books i've read this year...

[txorakeriak]

The only advantage of being ill with a virus infection is having loads of time to read. Obviously I haven't read all these books within the last two weeks, but I've read a few (#59 to #69), and since I haven't started a list for this year yet, I'm going to start one now before I forget which books I've read. Below are some comments about the latest

Comments

[metalnurse]

I read Robinson Crusoe for the first time when I was twelve. I've read about 6 times since then. I still really like that book, same goes for Der Graf von Mote Christo. Only that I've read that book about 15 times.

oh, and get better soon!

[txorakeriak]

I suppose you read the German version then? Have you read the original as well? I bought the English version a couple of years ago but never actually started reading it until last week. It's a bit difficult to read at first but if it manages to catch your interest in the first 10 pages, you'll read on as I did. :)

So you can recommend the other book as well? I've heard of it but never thought of reading it. Maybe I should? :D

Thank you! I'm planning to do just that! :)

[black_hound]

The True Story of Horatio Hornblower is correct. In "Lord Hornblower" Captain Bush commands a raiding part down the river Seine to the quay at Caudebec where there is a massive explosion, and alas, Bush never returns. Interestingly, there is no body. Bush was apparently blow to pieces. I remember when I first read it many, many years ago, that I thought that was just a plot device and that certainly Bush would pop up miraculously by the end of the book, but no. He was indeed killed at Caudebec.

[txorakeriak]

I knew I could rely on you for information. Thanks for letting me know about this! I thought it was a plot device too, and was very hopeful when I read about that evening in 1848, when an unexpected visitor arrived at the Hornblower residence (Smallbridge Manor, I believe) after dinner, but then it turned out to be Bonaparte's nephew, and I was very disappointed. I had hoped Bush would be with Hornblower until Hornblower's death - but I understand that this would have been a bit too convenient. (I hope Hornblower was appropriately sad about it in the book, though, because in the biography the author simply moves on to the next event after mentioning that Bush had not returned.)

All sorts of spoilers in this response!

[black_hound]

HH was indeed sad over Bush's death. He wants to go to Caudebec and erect a monument to his friend -- a pyramid of skulls. He internalizes all the sorrow. Standard HH behaviour. And of course all the guilt, since it was his plan that got Bush killed. And CSF has HH in charge of the ship "Porta Coeli", aptly named "Gate of Heaven".

Lord Hornblower is the book of pain. By the end of the book, HH has lost all of his truest loves -- BUSH, his mistress Marie de Gracay, Maria, his 2 children by Maria -- and he is left with Lady Barbara. The women he desired above all things, but the having is not nearly as good as the wanting. Forester ends the book with HH in deep depression and despair thinking about his life and how even though he has all the things he desperately wanted (a successful career, a title, an upper class wife), he has lost everything he truly loved. And what he has left is dead sea fruit -- a fruit that appears tasty on the outside but is filled with bitter gall on the inside.

Re: All sorts of spoilers in this response!

[txorakeriak]

Hee, they're not spoilers as such, as I know the course of Hornblower's career from the "biography", so don't worry