Beat to Quarters (Hornblower Saga (Paperback))

This purchase was a Christmas gift. I ordered it late in the week and was actually expecting it after the holiday, but to my delight it turned up Christmas Eve. Talk about perfect! Also got a very nice personalized email from the owner. Would definitely do business with them again. Excellent experience.

On at least the third reading (perhaps the fourth), I am still amazed at the depth and beauty of this story. Fierce action and Hornblower's inner war combined with the formidable Lady Barbara make this a classic for the ages.

This conclusion novel is an outstanding finish to the trilogy series of Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours. I was introduced to these novels over 50 years ago; in my opinion they are the gold standard for the fighting sail genre. I would highly recommend them.

This was a great book. I love the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. The action is real. The battle strategy is well thought and realistic. I own all the books in this series. And I own the DVD's of the tv shows. I'm 63 and have read the books since my teens. Go Horatio!

I read this book from the library, then bought it for a friend. But what I ordered is not what I received. "Captain Horation Hornblower contained three CS Forester novels. The book I received was just one of the three. Disappointed but not wort the trouble to pursue.

Captain Horation Hornblower is a really good book, but it is not what I received.

For me this series started my fascination with the Great Age of Sail. I have read what seems like hundreds of books since all about this era. Now I am re-reading the series and have even a greater appreciation. Unfortunately, two of the 11 books are not available on Kindle! So I am reading the paperback edition.

The Hornblower stories wore on me as his career pushed forward, but in general the series is good. I gave this an OK rating because it's sort of in the middle between his early development and his later too-good-to-be-true stance.

The book was excellent. I loved the entire series, and I am NOT "nautical". Christian Rodska an excellent narrator. He is the best narrator I've ever listened to, bar none. His accent (if not contrived) was PERFECT for this series.

There is a problem reading this book, in chronological order, on a Kindle. There is no Volume 6 or Volume 7. I did not bother to buy the paperbacks of those volumes. Why would I? I have no room for paper books. Besides, the WHOLE saga should be available as e-books. WTF is wrong with publishers! Do they want to alienate all readers? Anyway, to the story..

It may be because I didn't read the missing e-volumes, but this book started out slow and ended up being frantic. Right off the bat, Hornblower is a prisoner. The reader doesn't really find out what transpired until the court martial. Right after the court martial, HH is off to London, many stops enroute, a rushed visit to his dead wife's grave, cheering peers and civilians, pompous politicians, being knighted, etc. I do like it that Bush gets his post captaincy. He is the character that puts a balance to HH. I enjoyed the middle of the story best: his trip to be hung, his escape, his affair, his way out of France, his sailing off in a recaptured ship, his squeamishness with Bush's amputation, etc.

This book does, however, really delve into Hornblower's mind, much more than earlier books. He has a sense of honor and loyalty and humbleness that are in conflict with dealings with wife and non-wives, distaste for politics, patience. I am no doing this review justice, so I will stop. The above are only brief thoughts and I would have to think too much to do justice to a review of this book and I do not feel like thinking.

While I have read this book and enjoy it immensely a number of times I have come to the point in my life where I want to read only books available on my backlit Kindle Voyage. It is incomprehensible to me why this classic is not available. the store, get on the ball!

I have read all of Forester’s Hornblower books and this one is outstanding for its continuous suspense. The story picks up where ‘Ship of the Line’ left off in 1811. Hornblower is as self-deprecating as always, which endears him to the reader. He is capriciously brave and prone to make unconventional decisions to advance the cause of King and country but is prone to suffer from guilt and depression. Despite peoples’ admiration and his naval successes he feels ill at ease within his own skin. In this tale he is constantly anguishing over a triad a women who make claims on his heart. This book is all about his capture by the French authorities and his attempt to escape from their clutches. To vastly complicate matters he knows that if he succeeds in returning to England he will face a court martial by his peers for his decision to capitulate to the enemy and abandon his ship HMS Sutherland.

Beat to Quarters was the first Hornblower book written, although chronologically it comes toward the middle. C.S. Forester is a master storyteller, and especially good with the "interior monologues" of his hero, Horatio Hornblower. Today, Patrick O'Brian is all the rage, and many people have never read the older stories about life aboard ship during the Napoleonic War, when England was fighting for its life against one of the greatest military geniuses of all time. Its "wooden walls" were all it had to defend it, and England's sole hope was to prevent the French from gaining access to the Atlantic with a fleet. In this book, set largely in Nicaragua, with an evil, disgusting madman El Supremo as his ally, Hornblower fights amazing duels at sea (excitingly described as only Forester can write them) while rescuing the sister of the future Duke of Wellington.
A rousing, thoughtful, intelligent book, and part of a series as fascinating as any you'll run across, with a clever, honorable hero not above temptation. If you haven't discovered Hornblower, give this book a whirl and find out what you've been missing.

