters, part of the reason for Hornblower's closed nature was that on his first command he had a first lieutenant he overshared with, undermining his captainly authority. We kind of get to see that here. Hornblower's first lieutenant is always trying to find things out, but Hornblower doesn't tell him much, and it doesn't seem to undermine his authority at all. Another missed opportunity.

* A later published novel would make it clear that this is not his first command, but if you read in publication order, it seems pretty clear that this book was meant to link up with the end of Lieutenant Hornblower.

Review: Lieutenant Hornblower by C. S. Forester

Mass market paperback, 306 pages
Published 1977 (originally 1951)
Acquired 2006(?)
Previously read May 2007
Reread March 2019

Lieutenant Hornblower by C. S. Forester

1800-03
Though I've read this before, my original read of it predates the point in my life where I started putting reviews on my blog, so I don't have a specific sense of what I actually thought. My suspicion is, though, that the book reads better in publication order than in chronological. In term of chronology, it's odd that the first Hornblower novel is not a novel, and then the second is not told from the perspective of Hornblower; the first proper Hornblower novel is actually the third! But reading in publication order, this is the seventh Hornblower book, and so telling the story from the point of view of Lieutenant Bush provides a nice change of pace and prevents the series (just as the jump backward did) from being stagnant.

Bush is great, a straightforward, unpretentious officer, not a witty thinker, but a great seaman and a great judge of character. It does create some continuity errors to have him serving with Hornblower so early in both men's careers (Bush was clearly not used to Hornblower when posted as his first lieutenant some five years after this in Beat to Quarters), but I liked Bush, and it's neat to see what Hornblower looks like from outside his own head. Hornblower in Mr. Midshipman was a pretty ordinary guy if somewhat tightly wound, but here we see the beginning of the kind-of-neurotic Captain Hornblower of the earlier novels. It's a good plot for an outside perspective, too, since there's a significant mutiny component, and Forester uses the shift in perspective to create some ambiguity about Hornblower's actions.

This is one of my favorite Hornblower novels. You might view the long bit at the end regarding Hornblower's card-playing as extraneous, but if you do, you've misjudged the plot. The plot isn't the adventures of HMS Renown; the plot is these two men becoming life-long friends in an entirely understated way. It's gloriously reserved but utterly true, one of the best friendships in literature. Even if before this book it didn't exist in books set later!

(Side note: David Warner is such good casting as Captain Sawyer in the tv adaptation that ten-plus years after I last saw that episode, I could still imagine him saying all of Sawyer's lines as I read the book! The literary Hornblower is not quite Ioan Gruffudd, and the literary Bush not quite Paul McGann, so I never imagine those actors reading the lines, but David Warner is the character as written.)

Review: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester

Hardcover, 310 pages
Published 1950 (contents: 1948-50)
Previously read July 2006
Acquired October 2008
Reread February 2019

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester

1794-99
Jumping backward and writing a prequel saved the Hornblower series, I reckon. It's not just that Forester was almost out of plausible career to cover; it's that showing Hornblower at the beginning of his career plays to the strengths of the series premise in a way that Commodore and Lord Hornblower did not. Hornblower works best as an underdog. A midshipman in the British Navy is about as underdog as it gets, no one is rooting for Hornblower, seemingly not even Hornblower. It also returns the focus to individual ships, which is much more interesting to read about than fleet actions or political machinations. Mr. Midshipman even manages to turn some previous weaknesses of the series into virtues: some previous books (such as Ship of the Line and Lord Hornblower) were frustratingly episodic; Mr. Midshipman is a collection of short stories, not a novel, so it ought to be episodic!

Like any collection of short stories, there are good ones and less good ones. Favorites of mine included "Hornblower and the Even Chance" (where Hornblower realizes he's so bad at duelling he's better off just flipping a coin), "Hornblower and the Cargo of Rice" (where Hornblower's first command ends dismally), "Hornblower and the Penalty of Failure" (where we see what a man of honor he is), "Hornblower and the Examination for Lieutenant" (where we discover how awful the Royal Navy promotion system is, with hilarious consequences), and the longest one, "Hornblower, the Duchess, and the Devil" (where Hornblower manages to sail into the middle of an enemy fleet and not know it thanks to the fog, but also proves his honor to its utmost). Like any good prequel, it's neat to see the seeds sown of what we've already read. I didn't bother to keep track if every old Indefatigable shipmate from the previous five books actually turned up on the Inde, but I did enjoy seeing the infamous seasickness incident, as well as Hornblower's captivity by the Spanish (cited in Beat to Quarters to explain why he knew the language).

