Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
Forester, C.S., (1951), Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, The Reprint Society, London.
Well I've done it, I've finally read some CS Forester. I finished Mr. Midshipman Hornblower last night.
I still haven't quite made my mind up about the writing. I initially found it hard to decide how far Forester had his tongue in his cheek. Several passages made me laugh out loud and I wasn't entirely sure if that was intentional. Occasionally Forester uses turns of phrase that would make a fic writer blush, e.g. "glazed of eye and stertorous of breath". Lets face it, stertorous is not an easy word for any writer to pull off! However in many other places the writing is witty, elegant and gripping. By the time I finished the book I had come to the conclusion that the humour is entirely intentional. I don't think I need to mention the "making a tongue of his whole body" business again ;) but I particularly liked Hornblowers progressive swearing in "Noah's Ark".
"Hell," said Hornblower.
...
"Hell," said Hornblower again, and that was by no means the last time.
....
"Hell!" said Hornblower, actually stamping his feet on the upper gangway in his anger. "Hell and damnation!"
Obviously I felt there was a massive Archie shaped hole in "The Even Chance", Horatio just seemed horribly lonely and miserable without him, but I'll restrain myself from moping about the lack of Archie. However speaking of missing characters I felt that Hornblower himself was curiously absent for parts of this book. You don't get a great deal of insight into his character at all. I presume this is a result of the sequence the books were written in with Forester assuming considerable prior knowledge of his hero among his readers. Still, it's not always that easy to engage with such a slim character. Initially I just felt sorry for Horatio, towards the middle he kind of drifted off, however by the end I was getting really quite attached to him. Perhaps unsurprisingly I thought Pellew came across as one of the strongest characters despite the fact that he makes only occasional appearances.
Of the individual stories I thought "The Cargo of Rice", "Noah's Ark" and "The Dutchess and the Devil" worked best. "The Man Who Saw God" was certainly a ripping adventure but this was one where I definitely thought that Hornblower himself went missing in action.
A few other things that struck me...
Much is made of the fact that Horatio is tone deaf, however I am fascinated that he has an innate sense of rhythm. I don't think I've come across mention of this before:
At the first corner they stopped, and the drums rolled long and menacingly, and then they marched on again, beating out the previous rhythm. They were beating to arms, calling the men to their duties from their billets, and Hornblower, tone-deaf but highly sensitive to rhythm, thought it was fine music, real music.
Pellew's quite a natty dresser isn't he? And I'm not just referring to the famous pink nightcap:
Pellew favoured dark blue and white as the colour scheme for his boat and its crew...
Do boats really have a "colour scheme"? Well, do they?
Black Charlie Hammond had a poodle?!
Black Charlie won't ever forget that I lost his pet poodle overside from the cutter in Port-o'-Spain when he was first of the Pegasus. Good-bye, gentlemen. Give my regards to the examining board.
Who'd have thunk it?
So there you have it, a few thought from a first time reader. Now, where's my fabulously cheesy copy of Lieutenant Hornblower?
Well I've done it, I've finally read some CS Forester. I finished Mr. Midshipman Hornblower last night.
I still haven't quite made my mind up about the writing. I initially found it hard to decide how far Forester had his tongue in his cheek. Several passages made me laugh out loud and I wasn't entirely sure if that was intentional. Occasionally Forester uses turns of phrase that would make a fic writer blush, e.g. "glazed of eye and stertorous of breath". Lets face it, stertorous is not an easy word for any writer to pull off! However in many other places the writing is witty, elegant and gripping. By the time I finished the book I had come to the conclusion that the humour is entirely intentional. I don't think I need to mention the "making a tongue of his whole body" business again ;) but I particularly liked Hornblowers progressive swearing in "Noah's Ark".
"Hell," said Hornblower.
...
"Hell," said Hornblower again, and that was by no means the last time.
....
"Hell!" said Hornblower, actually stamping his feet on the upper gangway in his anger. "Hell and damnation!"
Obviously I felt there was a massive Archie shaped hole in "The Even Chance", Horatio just seemed horribly lonely and miserable without him, but I'll restrain myself from moping about the lack of Archie. However speaking of missing characters I felt that Hornblower himself was curiously absent for parts of this book. You don't get a great deal of insight into his character at all. I presume this is a result of the sequence the books were written in with Forester assuming considerable prior knowledge of his hero among his readers. Still, it's not always that easy to engage with such a slim character. Initially I just felt sorry for Horatio, towards the middle he kind of drifted off, however by the end I was getting really quite attached to him. Perhaps unsurprisingly I thought Pellew came across as one of the strongest characters despite the fact that he makes only occasional appearances.
Of the individual stories I thought "The Cargo of Rice", "Noah's Ark" and "The Dutchess and the Devil" worked best. "The Man Who Saw God" was certainly a ripping adventure but this was one where I definitely thought that Hornblower himself went missing in action.
A few other things that struck me...
Much is made of the fact that Horatio is tone deaf, however I am fascinated that he has an innate sense of rhythm. I don't think I've come across mention of this before:
At the first corner they stopped, and the drums rolled long and menacingly, and then they marched on again, beating out the previous rhythm. They were beating to arms, calling the men to their duties from their billets, and Hornblower, tone-deaf but highly sensitive to rhythm, thought it was fine music, real music.
Pellew's quite a natty dresser isn't he? And I'm not just referring to the famous pink nightcap:
Pellew favoured dark blue and white as the colour scheme for his boat and its crew...
Do boats really have a "colour scheme"? Well, do they?
Black Charlie Hammond had a poodle?!
Black Charlie won't ever forget that I lost his pet poodle overside from the cutter in Port-o'-Spain when he was first of the Pegasus. Good-bye, gentlemen. Give my regards to the examining board.
Who'd have thunk it?
So there you have it, a few thought from a first time reader. Now, where's my fabulously cheesy copy of Lieutenant Hornblower?