Hornblower's Navy : Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson [Paperback]

Stephen Pope (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

C.S. Forester's fictional hero, Horatio Hornblower, provides the premise for this brief study of British naval conditions between 1794 and 1815, when Napoleon fought England for control of Europe. Historian Pope describes conditions aboard British warships during this time, beginning with a review of Royal Navy history to 1793 and describing salient developments such as the Navigation Acts, the influence of Robert Blake, technological advances, and the navy's growing professionalism in the face of both internal and external challenges. Among the naval leaders profiled is James Alexander Gordon, cited as the model for Forester's fictional commander Hornblower. While lavishly illustrated with period marine art, the book is just a brief overview of a topic that has attracted much scholarly and popular attention recently. There are also numerous spelling errors throughout the text. Readers should consult David Davies's Nelson's Navy (Stackpole, 1997) or Dudley Pope's Life in Nelson's Navy (Naval Inst., 1996) for a more in-depth treatment of this fascinating topic. Not recommended.AHarold N. Boyer, Florence Cty. Lib., SC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 111 pages
• Publisher: Welcome Rain Publishers (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566490308
• ISBN-13: 978-1566490306
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,847,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Little more than a coffe-table book, February 17, 2000

By 

Arturo Magidin (Lafayette, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hornblower's Navy : Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping for more than I found. There is information on the hierarchy inside a ship, as well as (very) brief historical accounts of the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore, and a little background information. Although interesting at times, e.g. when pointing out that the Glorious First of June was actually a strategic defeat for the Royal Navy, it is much too brief on its accounts of famous battles such as Trafalgar and the Nile. Some information on the ships is provided, but not enough for a non-sailer to get his bearings in a Hornblower book. The author keeps going out of his way to mention the defeat of the Royal Navy at the Battle of Lake Eerie (which is at best tangential to the subject matter), and to namedrop Hornblower whenever he can. The book contains some nice illustrations, mainly paintings, and some interesting information, but it reads like nothing more than a coffee table book, superficial in its infomation, merely hinting at things I was hoping to learn through it. There are also a number of typographical errors that ought to have been corrected but weren't, giving the entire book the air of something dashed off in a hurry and with little care. I was hoping for much, much more than I received.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing, May 11, 2000

By 

Nick Downes (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hornblower's Navy : Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson (Paperback)

To sum up - disappointing. This is little more than a glorified coffee table book, and I would actually have preferred more pictures and less text. I read it in an a couple of hours, and was little the wiser, though with my appetite for more information whetted. Compared to some of the excellent French books on the subject, the content was negligable. "Hornblower" is thrown in every so often, but not in a consistent way, and eventually comes across as an irritating gimmick rather than a theme or thread. An intelligent reader could probably infer much of the information from a careful reading of the Hornblower series. Not recommended.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good work by an expert . . ., November 5, 2003

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hornblower's Navy : Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson (Paperback)

I've been a fan of Hornblower and Aubrey and their ilk for many, many years -- but I'm not a sailor, so I sometimes have had to do some research to understand just what I'm reading. Pope is a well-known naval historian and he does an excellent job in this heavily illustrated volume, explaining the role of the highly successful Royal Navy in the late 18th century, describing the jobs and relative stations of officers, ratings and warrant officers (and also of the various rates of warships), and describing the sailor-man's life and his daily routine. He makes it clear that, however horrendous life at sea might have been compared to our own time, the Brits were far better at it and generally much more humane than the French and their allies.