This was a reread for me, and a highly enjoyable one. In retrospect, I think it's an odd place to begin the series (it worked for me the first time around, but I suspect that's because I'd already watched the tv show), but as a palate cleanser after an underwhelming shift in direction, it hits the spot.

Review: Lord Hornblower by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 322 pages
Published 1981 (originally 1946)
Acquired June 2008
Read February 2019

Lord Hornblower by C. S. Forester

1813-15
I kind of think that Forester noted about Commodore Hornblower the same thing that I did in my review: that it all seemed too easy. Lord Hornblower starts with a big challenge for Horatio, to bring back a group of mutineers without compromising discipline or just slaughtering them all. It's a sticky problem; Hornblower thinks they have a point, but can't give them clemency. But if he fights them, they'll just flee into the arms of the French. What's a captain to do? As always, it's enjoyable to see Hornblower's mind work over the problem and come up with one of his typically clever solutions.

After that (about the first third or so), though, the book flounders, as Hornblower convinces a French town to come over to the side of the French Royalists. Like Commodore, it doesn't feel like it matters. How will the war or Hornblower suffer if this plan fails? And land-bound politics just aren't what one reads a Hornblower novel for. Bush is killed. It's a typically understated moment, but I understand it; it doesn't seem right that all these military men could live through a war, and so someone's gotta die, even if it's just before the close. Feels unfair that a born sailor should die on land, though.

The final third picks up, chronicling what Hornblower gets up to when Napoleon escapes while he's vacationing in France, and thus suddenly becomes a wanted man. It's harsh and bleak and well-written but I just don't think it's where I would go with this series. Again, it just doesn't feel like what one reads Hornblower for. A well-executed version of an ill-conceived plan, I guess. The climax to the whole thing is pretty great, though.

Anyway, the next Hornblower book is our first jump backward, and I can see why; the two post-trilogy books have largely lost what made the first book work so well, and maybe by going back to the roots of the character, Forester can also get back to the roots of the series's appeal.

Review: Commodore Hornblower by C. S. Forester

Mass market paperback, 315 pages
Published 1981 (originally 1945)
Acquired June 2008
Read January 2019

Commodore Hornblower: Number Eight in the Hornblower Saga, The greatest naval adventures of all time!
by C. S. Forester

1812
(Yes, that is exactly what it says on the title page of my 1981 Pinnacle Books edition.)

This is the first book in my reread of the Hornblower series that is not, in fact a reread. Unfortunately, it is clearly the worst of the Hornblower novels, confirming my suspicion that Forester made a mistake at the end of Flying Colours when he gave Hornblower everything he ever wanted: recognition, wealth, and love. Hornblower with recognition, wealth, and love is just not Hornblower, even if he does yearn to go to sea. Commodore Hornblower is the worst installment in the entire series. Unlike in the first three books, where Hornblower is cleverly making the best out of a bad situation, in this book, he commands a squadron and respect. His situation is actually quite nice! You could do a book about how commanding a squadron brings new challenges, but Forester doesn't; Hornblower seems to settle in quickly, without a problem.

Which is really symptomatic of the whole book. It never feels like anything's at stake. In Beat to Quarters, Forester made you feel like this one ship-to-ship battle was of the utmost importance. In Commodore Hornblower, we're constantly told that the war in the Baltic, and thus the whole war with Napoleon, depends on what Hornblower does. But one never really feels that anything significant depends on Hornblower cruising around lobbing bombs from safety and discovering hors d'oeuvres.

It is interesting to note how Forester pulls back from some of the elements of Flying Colours that were intended to wrap things up. In that book, Bush is promoted to captain, but we're told he'll work in a naval yard on account of his wooden leg. Here, he assumes command of an active-duty ship because, well, what's a Hornblower novel without Bush?

Review: Hornblower: Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 294 pages
Published 1966 (originally 1938-39)
Acquired May 2007 
Previously read May 2008 
Reread January 2019

Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

1810-11
What is my third Hornblower book in this readthrough was in my original read of the series my final one. Back in 2008 I wrote:

This is the last of the Hornblower books that I own-- obviously it's time to make another trip to the used bookstore. Overall, this one was honestly something of a disappointment. Hornblower doesn't really succeed in this one because of his natural brilliance; he succeeds mostly because of a series of unlikely coincidences. The house he takes refuge in in France just happens to host someone sympathetic to his cause, the harbor he visits just happens to have a captured English ship there, the harbor also just happens to have a passing group of prisoners he can liberate and enlist [...], and his wife and Lady Barbara's husband just happen to die in time for a marriage. Hornblower's various marital indiscretions, though probably realistic, make him less than sympathetic, and I just don't like Lady Barbara. (God, the scene where his learning that she's taken his son in makes him feel a rush of affection aggravated me to no end. His wife taking care of the kids never seemed to do much for his feelings for her!) Still, the seafaring bits (rare though they are in this volume) never fail to disappoint as always. My least favorite book in the series so far.

