Mr. Midshipman Hornblower [Hardcover]

C. S. Forester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Horatio Hornblower was born in C.S. Forester's fertile imagination and became arguably more famous, certainly more personal, than Nelson, Cook and Drake combined. He fought in a dozen major campaigns during the Napoleonic wars, and it was in these pages that we first got a glimmer of just how much Bonaparte was hated, and why.

Forester's genius was not tidy, and so this story, which sets Hornblower on course at age 17, is Forester's sixth book about him, though it should have been the first. LIEUTENANT HORNBLOWER, which follows it, carries the intrepid young man another step forward in his career.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This trio offer more of the salty adventures of the title character, who sailed the ocean blue during the Napoleonic Wars.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

Mr. Forester is a more than able historical novelist, explaining many of the principles of sailing and fighting a square-rigged British man-of-war. He also has a strong command of military tactics and strategy.... -- The Wall Street Journal, Robert L. Simison

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T) (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316290602
• ISBN-13: 978-0316290609
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

161 of 161 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic though not Hornblower's best outing, June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

This first Hornblower book that Forester wrote was BEAT TO QUARTERS, and that is still arguably the best Hornblower book to read first (though not the best in the series). Because MR. MIDSHIPMAN HORNBLOWER comes first in the saga's timeline, though, many readers start here and unfortunately do not get Hornblower at his best point of entry. The pacing of this collection of stories simply does not grip the reader as well as that of the novels. I'm sure they worked fine when published individually in the popular magazines of the day, but when clutched together like this, an awkward lack of fluidity results.

That said, MR. MIDSHIPMAN HORNBLOWER is still an excellent book, rich with fascinating incident and detail, and anyone who has started the series will certainly read it -- the whole series is just too good! Certainly by the last episode in this book, quite a long story, the young Hornblower has gotten into the thick of it and you have begun to find out (if this is indeed where you've come in) just why Forester continues to be held in such high regard by generation after generation of readers.

Another important point is that MR. MIDSHIPMAN HORNBLOWER is the material from which the recent A&E series took its inspiration, and you do owe it to yourself if you saw it on TV to read the book and find out why and how that pivotal duel *really* happened. Be prepared to learn that C.S. Forester's plot turns were considerably more dramatic and thought-provoking than the hash (though admittedly watchable hash) made of them for TV consumption.

Incidentally, this paperback edition is lovely. The woodcut-style cover artwork looks really nice, and the pages and typeface being about the same size as a hardback edition make handling it and reading it a special pleasure

148 of 153 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Series order for the Hornblower books, December 27, 1999

By 

P. Caldwell "meredevice" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

For those of you getting started with this series, here is the series order (hey, we need to know this in order to buy the darn books!): 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 Hownblower, Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies. The other titles you'll see are different 3-in-1-cover combinations of the above titles, though not always in series order (go figure), Cadet versions of the same titles above by different titles (REALLY go figure), and companion books. There IS one omnibus, so I'm told, with some short stories in it that fall chronologically somewhere in the time span covered by the first three books, but I don't know any more than that yet.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Midshipman Hornblower: A Slow Start for the Series, January 21, 2000

By 

Cody Carlson (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

The 'Hornblower' novels by C. S. Forester are all consistently entertaining and fun, but the first novel in the series, 'Mr. Midshipman Hornblower,' is a rather slow start. Rather than a single novel, it is a series of short stories revolving around Hornblower's first years at sea. While the stories maintain that sense of adventure that are Forester's trademark, it lacks a consistency which is to be found in the later volumes. 'Mr. Midshipman Hornblower' is must reading for fans of the series but for those new to the 'Hornblower' novels perhaps a better introduction would be to read 'Lieutenant Hornblower,' the second novel of the series.