Ship of the Line (Unabridged Audiobook, Cassettes) [Hardcover]

C.S. Forester (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: See notes (1987)
• ASIN: B001DOKAVG
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

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

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling writing, December 10, 2000

By 

tertius3 (MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ship of the Line (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

As the preceding volume, Beat to Quarters, shows the end of a long voyage, so here we get to see the curious activities attending on the the start of another--the captain personally responsible for acquiring his crew and his victuals (and to be repaid from prizes possibly awarded from the sale of hoped-for captured enemy ships). Second in the original series (#6 in the whole), Ship of the Line soon sees Hornblower in the Mediterranean serving in a squadron of four under his near-lover's stodgy Admiral-husband. (We remain as achingly puzzled as Hornblower how the smart Lady Barbara could ever condescend to marry this wart.) Whenever Hornblower manages detached duty he is at his best, terrorizing the French, and their army(!), on the Catalan coast, where the sea crashes into the Pyrenees.

The action in this type of novel is not much fiction, but artful transformations of actual events from the long-running Napoleonic Wars, down to actual ship manoeuvres. As you read other naval novels, you will recognize certain episodes repeating, like the "cutting out" expedition here. Always they are put in different contexts, however, featuring a different cast of idiosyncratic characters. It is hard to devine why Hornblower has such fear and doubts about his own abilities, when he is worshipped by his men (more perspicacious than he!), and becomes absolutely possessed in hot battle, a human computer! He is a great contrast in this regard to O'Brian's stolid Capt. Aubrey, but that is one way in which each series is uniquely worth reading (similarly with Lambden's racy, or Woodman's severe, traversals of much of the same naval territory, up the same ladder of command).

Maybe I read too many modern novels, with their grimey action and prose to match, but C.S. Forester stands out as an impressively good writer because he lacks the crutches of gore and sex. I could not put this down; even though the author gives you chapter breaks, his measured cadence and rolling words just kept me going into the wee 'ours. There's a palpable joy to reading Forester. You become aware what an artful choice of words can do. I think if I read the whole Hornblower series one right after another, I would begin to sound like him! If the language of sailing ships is a mystery to you, the new DVD of A&E's TV mini-series on Horatio Hornblower includes a glossary. But Forester does not delight in obscure, archaic expressions as does O'Brian. Having a nautical reference handy makes the confusing swirl of the climatic battle a little less of a muddle, although its horrifying devastation is quite clear enough already.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenges, Ingenuity, Intense Action and Romantic Thoughts!, December 5, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ship of the Line (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

The books about Horatio Hornblower include some of the most interesting and exciting novels ever written about warfare at sea during the days of sailing ships. Hornblower himself is a charming hero who doubts himself, has many weaknesses, and uses his sense of the odds to calculate the best course to take. He is more like Clark Kent than Superman in that way, but can turn into Superman briefly when the occasion calls for it.

Throughout the prior volumes of this wonderful series, there has been lots of "ship of the line" envy on Hornblower's part as he made do with commanding lesser vessels. In Ship of the Line, Captain Hornblower finds himself getting his heart's desire, a two-decker called the Sutherland.

Complications soon arise when Hornblower discovers that his new admiral has just married Lady Barbara Wellesley, with whom Hornblower is in love. Hornblower and his wife (Maria) meet the admiral and Lady Barbara in a social scene that you will not soon forget.

With too little time to prepare, the Sutherland is soon at sea with an under sized and inexperienced crew. What follows is as action-packed a book as you can imagine. Ship of the Line has a greater variety of difficult and unusual challenges thrown Hornblower's way than any reader could possibly hope for. The details of the conflicts are stunning in their scope and scale. If you are like me, you'll find yourself racing through the pages to see what happens next . . . knowing that there are surely big surprises ahead. As usual, Hornblower's imagination and quick thinking make for enormous differences in the outcomes from what would be expected.

You will enjoy the complications brought about by Lady Barbara's new husband. And Hornblower's thoughts of Lady Barbara intrude throughout the book, like the musings of a love-sick schoolboy.

The book is also interesting because Hornblower is faced with many decisions that could wreck his career, leaving him unemployed at half pay for the rest of his life. While many today would enjoy an early retirement, Hornblower is only happy at sea . . . and in battle. With his strong sense of duty, he makes decisions that may surprise you from time to time, which makes the story all the richer.

If you have never read any of the Hornblower books, I suggest that you start with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and proceed through in the chronological order of Hornblower's career through the series (not the order in which they were written).

If you do decide to read this book first to see if you like the books, let me caution you that the book ends in such a way that you will probably immediately decide to read the next one. For that reason, try to resist reading Ship of the Line until you have read its six predecessor volumes.

Do you always take time to locate new solutions that others have not tried before? Once you see a possible solution, do you stick with that idea to work through the problems . . . or are you soon discouraged by the first foul wind?

Assume there is a solution vastly better than any you have tried before . . . or have thought of yet. And keep thinking until you find it!

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hornblower's Personal and Poffesional Woes, July 4, 2000

By 

Cody Carlson (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ship of the Line (Hornblower Saga) (Paperback)

In 'Ship of the Line' daring British sea capatin Horatio Hornblower fights not only the French under the tyrant Napoleon, but his own heart as well. After falling in love with Lady Pamela Wellesley his hopes are shattered when she marries an admiral whose ego considerably outweighs his talents. What is worse Hornblower's conscience is racked with guilt over his disloyalty to his own wife, Maria. But before this becomes too much of a soap opera Forester plunges Hornblower into the dangerous swashbuckling sea where he uses every trick in the book to ensnare his French opponents. The ending is perhaps the greatest cliff hanger in all the series which leads into the next novel, 'Flying Colours.' Only a writer of Forester's genius can create so well both the moving human story and great adventure that is 'Ship of the Line.'