This is probably the most unique book within the Hornblower series up to this point, since maybe only a quarter of the book takes place at sea. Most of it chronicles Hornblower's imprisonment by the French and his lengthy attempt to escape. As such, it becomes one of the more character-driven books in the series, which is both its strength and its weakness, since Hornblower is both a strong and a weak character. As a whole, I find Hornblower a delightfully complex character, one who's easy to relate to in his vast imperfection. But, at the same time, I (unlike all the women in the book, apparently) have a hard time feeling any affection for him. He was much more likable in his younger incarnation in earlier books. Here, his constant fussing about his image, his pride, and his often selfish disregard for others (particularly women) ultimately works to his disadvantage. It's hardly fair to compare him to Patrick O'Brian's wholly different but equally flawed Captain Jack Aubrey, but I admit I can't help it - and Jack's comparative lack of preoccupation with self makes him infinitely preferable in my view.

Still, all these musings on Hornblower's character shouldn't be taken against the book as a whole, which is yet another rousing and beautifully detailed historical war story.

Beat to Quarters (1937), also known as The Happy Return, is C. S. Forester's original Horatio Hornblower novel. It fits sixth in the chronology. In 1808, Hornblower, captain of the frigate Lydia, sails to Nicaragua to aid a mad warlord in his revolution against the French. Complications ensue, as usual, including the married Hornblower falling in love with another woman (which is rather unexpected).

Beat to Quarters has a fair mix of action and drama, although things drag along at times. The climax of the book is a fifty-page sea battle, during which Forester immerses the reader in naval warfare and at the same time overloads him with nautical details.

Beat to Quarters was written over ten years before any of the chronologically-previous novels, and there is a noticeable difference in style and tone. For one, the narrative here does not flow as well as it does in Forester's later writing - he gets bogged down in details and he has a tendency to repeat himself. Hornblower is still fundamentally Hornblower - he is self-loathing, insecure, posturing and hypocritical, although his manner is not quite the same and he has manifested a bizarre habit of saying, "Ha - h'm," all the time.

It will become clear to anyone who has read the Hornblower books that Forester did quite a bit of retconning when he went back to write the novels of Hornblower's early career. Notable examples include Hornblower's age and his relationship with Lieutenant Bush, and there are quite a few other small things.

On the whole, Beat to Quarters is a decent novel not with out its problems, although its flaws are easier to forgive knowing that Forester was still finding his way with Hornblower. New Hornblower readers would do better to start with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower.

Flying Colours (1938) is C. S. Forester's eighth Hornblower novel by chronology, third by publication; it completes Forester's original story arc. Having been forced to surrender to a French squadron at the end of Ship of the Line, Horatio Hornblower is imprisoned and sent with Lieutenant Bush and his coxswain to Paris to have an example made of him. Most of the novel deals with their attempts to escape France.

Most of Flying Colours takes place on land, making it a refreshing change from the innumerable sea battles that fill every other Hornblower novel. And Forester moves things a long at a fairly good pace. There are a few noticeable conveniences in the plot, but they are not sufficiently egregious as to ruin the story.

The problems Forester had in Ship of the Line with Hornblower being overly loathsome have been alleviated for the most part. Hornblower has escalated his philandering ways, however, but since it should be abundantly clear by now that he is a man of no principle beyond his duty to the Royal Navy, this should hardly come as a great shock to the reader. This fundamental lack of integrity most assuredly has quite a bit to do with his complete inability to be contented with his life, even with things wrapping up in a very tidy manner for him as they do here.

There is a great deal of drama here with Hornblower and his wife Maria, or there should be; Forester leaves it largely untapped. For those who read the Hornblower novels in the order Forester wrote them, Maria has never appeared "on camera," as it were, to this point, and so this is not a big deal. But those who have read them in chronological order are considerably more invested in the character of Maria, and rightly hoped for more. Obviously Forester could not have gone back and changed things in his earlier works, but the end result is that the resolution here is hardly satisfactory. This is the price one pays when one writes out of chronology: the merit of the original works is diminished by later works, which reveal and even create flaws in them.

Flying Colours is a step up from Ship of the Line, and is a mostly satisfactory conclusion to the original Hornblower story arc, which is, on the whole, decent, and which would give way to subsequent superior novels.