This time I liked it more, and I would definitely rate it above some of the books Forester wrote later, like Hornblower and the Atropos. Yes, a lot of things go in Hornblower's favor, but the thing that makes Hornblower succeed isn't those opportunities, it's the way he seizes hold of them. He's lucky with what happens to his carriage in the snow, but taking hold of that opportunity and getting Bush and Brown out of there requires genius and determination. It's a harrowing, thrilling sequence. Though one wants some good naval adventures in a Hornblower novel, I actually felt the contrast between this book and the previous ones worked very well. It's a tragic notion that Hornblower, Bush, and Brown actually have the best time of their life while hiding in Napoleonic France-- it's a much less hard life than that in the Royal Navy. I like the different side to all three characters we get here. Brown was in the previous book, but not up to much of note; here he pops. I always like Bush's stolidness; here he puts up with an awful lot!

As always, I have thoughts on Hornblower's relationships. Here my theory that Laby Barbara is meant to show how duty constrains his personal life as much as his professional one breaks down because here Hornblower totally has an affair with Marie, which means he's cheating on Maria and on Lady Barbara! He has neither respect for the commitment he's made to Maria, nor for the torch he supposedly carries for Barbara. What is up with you, dude, except that you will take sex and affection where you can get it? (The novel carefully makes him not an initiator... it just kind of "happens.") It's weird that a man who twists himself into knots with self-control in other aspects of his life has none here, and I just don't quite know how to reconcile it with my mental image of Hornblower.

Well, I kind of do. The main thing we know about Hornblower is that Hornblower Must Suffer. He accomplishes much, but he never quite succeeds. His battle in Beat to Quarters was an amazing success that went relatively unheralded due to circumstances. So keeping him apart from Lady Barbara adds to his suffering. Though then at the end of the book, Hornblower gets everything he ever wanted, including Lady Barbara. I wasn't really into this, because I think Hornblower works best when he's scrapping, trying to make the best of a bad situation. Making him successful, rich, renowned, and loved undermines what makes Hornblower Hornblower (as we'll see in Commodore Hornblower). But Forester thought this would be his last Hornblower novel, so I can forgive a happy ending; the issue isn't really with Flying Colours, then, but with the fact that three more novels followed it chronologically.

Review: Hornblower: Ship of the Line by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 323 pages
Published 1966 (originally 1938)
Acquired May 2007 
Previously read April 2008 
Reread January 2019

Ship of the Line by C. S. Forester

1810
When I originally read this book, as the seventh Hornblower story in chronological order, I wasn't much into it:

Honestly, I think I find Horatio a bit less interesting to read about as an accomplished captain than when he's younger. I don't know if it's due to something intrinsic to the more unsure (and less insane) character of the earlier books or just because of the fact that the earlier books were written later on and Forester sharpened his skills as he went. Certainly it does help that young Hornblower didn't spend all his time mooning over Lady Barbara, though. This book feels less like a novel and, like Hornblower and the Atropos before it, more like a series on incidents that just happen to occur in order on the same ship. It's a little harder to get into as a result, and it might be my least favorite novel in the series yet, but there's still some to enjoy, particularly Hornblower's sneaky impressment of the crews of the East India Company and his ability to be always brilliant, such as when he takes out three forts single-handedly.

This time, reading it second in publication order, I enjoyed it much more. It's a rousing return for a character one wanted to see come back, like, say, the opening of Superman II. Hornblower is on the top of his form in this book, sailing from triumph to triumph to triumph. Last time that kind of irritated me, because it seemed like he faced no real challenges, but this time I enjoyed it, partially because I hadn't read as much Hornblower recently, and partially because I knew what was coming. Ship of the Line follows one of the classic trilogy structures, the one where the second installment ends in devastating defeat for the hero. Ship of the Line is filled with successes, then, to highlight the devastation of the failure at the end, and I think foreknowledge of that-- knowing that Hornblower is going to face a reckoning-- makes reading a novel about success after success after success a lot more enjoyable. (The bit about impressing the East India sailors I had totally forgotten about, and it was once again my favorite part. Impressment is such a bizarre practice, and one of the highlights of Ship of the Line is how much it delves into it.)

