Another excellent Napoleonic ‘age of sail’ story from Forester; the reader can’t help but feel the sway of the deck and the creak of the rigging whilst enjoying these books, though I confess I do need the frequent assistance of Google, both for the maps and searching nautical terminology, even after three previous books… but I am learning!
Never boring his readers, Forester conveys the subtleties of the politics of the Napoleonic wars, the rigours of life aboard a warship, the rules of honour and the horror of navel cannon warfare without ever romanticising it and yet with a sense of yearning for an age long past. My only criticism is I felt he overdoes Hornblower’s self-doubts and interminable self-criticism. A little of this is good as it tempers Hornblower’s almost infallible abilities with some humbleness. In fact one of my comments on the previous volume to this – Lieutenant Hornblower – was that Forester had done well to stand back from those abilities by writing it from a point of view other than Hornblower’s. Here he has achieved the same effect by having Hornblower not just humble but heavily self-critical, but, for me at least, he has taken that self-deprecation a little too far.
In the end though that criticism does little to diminish a stirring story of life at sea and one man’s drive to both do his duty and be fair and humane to the men under his command. A joy to read.
4/5 stars, maybe 4.5
Never boring his readers, Forester conveys the subtleties of the politics of the Napoleonic wars, the rigours of life aboard a warship, the rules of honour and the horror of navel cannon warfare without ever romanticising it and yet with a sense of yearning for an age long past. My only criticism is I felt he overdoes Hornblower’s self-doubts and interminable self-criticism. A little of this is good as it tempers Hornblower’s almost infallible abilities with some humbleness. In fact one of my comments on the previous volume to this – Lieutenant Hornblower – was that Forester had done well to stand back from those abilities by writing it from a point of view other than Hornblower’s. Here he has achieved the same effect by having Hornblower not just humble but heavily self-critical, but, for me at least, he has taken that self-deprecation a little too far.
In the end though that criticism does little to diminish a stirring story of life at sea and one man’s drive to both do his duty and be fair and humane to the men under his command. A joy to read.
4/5 stars, maybe 4.5