Captain Horatio Hornblower is a collection of three short novels originally published in 1937 and 1938 as "Beat To Quarters", "Ship of the Line" and "Flying Colours". All are set during the Napoleonic wars roughly between 1807 and 1811. The great success of these stories led Forester to write a number of Hornblower prequels and sequels, all of which are still read widely. It also spawned a long list of successors, some of which are excellent although none fully measure up to Forester in my opinion.
Beat To Quarters introduces Hornblower taking HMS Lydia into the Pacific Ocean to insight a rebellion against the Spanish. The story takes a number of twists including Hornblower finding his ally is a madman, a change in the political situation and the introduction of Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional sister of the Duke of Wellington.
Ship of the Line finds Hornblower commanding HMS Sutherland for a cruise in the Mediterranean. Hornblower not only must face the French but he must deal with a superior officer who would like to see him fail.
Flying Colours begins where Ship of the Line ends. Hornblower is a prisoner in France and must find a way to escape.
I thought that I knew these stories fairly well having seen the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower staring Gregory Peck. However the novel is quite different in several areas. Perhaps what surprised me the most was the level of violence, sex and swearing that was included in the novel. I hadn't expected the violence to be as graphic, the sex to be as obvious or the swearing to be present at all. The novel has a gritty realism that was not matched in the genre until the 70s.
Captain Horatio Hornblower was written when Forester was in his thirties and before he had thoroughly polished his craft. While it might have a few rough edges it is a tremendously powerful, action-filled novel. The shy, self-doubting, self-deprecating but outwardly implacable Hornblower is one of the great characters of adventure stories. If one were restricted to reading only one novel of "wooden ships and iron men" then that novel should be Captain Horatio Hornblower.

The Hornblower novels are famous as the first in the age of fighting sail novel revival. First published in 1938, this and the following two volumes (Ship of the Line and Flying Colours) were quickly reissued on the eve of WW II as a trilogy, with illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. These three "Captain" novels come midway in Hornblower's career, but were written first.
Set midway in the Napoleonic era, with Britain against the Spanish, then with them (as Hornblower learns to his chagrin), we first encounter Hornblower as already a frigate captain, with frequent references to mysterious battles and escapades in his past. Currently he is dealing with the consequences of a secret, long, seven month voyage across the Pacific to a dead-on landing in Central America, during which he has vowed not to utter an unnecessary word! Captains are already omnipotently separate from their men, but HH goes to an extreme out of fear of some career-ending embarrassment. Indeed there is little dialogue, aside from interior monologues. We learn considerably about the running of a ship under sail, but the detail and jargon is not so heavy as in the Patrick O'Brian novels, nor is the language so authentic. (If overwhelmed by either at first read, there is an admirable book on all the terminology, Dean King's wryly titled A SEA OF WORDS, where you can learn of the origins of such common expressions as "scuttlebutt, the bitter end, in the doldrums," as well as the esoteric sailing terms.) "Hornblower" might be thought to be a joke name, but as a character he is much too serious and shy, indeed full of self-doubt (that never threatens to pull the story down), and not too lovable.
Once on station, Hornblower engages in diplomacy with all parties, and fights battles with a more powerful ship. His greater battle is with his petulant self concerning a young Lady who has imperiously sought his aid to return to England, which leads to some delicious scenes at sea as Hornblower's emotions gradually overman his desire to have her speak well of him to the Naval Lords in aid of his career. Forester balances well the setting, action, and characters, but with a lighter tone and fleeter pace than O'Brian (whom you might wish to read only after the Hornblower saga). I think most people would find something to enjoy in this novel of adventure on the high seas.

I understand that this is the first Hornblower book written. That explains a lot. It is actually the sixth, chronologically, in Hornblower's career.
First of all, Lieutenant Bush is back. But, it is not too well described the relationship and history between Bush and Hornblower. But, this is the first book written, so at the time of writing, there wasn't any history....
Anyway, Hornblower is his typical self. Very unsure of his skills and abilities and far too worried about keeping up his image in front of the men.
The story is excellent. A seven month voyage on a secret mission. Hornblower follows his orders explicitly. Never to touch land until his destination. Well, imagine how the world of politics can change in seven months. Hornblower has had no new information about the war since he left England.
Enemies are now friends. Friends are now enemies.
As for the action scenes.... This is one of the best described ship to ship sequences I have ever read. As usual, Hornblower is outgunned. However, he has the smaller faster ship and is able to outmeneuver his opponent. The battle lasts well over 12 hours of his time. It is interupted by a driving storm and night.
At dawn, the enemy is sighted. There is little or no wind. Hornblowers lowers the boats and begins a stern chase by being towed. As he closes, the other ship uses it's heavier weight of iron to deliver broadside after broadside at extreme range. Hornblower has to endure this for several hours before his smaller guns are within range. At that point, the training and discipline of the English sailors takes it's toll.
With the politics aside, this book is a great read.

