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bookshopvampire 's review for:
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
by C.S. Forester
My grandfather passed away recently, and so I finally started reading the book he had given me years ago. I can see now that he had given it to me out of the simple love of a grandfather giving his then teenage granddaughter a book he had liked when he was a teenager. The influence of the series goes far beyond what I realized at the time - it reportedly inspired the character of Captain Kirk.
Midshipman Hornblower was clearly written to appeal to adolescent boys. Each chapter is a self-contained vignette of his heroics at sea - getting into a duel, getting shipwrecked, getting captured, getting promoted, getting a shipping delivery, getting captured again, and getting freed again. Each story has a simple plot with difficult naval terminology - it's readily comparable to reading Moby Dick or Treasure Island. The hero is likeably good-natured and a quick study, with realistic adolescent insecurities - he is repeatedly described as physically and socially awkward. However, Hornblower is also prone to violence that was maybe less shocking for the adventure genre when it was written (1948) and for the time it was set (1792). Quite without remorse, he challenges his foe to a duel over being called a cheater in the first chapter, and in another he knocks out a hysterical, epileptic man with an oar to shut him up. He considers killing people almost as easily as he considers saving people. Even more dated are some cringy lines about race that are written reflective of Hornblower's ignorance and prejudice - the Spaniards are lazy, the French are incompetent, the "Mussulmans" can't be trusted, a description of a mixed-race man who is "white by courtesy" - it's somewhat doubtful these lines were written with much irony - they seem to go unchallenged. And yet, the book has Hornblower journeying from England to the waters of the French, Spanish, and North Africa with some appreciable curiosity for language and culture, and a spirit of cooperation with different peoples even in times of war and colonialism. His coming of age is his navigation of commanding ships and mastering social situations. It's a book that's challenging more for it's vocabulary than content. It's an adventure story I might still give to my future grandson.
Midshipman Hornblower was clearly written to appeal to adolescent boys. Each chapter is a self-contained vignette of his heroics at sea - getting into a duel, getting shipwrecked, getting captured, getting promoted, getting a shipping delivery, getting captured again, and getting freed again. Each story has a simple plot with difficult naval terminology - it's readily comparable to reading Moby Dick or Treasure Island. The hero is likeably good-natured and a quick study, with realistic adolescent insecurities - he is repeatedly described as physically and socially awkward. However, Hornblower is also prone to violence that was maybe less shocking for the adventure genre when it was written (1948) and for the time it was set (1792). Quite without remorse, he challenges his foe to a duel over being called a cheater in the first chapter, and in another he knocks out a hysterical, epileptic man with an oar to shut him up. He considers killing people almost as easily as he considers saving people. Even more dated are some cringy lines about race that are written reflective of Hornblower's ignorance and prejudice - the Spaniards are lazy, the French are incompetent, the "Mussulmans" can't be trusted, a description of a mixed-race man who is "white by courtesy" - it's somewhat doubtful these lines were written with much irony - they seem to go unchallenged. And yet, the book has Hornblower journeying from England to the waters of the French, Spanish, and North Africa with some appreciable curiosity for language and culture, and a spirit of cooperation with different peoples even in times of war and colonialism. His coming of age is his navigation of commanding ships and mastering social situations. It's a book that's challenging more for it's vocabulary than content. It's an adventure story I might still give to my future grandson.