Product Description

1815, the Napoleonic Wars are over. Yet peace continues to elude Horatio Hornblower overseas … As an admiral struggling to impose order in the chaotic aftermath of the French wars, Horatio Hornblower, Commander-in-chief of His Majesty’s ships and vessels in the West Indies, must still face savage pirates, reckless revolutionaries and a violent hurricane. And while his retirement at half-pay might well be in sight, Hornblower will need every ounce of his rapier wit and quick thinking – not to mention his courage and leadership – to ensure that the lasting peace in Europe reaches the turbulent seas of the West Indies. This is the tenth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester’s inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79372 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

About the Author
C.S Forester was born in Cairo in 1899, where his father was stationed as a government official. He studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital, and after leaving Guy’s without a degree he turned to writing as a career. On the outbreak of war he entered the Ministry of Information and later he sailed with the Royal Navy to collect material for The Ship. He made a voyage to the Bering Sea to gather material for a similar book on the United States Navy, and it was during this trip that he was stricken with arteriosclerosis, a disease which left him crippled. However, he continued to write and in the Hornblower novels created the most renowned sailor in contemporary fiction. He died in 1966.

Customer Reviews

Hornblower Completes the Evolution of His Personal Morality!
One of the great rewards of reading all of the Hornblower novels is that C.S. Forester does quite a nice job of developing Hornblower's character and his personal ethics over the decades covered in the books. While young, Hornblower toes the line and is impeccable about appearances. Gradually, he begins to focus on doing justice instead, even if that means violating the rules. Eventually, he violates his own standards on occasion and learns to live with that. By the time readers arrive at Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, his personal standards are all that matter to him. In particular, you will enjoy comparing how he handled the duel in Mr. Midshipman Hornblower with the fifth section of this book.

Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies is a series of five novellas that cover three chronological years at the end of Hornblower's naval career. His title is now "Rear Admiral Lord Hornblower" and he has quite a small squadron which is mostly engaged in stopping pirates and the recently outlawed slave trade in the West Indies. Each story involves some apparently impossible problem, which Hornblower or someone close to him solves.

The first story involves trying to stop an American ship, while the two nations are at peace, with a smaller, slower vessel. The second story addresses a fast slave ship in neutral waters that Hornblower wants to capture. The third tale touches on Hornblower becoming embroiled in the problems of an escaped pirate crew. The fourth entry looks into trying to remain neutral during the wars of liberation in South America. The final story is an adventure tale involving Lady Barbara and Hornblower and considers the problems of a marine who refuses orders to play his music the way it is written.

Part of the appeal of this book is that it shows the messy way that the challenges of life often evolve. So, what's the best thing to do? It's hard to tell, and circumstances are often different from what they seem. Even though taking action may have long-term negative consequences for oneself, what is the right thing to do? That's the focus here.

What opportunities did you have today to do the right thing? How did you do?

The Admirable Admiral
Written in 1957, it is the tenth in order of Hornblower's career - it's now the year 1821 - but the ninth to be written by CS Forester. Instead of the usual twenty or more chapters, instead we have five titled ones.

This review is of the smart new Penguin editions that have Bernard Cornwell writing an introduction. Cornwall adds that, like the very first in the series (Mr Midshipman Hornblower), the tenth volume "strictly ... is not a novel but another collection of short stories." Cornwell meditates momentarily on the source of Forester's characterisation of our hero and concludes "that the greatest part of Hornblower sprang from Forester himself ... There is no other way, I am certain, that such a series of novels could have been written." (This also, of course, says much about Cornwell and the source of Sharpe, his own literary creation.)

In the first of the five stories in this volume, we see Hornblower experiencing such new-fangled concepts as paddle steamers, independent South American nations, proper showers, tinned food, millionaires, and cornets. We also witness in this excellent five-star story Hornblower's apparently one-and-only visit to the United States. Later in this book, we also see Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, even Venezuela.

In the second story, Hornblower's name is seemingly as synonymous - and as feared - as Drake's had been in the Caribbean over two hundred years earlier. Out at sea and chasing ships, "here were the old symptoms, as recognisable as ever, the quickened heartbeat, the feeling of warmth under the skin, the general restlessness. There was something just below the horizon, vague at present, like a hazy landfall ..." Another good story; it's just a shame that the ending is so predictable.

Pirates and kidnapping are the subjects of the third story. On getting close to the pirates' lair, Forester's tongue partly in cheek, the author writes how our hero "suddenly realized that the almost legendary career of the great Lord Hornblower might have been terminated then and there, that his future biographer might have had to deplore the ironic chance which after so many pitched battles, brought him death at the hands of an obscure criminal in an unknown corner of a West Indian island." (Interestingly, Forester makes an error here in referring to Hornblower's presence at the siege of Riga being "nearly twenty years before": in fact, it was only nine years earlier, in 1812, a fact he notes in the very next story!)

The fourth story is in truth a little far-fetched, featuring an Anglo-Venezuelan millionaire from Bradford with a penchant for yachting in ex-Royal Navy vessels. (Did Forester have someone in mind from his own life?) Final victory to Hornblower is this time reached by a short battle of wits. But in the final story, on his homeward voyage having completed his tour of duty, our hero has nature herself to battle with in the shape of a hurricane. Success this time is partly due to a lovely bunch of coconuts. I kid you not!

That final comment will, I hope, tempt you to satisfy your curiosity. This is a fine set of stories chronicling the high watermark of a brave and clever man's career. If I may appear flippant by referring to him as `our hero', he himself is ever the man of true self-conscious humility: an admiral who is truly admirable.