Captain Hornblower R. N. [Hardcover]

C.S Forester (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Michael Joseph (1951)
• ASIN: B000V937Q4
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,687,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

C. S. Forester (1899-1966) wrote several novels with military and naval themes, including The African Queen, The Barbary Pirates, The General, The Good Shepherd, The Gun, The Last Nine Days of the "Bismarck," and Rifleman Dodd. But Forester is best known as the creator of Horatio Hornblower, a British naval genius of the Napoleonic era, whose exploits and adventures on the high seas Forester chronicled in a series of eleven acclaimed historical novels. Over the years Hornblower has proved to be one of the most beloved and enduring fictional heroes in English literature, his popularity rivaled only by Sherlock Holmes.

Born Cecil Louis Troughton Smith in Cairo, Egypt, Forester grew up in London. At the start of World War II he traveled on behalf of the British government to America, where he produced propaganda encouraging the United States to remain on Britain's side. After the War, Forester remained in America and made Berkeley, California, his home.

The character of Horatio Hornblower was born after Forester was called to Hollywood to write a pirate film. While the script was being drafted, another studio released Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, based on the same historical incidents about which Forester was writing. Rather than seek another movie project, and to avoid an impending paternity suit, Forester jumped aboard a freighter bound for England. By the end of the voyage he had outlined Beat to the Quarters, which introduced the now legendary character Hornblower, Bush, and Lady Barbara.

Forester died in 1966 while working on Hornblower During the Crisis.

Back Bay's editions of the Hornblower novels are numbered according to the chronology of Hornblower's life and career, not according to the sequence in which they were written. The series is comprised of the following titles:


Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
Lieutenant Hornblower
Hornblower and the Hotspur
Hornblower During the Crisis
Hornblower and the Atropos
Beat to Quarters
Ship of the Line
Flying Colours
Commodore Hornblower
Lord Hornblower
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great book, badly converted, November 30, 2009

By 

O. Griffith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Captain Hornblower R.N.: Hornblower and the 'Atropos', The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line: "Hornblower and the 'Atropos'", "The Happy Return" (Kindle Edition)

This is a great book. As a new kindle owner and a long time Hornblower fan, I thought this would make an excellent test for my first book on the kindle. However, I have been very disappointed with the number of errors present in the text. Since I am new to the kindle, I don't know if this is a common problem. But, almost every page (which is less than a regular print page) has one or more spelling or punctuation errors, not present in the original text. In the one short chapter that I systematically tracked errors, I found 17 problems. When I compare to my print copy I can see that some of these are the result of printing press glitches. But, most appear to be failures of the text-capturing process (e.g., ship->snip, clear->dear, cleared->deared, this->diis, that->mat, been->bee, men->mea, with->witii, think->dunk, missing punctuation, etc). An occasional error is understandable. But, the number I have seen in this text are approaching the point where enjoyment and understanding of the reading are impeded. I expected better after paying $12CAD. It is already ridiculous to pay as much or more for an electronic copy as a print copy. But, then, to receive a blatantly inferior product really adds insult to injury. I love my new Kindle as great piece of technology. But, if Amazon is going to charge as much for electronic versions of books they should guarantee the same level of quality as the print edition. I can not recommend this fantastic book until amazon either repeats or corrects their conversion process.

Also, it is annoying that Captain Hornblower and Admiral Hornblower are available but not 'Young Hornblower' (the first book, in this 3-part omnibus series).

5.0 out of 5 stars well worth the purchase, June 20, 2011

By 

donj - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Captain Hornblower, R.N.: Hornblower and the 'Atropos'; Happy Return and Ship of the Line (Hardcover)

i'm in the process of reading this book now and am enjoying it completly. it was well worth the purchase.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars When is a Kindle version of Captain Hornblower releasing?, August 24, 2010

By 

morphine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captain Hornblower R. N.: Hornblower and the Atropos / Happy Return / A Ship of the Line (Paperback)

I notice that one of the reviews for this book was for a kindle version but that the digitising process was poor. I presume Amazon withdrew that version until a good digitising process could be put in place. It is now over 9 months since that review and still no sign of a Kindle Captain Hornblower. Any news?

The other two "omnibus" Hornblower editions (Admiral Hornblower and Young Hornblower) are available in Kindle format. I have bought them and they don't appear to have the digitising errors that this reviewer talked about.