I do still struggle with Hornblower's relationship with Lady Barbara. One wants Hornblower to be pure and heroic, but he's not, and I guess that's good from the standpoint of complexity. Perhaps I'm too influenced by Ioan Gruffudd's performance on screen, but's hard for me to imagine him being unfaithful. In this novel, I did kind of reach an understanding of it, though. In Russell T Davies's The Writer's Tale, he talks about how a character's strengths and flaws should really be the same thing. I saw that here. Hornblower's sense of duty makes him into a superb commander and fighting machine, but it also makes him into a man who feels obligated to stay in a loveless marriage, and also refuses to act for his own pleasure outside that marriage. But as I read deeper into the series this interpretation of Hornblower's character didn't quite hold up...

Review: Hornblower: Beat to Quarters by C. S. Forester

Trade paperback, 324 pages
Published 1966 (originally 1937)
Acquired May 2007 
Previously read March 2008 
Reread January 2019

Beat to Quarters by C. S. Forester

1808
I originally read the Horatio Hornblower novels about a decade ago now, but since I didn't own the last three novels at the time, I didn't finish the series. Now I've sat down to read those last three, but I decided I ought to reread the first several. Only, last time I read them in internal chronological order, so to switch it up, this time I decided to do publication order.

Thus we start here, with what is certainly the best of the Hornblower novels, and is probably a better entry point than the first book chronologically if you're a Hornblower novice. (If you've already seen the tv show, though, go ahead and start with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower.) Beat to Quarters is an astounding achievement in naval fiction. Most of the novels are good, but this one is something else. It's taut, focused, and tense. You completely inhabit the world and the way of thinking of the Royal Navy. You don't know what a lot of the words mean, but you love it anyway, because they feel true. It's a harsh world, but it's another world, and it's hard to judge by our own standards. I suspect there are a lot of sf fans who are also Hornblower fans, because they scratch very similar itches: the depiction of an alternate world related to our own, but also a focus on intellect and cleverness. Hornblower is a problem-solver like one of those Golden Age sf heroes.

The book is very well constructed. Hornblower is sent to make overtures of alliance to El Supremo, a Spanish rebel on the Pacific coast of South America, because Spain is ally to Bonaparte. He captures with ease a Spanish ship of the line and turns it over to El Supremo-- and then when he goes to report in to the local British authorities, learns that before he had even done this, Spain had broken off its alliance with France, and is now allied with Britain. And so he has to go back to sea to capture the ship back from El Supremo. It's a beautifully done reversal; when Hornblower captures the Natividad so easily you almost think the author has rigged things in his favor, but recapturing it is a much more difficult prospect. The reversal is simultaneously sort of tragic and hilarious. The final battle with Natividad is amazing, gripping; it goes on for chapters but never gets old. You feel every gust of wind, every broadside, as the crew of the Lydia must fight to reclaim the Natividad with all they've got. A lot of the Hornblower novels are good, and they're all worth your time, but Forester perfected the character here, to be honest.

In my original review, I wrote:

The sixth Hornblower book chronologically, this was actually the first written, which results in some rather bizarre discontinuities as you might expect. Oh, bits of Hornblower's history don't match up-- he's probably never served with Bush before, and Bush certainly wasn't first mate on his first command as depicted in Hornblower and the Hotspur-- but Hornblower's character is a little off as well. This man's need for emotional detachment comes across as almost insane at times, though the death of Hornblower's children at the end of the previous installment sort of explains that. If you squint a bit. [...] Surprisingly, the romance with Lady Barbara was even almost palatable here, thanks to our ability to get Hornblower's inner thoughts regarding it. (I think it would be better in writing order, where we wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet Maria first.)

Indeed, if you read it in publication sequence, it's clear that Bush hasn't served with Hornblower before. Part of the trajectory of the novel is Bush coming to like and respect this odd captain. (And, somewhere by the end of the second book, you realize Hornblower has come to like and respect Bush in his own way.) You don't find Hornblower's character to be off-- because this is Hornblower's character. Everything else was a later imposition. Hornblower might be almost insane, but Beat to Quarters makes it clear that such detachment is required to be successful on a mission like this, the sole outpost of British authority on the far side of the world. I was right about the romance with Lady Barbara; with Maria but an intellectual abstraction, I could enjoy the Hornblower/Barbara romance, though Hornblower's infidelity is the one thing I never quite came to terms with. (I'll discuss that more in my reviews of the later books.)

One thing I noticed I hadn't the first time around is the narrator. It's a close third-person perspective, but not a limited one, as the narrator occasionally tells us things that other characters are thinking, or that Hornblower doesn't realize about his own self. The narrator is clearly from the time of publication, as he occasionally breaks in with acknowledged anachronisms (like, he says the word "globetrotter" didn't exist yet, but if it did, it would be how Hornblower would think of Lady Barbara), something that stuck out to me because as far as I noticed, Forester never used such a device in the rest of the series.