Forester brings forth a crisp view of the misfortunes encountered by the British frigate, Lydia. Its orders were to seek an alliance with a rebel government against Spanish America and to take, sink, burn or destroy a ship with three times the firepower of the Lydia. The book displays the shrewdness of its captain, Horatio Hornblower, who's calculated leadership accomplishes its duties and does it with effienciency. However there are twists in the plot that derail Hornblower's orders from the admirality in the Pacific as well as the need to take on board a female passenger seeking a way home due to unforseen circumstances. One note to take interest in the book is the introspection from the captain. As the captain of the ship, Hornblower must seem imperturbed even in the most distressful situations in order to maintain calm amongst his crew. But in private Hornblower anguishes about keeping the crew in control, maintain the operation of the ship, devising the tactics of the battle of maneuvering the ship and determining when to fire upon an enemy ship, as well as other problems that can come up. He also has a wife in England whom he thinks about. The female passenger in the book didn't really develop a romantic relationship until the second to the last chapter and the author isn't very thorough in developing those kinds of plots anyway. The battles were the most intriguing in the book and the aftermath of both battles left the captain with some challenging problems of which you needed to read on in order to find out.

All in all one of the better books in the series.

I once read a Hornblower short story which wasn't very good, so it was with some trepidation that I read these three novels. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only are they well-written and thrilling, but they are also, at times, thought-provoking.

Fans of Star Trek, will instantly recognize the introspective and distant Hornblower as a partial model for Captain Piccard. Hornblower, like Piccard, must always keep his distance in order to maintain the respect necessary to maintain the chain of command. Forrester even has something like a "redshirt."

Hornblower's insecurity is really Forrester's stamp of originality. Paired with the violence of the story, it really helps to create a level of realism which is often lacking in other adventure stories. Even when the action is fantastical, the writing is so good that it never feels like a pulp.

The length of these books is very approachable. The shortest one is about 150 pages long. The longest one isn't quite 200 pages, and there aren't many boring stretches. No ones writes like this any more, and it is a shame.

In all of the Hornblower books prior to "Flying Colours" Hornblower is a hard luck Captain. Although he generally succeeds in his missions, he does so despite hard luck and bad breaks, by the sheer virtue of his intelligence and determination. Prize money has eluded him for years, he marries poorly, and he is not of high birth. The first several Hornblower novels are the tale of an officer who succeeds in spite of a long run of bad luck and hard circumstances in a merciless and unforgiving service.
In Flying Colors, this all changes, and Hornblower manages to finally capitalize on his achievements and success. This is a satisfying story of a brilliant man overcoming hardship and finally getting the rewards and fame that are justly his. While this novel is not quite in the class of "Beat to Quarters," "Ship of the Line," "Hotspur" and several other of the Hornblower novels, it is nevertheless a well-written and satisfying tale. In this novel, Hornblower's life finally comes together, and even in the class-ridden British Navy, competence finally shines through and our hero gets the rewards due him.
This is a fine novel that anyone will enjoy, and Hornblower afficianados must not miss.

Even though this is the first Hornblower novel written, I started reading the series in the Chronology of his life. The first was Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. This is the sixth book that I have read.

Now that I have read this book and if I was asked which order to read them, I could argue for either way. This book does an excellent job introducing Hornblower and leaves you wondering what adventures he had prior to the events of this book. I'm happy with the order that I read the books, but would have been just as happy reading them in the order written.

The major item that seemed like a discrepancy from the earlier books is that Lt. Bush seemed to be a new acquaintance of his on this voyage, though the other books showed that they had a long history together.

Either way, I can see why this book started a whole series of sequels. It is great story telling with interesting characters and great lessons on seamanship. I highly recommend this book to lovers of action and adventure who like a thinking hero.

This was the first Hornblower novel written. The original Hornblower motion picture was based on this novel and the following two novels ("Ship of the Line" and "Flying Colours"). The author later went back to fill in the details of Hornblower's early career, explaining the early relationship with Bush, etc. You could actually start reading the novels with this one, but it is better to start with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, and follow Hornblower's career from the beginning. C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a fictional biography of Hornblower which fills in a fictional account of his early life. C.S. Forester later wrote "the Hornblower Companion" which should probably be acquired when you start reading the series.

Hornblower is sent off to the Pacific to aid a revolutionary leader who is in rebellion against Spain (an enemy of my enemy is my friend), a dangerous practice (Germany later aided Lenin to start the Russian Revolution during World War I). After arming the revolutionary army, and capturing a Spanish ship which he gives to the rebel leader (who has him under the guns of a fortress), he discovers that Spain is no longer at war with England. Slow communications across the ocean caused many miscues during that historical period.

Having turned loose a rebel army, Hornblower now finds he is allied with Spain, and must now fight the rebel army he created. He must retake the ship which he had captured and turned over to the rebels. He is fortunate that the rebel leader is not a seaman, and prevails at some cost in casualties.

Hornblower also acquires a romantic interest, meeting the woman he later marries as his second wife (see Commodore Hornblower), a woman with considerable influence at court. As usual with Hornblower, he gets no prize money but lots of official recognition, so starts out in the next novel as a financially poor captain in command of a ship of the line.

The three novels, "Beat to Quarters," "Ship of the Line," and "Flying Colours" should be read as a trilogy.