He is to supply a local rebel leader with money, guns, and powder and such assistance as will aid this rebel in his attempts to seek independence for his country. In the this book the now Captain Hornblower is in command of the 36 gun frigate Lydia and is ordered to endeavor to advance some fictional English meddling into the weakened Spanish Empire's affairs along the Pacific coast of Central America. This particular entry in the series was better than average and I am, therefore, giving it 3.5 stars. I haven't read a Hornblower book in quite awhile and this seemed like the time to renew my acquaintance with the Age of Fighting Sail genre. I didn't have a lot on my TBR shelf but I do have a stack of all the Hornblower books in a corner for just such emergencies. CS Forester was brought up in Imperial Britain, and this is apparent in his descriptions of Hispanics that can, at times, make this Englishman’s toes curl with embarrassment.Īfter recently finishing Obama's 700 page tome I needed something lighter, physically and mentally, to read. Also readers should be aware that there are some racial attitudes in the book that will jar for the modern reader. An enemy with no redeeming features ultimately lacks any real terror. Where Hornblower is cleverly drawn, and believable, his opponent is not. For one thing his main protagonist, El Supremo, is too crude to be truly menacing. The book is not, in my opinion the best of the Hornblower canon. An outsider, thanks to his humble origins, his flawed personality makes us root for him all the more. Supremely competent, yet full of self-loathing and doubt, he is almost autistic in his inability to form relationships with those around him. Hornblower himself is a particularly interesting hero. The lengthy battle sequence with the Natividad is also exceptionally well written. The trick that Forester pulls off is to supply descriptions that are full of authentic colour and detail, yet are still always comprehensible to the layman. The nautical passages are very well done, and have set the benchmark for all subsequent age of sail fiction, including my own. For its time (it was published in early 1937) it’s a surprisingly fast, action-filled romp that presents no difficulty stylistically to a modern reader. The character of Hornblower is still work in progress, with several traits quietly dropped for subsequent books in the series. The structure is more of a standalone work, rather than a planned stepping stone to the next book in the series. This shows in the book in several subtle ways. The Happy Return (called Beat to Quarters in the US) was the first Hornblower book written by CS Forester, although it is the sixth book in the series chronologically. I have a great affection for the Hornblower books, not least because when I read them as a child they awoke a life-long passion for the age of sail that is still with me today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |